First off I have to say that was a great game last night. I was worried that Mike Pelfrey would melt down against the Yankees like the way he did against the Phillies, but he was dominant through six innings ! Kudos go out to David Wright and Jason Bay for powering the offense.
John Maine has been on my mind alot lately. It saddens me to see that he is becoming sort of a malcontent in the eyes of the Mets fan. But remember there was a time when we had big expectations for the guy. He was in alot of ways like Mike Pelfrey. Both were touted for their fastballs, both have/had a good repretoire of pitches, and both were thought of a potential number two pitchers in the Mets rotation. So what happened ? Why has Pelfrey succeeded where John Maine has failed? Remember during Spring Training of ’07 when John was being heralded as a potential candidate for the Cy Young ? Remember when in ’07 when he was one of the best pitchers in the National League and we were all outraged when he was overlooked for the ALL STAR GAME ? What has happened to John Maine? Has he lost his confidence? Is his arm shot like Craig Swan’s ( one of the better pitchers in Mets history – but tore his rotator cuff and was never the same)? Is it all mental with him? All I know is that he was never the same pitcher after the All Star snub. John Maine is a very intense individual – kinda like the Chris Carter of pitching. It seems that he internalizes his bad outings and his mediocre ones alike. I feel after the snub he wanted to prove everyone wrong , but he lost his focus and screwed up his mechanics. The tail end of the ’07 season he was putrid – which helped in the teams sickening collapse. He was ineffective and he looked helpless. In ’08 he suffered a arm injury in the middle of the season and required surgery. He would also undergo the blade last season also, But came back in the last month of the season and pitched decently. I contend that John Maine will never be a power pitcher again. I feel that his arm strength will always be a problem, and he will never get the kind of torque on his pitches that will give him a 95 m.p.h fastball. And I don’t know if he can be made into a junk ball pitcher like Frank Tanana or Jaimie Moyer. It doesn’t seem like he has the mental make up for that. No sadly I see John Maine needing surgery yet again, and it wouldn’t surprise me if he gets released mid-season. But one thing is for sure – don’t look for Maine to be in a Mets uniform next season. I believe that ship has sailed and in ten years from now, whenever his name is mentioned, we will remember him fondly ( like we do with Swan) and wondered what could have been.
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                                                                                        “Can he ever recover?”
And with that said …. HERE COMES THE INFAMY !!!!
Happy Birthday wishes go out to the one time Rookie Of The Year pitcher for the San Diego Padres – but who sucked when he became a Met, Butch Metzger (1952)
The man with possibly the best name to ever play fr the Mets – Pepe Mangual is 58 (1952). His name was funny – but his defensive skills were funnier !
Utilityman from the ’04 team – Ricky Gutierrez is 40 (1970) .
New York Mets purchased one of the craziest men to ever play the game of baseball – Jimmy “ Fear Strikes Out” Piersall from the Washington Senators on May 23, 1963.
And today’s Mo Vaughn tidbit of the day – Mo never dines alone !
7 comments
stickguy
5/23/2010-8:44am at 8:44 am (UTC -4)
Rusty, I really don’t think you could call his last start of 2007 “putrid”
Who knows what happened that year. Was his arm starting to go? Was it mental? was it just a bad stretch for whatever reason (“shat happens”)?
But everything since then is injury based. Didn’t he have a good start to 2008, until the shoulder gave up, and he was trying to nurse it along (probably a stupid idea) until he finally couldn’t pitch any more?
Problem is, there is a very good chance that it will never fully recover, and if not, his career may be over.
And I am with you. That is sad to me, since I always had high hopes for him.
rustyjr
5/23/2010-11:10am at 11:10 am (UTC -4)
I’m dorry that was a type o – especialy since I was there I meant to say that he floundered down the stretch and the majority of his starts were less than stellar – sorry i blame the alcohol
CaseStreet
5/23/2010-10:23am at 10:23 am (UTC -4)
I always hoped Maine would be our oswalt. Gotta figure mejia or some FA will take maiine’s spot.
metsfan4decades
5/23/2010-11:52am at 11:52 am (UTC -4)
I really don’t think the mental aspect lead to his current struggles. I really do believe it’s his shoulder and/or arm not being right, which lead to his fiddling with his mechanics, which lead to where he is now.
He’s a young man that had a lot of promise and is completely frustrated it’s not being realized, especially because there was never any clear cut answer. There may never be any clear cut answer for him, especially if this latest round of tests don’t identify anything definitive that’s wrong. They’ll probably suggest something like strength training, etc.
It is sad to watch b/c I believe Maine had what it takes to pitch well in NY. His arm just won’t cooperate. I too fear his days as a Met are quickly coming to an end.
GravediggerHebner
5/23/2010-12:16pm at 12:16 pm (UTC -4)
What resonates the most with me in your post is the phrase “but who sucked when he became a Met.” Boy if I had a dollar for every time someone came to the Mets and wound up eliciting that phrase…
rustyjr
5/23/2010-12:46pm at 12:46 pm (UTC -4)
We’d be socially secure
ceetar
5/23/2010-1:29pm at 1:29 pm (UTC -4)
Well, Maine pitched well in May of 2009. He pitched iffy after coming back from the injury, making 4 starts, but his arm strength wasn’t built up yet and it was very spring trainingesque for him. His final start was a very good one, and he was hitting 91-92 on the gun.
There are a lot of things at play here. Maine got injured with the mechanics he used in 2008, without Peterson to keep an eye on him? Could this be what happened? We know Peterson is a huge mechanics guy, and Warthen not so much. Maine was hitting 92-93 mostly during 2008, and excepting that final crappy start, would’ve been 10-7 with an under 4 ERA.
in 2009 he got off to a bad start in his first three, but over the next 7 he only had one game that wasn’t a quality start, pitching very well until his first and final June start where he went down with the injury. He was hitting 91-92 reguarly, with a couple of pitches above that. After he came back from the injury, his only full start was the last one, and it’s hard to judge since there was no way he had any arm strength built up after being out for months. His final start, the one he actually threw 100 pitches in, he was 89-91 most of the time, with a couple 92-93 thrown in. His biggest problem doesn’t seem to be the fastball so much, even if it’s not 95, but with slowing down the slider and changeup. Sometimes that jumps up to as high as 85. if he can keep it closer to 80, he’d probably be just fine. We know he got off to a bad start this year, using new mechanics. Maybe Warthen realized or suspected Maine’s usual mechanics were a strain on his shoulder, who knows. But when that didn’t work, (which has to be a knock on Dan) Maine went back to what he was comfortable, had pretty good success with it baring one start (and one batter..) and has wound up injured again.
Looking at his pitch sequences, (and really, this is mostly just me guessing) it feels like when Maine can get his fastball at 90+, he can have success for that batter. This probably speaks again to the differential between speeds. His fastball speed fluctuates wildly, especially this year, and when he only has it at 88-89 for a batter, it looks too much like the changeup and just gets hit. But this does suggest to me pain. Sometimes he fights through it and throws it well, and other times the pain knocks 2-3 off the speed, messing him up.
There are also things like throwing three fastballs in a row, letting Hanley Ramirez basically time it and sit on it, but I can’t speak to that, I don’t know much about actually setting up hitters to get them out, but that seems like a bad idea.
So to me, if we can get Maine pain free (something it sounds like the last surgery did not do, which is why Maine figured he should just pitch with it), he’s certainly got the talent and ability to win. His velocity this year, even while down, has hit 92 occasionally, suggesting that the physical capability _is_ there. Health. it’s all about health. It’s a bummer, really. But I can’t hate Maine (or Perez) when from all accounts they both worked hard and tried hard to be here and successful this year.