Are Maine and Manuel Strangling the Mets?

It’s a quarter to three, yada yada yada yada dee dee dedee dee. It’s a perfect time to write sumthin’, the Yanks are outclassing the Rangers (again), the Mets are coming off a ridiculous win, and I even have the Cubs game going, from WGN. The Cubs are hosting the pitiful Houston Astros but I’m not really sure the Cubs won’t be just as bad. They often are.

The Mets play tonight, of course. And, after using up their entire pitching staff, they’re handing the ball to John Maine, with instructions to go deep into the game. It is with deep trepidation that I visualize this upcoming contest, the totally pissed-off Cardinals against John Maine on a Sunday night.

Of course, I’ve read that Maine is angry, angry at a number of things…himself, his manager, and the cruel world, I’m sure. Imagine the nerve of Mets management to question his role in the starting rotation! Sure! He had a bad spring and a couple of horrible starts thereafter but, gee whiz, three years ago, he won 15 games.

Has John Maine awakened? That’d be really nice to see. Now, please understand, I’ve mutilated John Maine in this column for quite a while now but that doesn’t mean I don’t wish him well. Nobody’d be happier than I’d be if he goes out tonight, throws bullets and violent sinkers the whole night and shuts out those dangerous Redbirds, Pujols and Holliday and Ludwick.

But it’s hard to imagine. The fatal difference between Maine and Perez is that Perez has talent. Maine just has that slow fastball, the dinky breaking stuff and well, that’s it. Perez finally showed what he could do the other night. He pitched into the seventh inning, allowing just one run over that span. He didn’t have his perpetual bad inning. He was just great.

When was the last time John Maine had a good outing? I’m looking it up right now. Omigosh! He pitched 7 innings of 1-run ball as late as October 2nd of 2009! But before that start, he pitched only sparingly and, from the beginning of June to the mid-September, he didn’t pitch at all, a victim of shoulder problems related to off-season surgery he had in 2008.

I’ve watched him pretty closely since then and haven’t seen that pitcher, the one who baffled Houston batters back in October. And, while I have some compassion for a player with a medical problem, I also understand that this is the major leagues. You need some luck and grit to withstand the rigors of a professional career.

If a player doesn’t have either, there are a lot of jobs a guy with a bum shoulder can do….insurance, beer sales and the like. I don’t need to see that guy take the mound every fifth day for the team I’m rooting for to win. If it takes anger to get this young man out of his doldrums, so be it. If even that doesn’t work, I’m sorry but see ya later. Maine’s already made a fortune. He’s listed on the roster as making 3.3 million this year. A lot of folks could live on that.

So….welcome to a sense of urgency, John Maine. Let’s see what you can do, armed with that anger and not much else to date.

Meanwhile, that 20-inning affair was pretty scary, from the standpoint of future prospects for the Mets. Their hitting was just awful, as bad as their pitching was good. Too many batters take the beautiful meatball pitches for strikes, then flail away at balls thrown in the dirt. I’m talking about Jason Bay, David Wright and Jose Reyes, but the same could be said for many other Mets, all of them really with the exception of Jeff Francoeur.

If it’s Jerry Manuel and Howard Johnson, the hitting coach, who are responsible for this “take” direction, it’s totally misguided for this particular team. These are more free-swingers. Turning free swingers into disciplined batters isn’t that easy. Somebody as smart as Manuel should realize that.

I’ve been against the tide, it seems, with respect to Jerry Manuel. Most Mets fans have had it with him, just based on his record supposedly, but I suspect they really just can’t stand his intellectual bent. And, while I still favor keeping him as manager, I am beginning to have my own doubts about his team’s demeanor in general.

If Manuel is forcing a bunch of free-swingers to show a whole lot of discipline in every at-bat, it is he who must shoulder the blame when that team doesn’t score any runs. When your most valuable acquisition strikes out four times, as Jason Bay did last night, then that is also a reflection of that batter’s direction.

Last year,from the beginning of spring training, Manuel’s thrust was towards his team hitting to the opposite field. David Wright had his poorest season ever, particularly with respect to his power numbers. Wright had just ten homers in 2009, after successive years of having had 27, 26, 30 and 33 homers.

I don’t think it was Citi Field, and I don’t think it was just an accident. I think it was an obsessive direction towards hitting to the opposite field. This year’s obsession seems to have turned towards “good” at-bats, taking pitches, as many as two strikes in certain situations. While the other teams batters get three swings each, our Mets only get one. I’m pretty sure that would affect not just their stats at the plate. That general strangulation could carry over into the field and into the clubhouse.

There are signs of a team malaise, at least at the plate. The Mets are making every opposing pitcher look like Christy Mathewson. It’s not only because they’re not good hitters. It’s getting obvious that even the good hitters are turning bad.

So get off it, Jerry, or Howard, or whoever else may be responsible for this strangling approach to hitting. Too often that first pitch is hittable.