Single to center with two outs in the fourth. That’s the first hit off John Maine. I know these are the Orioles, but Maine is toying with them.
He said he wanted to work on his slider today, and it has been sharp. Orioles don’t have a clue against him.
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Hopefully this is a harbinger of things to come for the season.
If Maine goes 15++ wins, Pedro is healthy, Santana does his thing and OP can just not regress, who cares who the 5th guy is….
I don’t feel shy at all about saying that I could see Maine win 20 games this season. He won 15 last year when his slider was not even close to the pitch it is today. Also, he’s improved his change-up and is throwing it more frequently this spring than he did last season.
Mets might have troubles w/5th starter but at least its not like Braves who have trouble w/their #1/#2…
According to Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Braves RHP John Smoltz will likely begin the season on the disabled list due to soreness in his shoulder.
Yes he will scoopcoop, but if you keep reading, you’ll find that he will be back for the Mets series.
I believe Maine is very talented, and it is clear that he can dominate at times. But I have heard from several sources, including from “experts” like Peter Gammons and fans like Donn above, that Maine could win 20 games this season. I am not saying he couldn’t do that, but consider 2 things: 1) all of his success this spring has been just that, spring training success when nothing counts; and more importantly 2) it is an ENORMOUS leap to go from 15 wins to 20 wins. Does anyone know how many pitchers won 20 last year? It was one, single pitcher (J. Beckett). The year before? ZERO. The point is that John Maine is unlikely to win 20 this season (or any other), and Mets fans should be thrilled if he can repeat last year’s performance and notch 15. Don’t get ahead of yourselves, folks.
I don’t know about anyone else, but the Mets offense is really starting to scare me. Outside of Beltran/Wright/Reyes, I don’t know who else to count on to get on base and drive in runs. I am officially convinced that the victory total is going to be based upon pitching and defense.
Whatever happened to the days of FOUR STARTERS ?
Predicting how many wins isn’t as important as appreciating the fact that the mets have the strongest 1 to 4 pitchers in the NL. Nobody has a strong 5, we can live with Pelfrey, or Sosa for that matter, and skip it every time to assure maximum exposure for Santana. Bull pen looks solid too, I keep on saying Sanchez not being there is not going to hurt. Going to battle with Wagner, Heilman, Feliciano, Wise, Sosa, Schoeneweis is exceedingly better than what is in the east and the rest of the NL. What NL staff comes close?
I know Smoltz will be back for Mets series.
But the fact that his shoulder is acting up again and it is only March is not a good sign for him and Atl.
what’s wrong with relying on defense and pitching STeve (the original)? I’d rather enjoy that then watch long drawn out innings waiting for a HR, like some other team in NY does. Sure, having a good offense is important, but I think we have that. It’s not ‘06, obviously, that was a very good offense, but that team didn’t have the pitching and defense we now have. our pitching will carry us this year, and that shouldn’t be something to complain about.
Figgy pitches today (not a long one either) so I’m guessing he is out of the equation for the 5th spot.
Sloppy, your man Smith looks like he did well again today. I thought they would take Register as he last pen man, but maybe it will be Smith w/his fixed mechanics.
Yeah, the Orioles sure got the best of that Kris Benson deal.
NOT!
As Men at Work once sang in the ‘80s…
“Be good, be good, be good, be good, be good, be good, be good, be good, be good JOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHNYYYYYYYY!”
20 wins is great but that depends more on the bullpen than on Maine. As Pedro said the other day just about every pitcher is a 6 inning pitcher today.
Just give us 32 starts , 210 innings and 25 of those starts be quality starts and I will be happy.
metsfan: The Red Sox haven’t won two World Series based upon pitching and defense alone. That might have won you championships in the 60’s, but it doesn’t cut it in this century. You can’t basically rely on 3 out of 8 offensive positons to be solid, very good, or great. It’s too much pressure. If Delgado doesn’t bounce back and Church turns out to be a bust, this team is in trouble offensively.
Didn’t Mets rely on 3 guys last yr? And in fact just 2 after mid-August and still won 88 w/o a 5th starter and no Ace and a couple of crappy guys in the pen?
Nice game from Maine. I’ll take a 1-0 well-pitched game over a 9-7 slugfest any day. Mets will score enough this year to take the division easily. Their offense may start out slowly this year but I think they’ll crank it up by June and they’ll be fine, scoring at about the same clip as last year.
