Preview: Mets at Nationals May 19, 2010

New York Mets (19-21) at Washington Nationals (20-20)  7:05 pm

R.A. Dickey (0-0 -.–) vs Livan Hernandez (4-2 1.46)

TV: SNY   Radio: WFAN

What to watch: Dickey makes his big league season debut after pitching really well at Buffalo. He was 4-2 with a 2.23 ERA including 2 complete games and a 1.04 WHIP. You can’t do much better than that. Hernandez is pitching better than we’ve seen from him in years. He beat the Mets on April 11 throwing 7 shutout innings.

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Mets Starting Pitching Options – Niese and Perez

MLB: Mets vs Rockies APR 14

http://cdn.pis.picapp.com/IamProd/PicAppPIS/JavaScript/PisV4.jsThe Mets lost two of their starting pitchers in Florida, Jon Niese due to a hamstring injury, and Oliver Perez due to being dreadful.

Hisanori Takahashi will start in Jon Niese’s place on Friday night, while R.A. Dickey will start in Perez’s place tonight against the Washington Nationals.

Takahashi has seemed to relish in the long man spot, a la Darren Oliver in 2006 for the Mets, and he should be kept there as he’s been extremely valuable in that spot. R.A. Dickey, who started 14 games in 2008 for the Seattle Mariners, went 5-8 with a 5.21 ERA. Continue reading “Mets Starting Pitching Options – Niese and Perez”

Mets’ John Maine should go on Disabled List

New York Mets starting pitcher John Maine leaves the game after being injured against the Atlanta Braves in New York

http://cdn.pis.picapp.com/IamProd/PicAppPIS/JavaScript/PisV4.jsWhen John Maine left Friday night’s game in the fourth inning, I thought it was something pretty bad to force him out of the game. It turns out that he was having spasms in his left (non-pitching) elbow that was causing pain. He told reporters that he’s expecting to make his next scheduled start on Wednesday at Citi Field against the Dodgers.

The problem is that Maine shouldn’t be making his next start. He should be headed for the disabled list. Even if it’s a faux injury like Oliver Perez had last season, he should take some time to get himself right at Triple-A Buffalo.

Something is clearly wrong with Maine this season. If you look at the radar gun readings, he just doesn’t have the same velocity that he had in years past. Maybe it’s the bone spur surgery that he had on his shoulder. Maybe he’s injured and doesn’t want to admit it. There’s no way to tell.

In four starts this season Maine has only pitched 16.2 innings and given up 25 hits, including 4 home runs, and 10 walks. His WHIP is a ridiculous 2.10 right now. Right-handed batters are hitting .421 against him. This just can’t continue. Continue reading “Mets’ John Maine should go on Disabled List”