Scoop: Seriously, how was it watching this team last year? They hung on by the skin of their teeth in actuality. The team started out great and then were mediocre for the last 100 games of the season. Relying on 2 or 3 offensive players certainly didn’t help last year.
Last year I said he would win 20. Then the all star break happened and he was a different pitcher.
Some said he was not ready for the full season. He has the talent and the head for it. He just needs to put it together.
The starters on this team 1-4 could all be 15 game winners. They just need the D and some timely hitting and heads up baserunning.
They can do it, but it is not a given.
JM,
I’m not saying Maine will definitely win 20, I’m just saying that it woudln’t surprise me. I know that Beckett’s the only guy that won 20 last season, but care to take a stab at his numbers from the season before (16 wins, 5.01 ERA, 1.29 WHIP)?
So given Beckett’s progression to a 20-game win total from that mediocre year before, why couldn’t Maine hit 20 coming off of a better prior season (15/3.91/1.27) – especially considering that the pen behind him has been improved and the offense will still score plenty if they stay healthy?
I do feel that the Mets offense will be better then last year.
The first 4 are a given, but the next 4 are still a question marks? But I do feel that they will pick it up enough to make it worth while. And perhaps they may even be better then that.
But giving it up so early in the game does not make sense to me.
Did I say Steve (the oringal) that it was fun?
Here is the point. Many keep saying that offense will be bad like last yr.
Guess what? Mets scored 804 runs, 4th best in NL.
Guess what? If they score 800 runs this yr w/Santana, a healthy Pedro and a better/same Maine and OP, and a better BP they don’t win 88 games, they win more than needed to win NL East.
Guess what? They have basically the same offense unless you believe that Delgado is going to fall off the map (.240/15/55) and Alou is going to play 30 games.
They held on until the last day last yr not b/c of such a poor offense but b/c eldud got hurt, and the BP got worn out b/c Sele and Show and Mota were ineffective.
Those pitching issues have been solved b/c Santana is here, Pedro is healthy and the BP does not have any stiffs (I think Show can be fine if used against lefties).
Mets won’t win games 7-1 but they should be able to win a higher percentage of games that are 4-3, 5-2 than they did last yr. Those are the games you have got to win to be a playoff team.
The 06 season was an aberation-lots of hitting, good BP, very little SP (as measured by the fact that 13 guys started games).
I’d rather have the best SP, a good BP and a so-so offense.
Looks like Niese pitches tomorrow. Assuming he gets 4 inn, it seems unlikely that Sosa will be the 5th starter (unless he replaces Pedro for Wed game). With Figgy pitching today, it seems he is out of mix.
I guess that means Pelfrey will get the nod. They should tell him he is going to NO so that he forgets about having to show what he can do to make club.
Reyes will have a monster year. Wright will do the same as he did the last 4½ months of last year, and Beltran will be close to having a monster year. And that guy batting 2nd will do no harm as be bats 300, with 20 + steals.
Then the last 4 will just do good enough to help the team go all the way.
The first 4 starters (except at time with OP) should be the best in the majors. And the 5th starter may not be more trouble then any other teams 5th starter.
95 to 100 wins.
And the nice part of it is that they should end up with the best 3 going into October.
.
Steve, I highly doubt it. First off, Bill Smith has pretty much shown he’s immune to popular opinion and external pressures. Everyone from fans to so-called experts said the Red Sox’ offer was better right? And that the Mets prospects were absolute crap. Right? Well Smith ended up taking the Mets package instead of Boston’s. And as we learned later from Epstein, Boston didn’t withdraw from the sweepstakes at all. The Twins simply preferred the Mets package.
Second, while Pridie and Span are probably more experienced hitters, all 3 candidates had basically the same BA in spring training. The difference is that Gomez is a superior defender and he stole 12 of 13 bases. Every time he got on base he seemed to score. Sound familiar? Yup, he has that same type of blistering speed and baserunning skills that make Reyes such a valuable player and which can change the whole nature of a game in a blink. I think that’s why they decided to go with him now.
Maybe it’s good to be “rushed,†if that’s what you want to call it. I’d like to call it simply being pushed. I’m sure both Gomez and the Twins are glad he got that experience last year. Without being “rushed,†Gomez might have been ticketed for AAA this year.
Ooops, post above meant for Ollie thread.