This Maine situation is seemingly more complex than we know.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know what it says for clubhouse relations, control of the clubhouse, hiding injuries, actual performance, or all those other immeasurable things.\u00a0 What I do know is that Manuel and Maine are not getting along, Maine has been up and down performance-wise all year, and hasn\u2019t even hit the 91-92 he was hitting post-injury last year.<\/p>\n
There is no real way to remove guilt from Maine in this situation.\u00a0 He struggled in his bullpen, supposedly didn\u2019t top 85 mph for the first batter of the time, and bent over in what appeared to be pain after that.\u00a0 He snapped at his manager in the dugout, and was critical of him in post-game discussions with the media.<\/p>\n
Manuel and Warthen get plenty of blame here too.\u00a0 It\u2019s their job to make the call, not Maine\u2019s.\u00a0 If it didn\u2019t look right in the bullpen, then it\u2019s their decision to have him make his start or scratch him or whatever they do.\u00a0 They should come up with a plan, with Maine, about what how they\u2019re going forward.\u00a0 Whether that\u2019s one batter, one walk, or one inning.\u00a0 Maine\u2019s job is to go out there and throw the ball to the best of his ability if he\u2019s on the roster.<\/p>\n
Is Maine hiding an injury?\u00a0 This would be the biggest issue of all really.\u00a0 Maine\u2019s been a pretty injury prone guy, especially lately.\u00a0 He definitely could be realizing that he\u2019s often feeling a little pain and that if he complained about every little twinge he\u2019d end up spending more time on the disabled list than not.\u00a0 Maybe he\u2019s decided he needs to pitch through a certain amount of pain as a major leaguer, and he did hint at this thought on Thursday after the game.\u00a0 Then there is him bending over on the mound, looking like he was in pain.\u00a0 Maine explains this as knowing he was on a short leash because he saw Valdes warming up in the bullpen already and he was frustrated.\u00a0 Gameday suggests Maine\u2019s fastball was 85 during that batter.\u00a0 Maine claims he looked at the film and that his mechanics were fine and his last two pitches were 89.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know what sort of speed guns or software the Mets (or the Nationals, or wherever he was looking) have, so I certainly don\u2019t know what to make of that.<\/p>\n
Both Manuel and Warthen have suggested they believe Maine would pitch through an injury rather than admit one.\u00a0 Warthen used the words \u2018habitual liar\u2019 to describe Maine\u2019s attitude about injuries, supposedly meaning it as a positive reflection on his competitiveness, but Maine said that the comment did upset him. \u00a0Maine made a statement Friday that he would work towards his next start, whenever and wherever that would be.\u00a0 Manuel claims his gut says there is something physically wrong with Maine, but that he \u201ccould be wrong.\u201d\u00a0 Maine will get tests next week to tell for sure.<\/p>\n
“I want to pitch,” he said. “Even if I have to go out there and throw lefthanded, that’s what I want to do. I want to go out there and pitch.”<\/p>\n
Manuel\u2019s response to this was comical, suggesting that maybe he\u2019d have better lefthanded.\u00a0 Jests aside, I\u2019m not sure this is a comment you should make about a player that\u2019s already annoyed at you and frustrated.<\/p>\n
The drama obviously continued beyond that.\u00a0 Maine said he wasn\u2019t asked how he felt on the mound, Manuel pulled him and walked away muttering to himself.\u00a0 This is what caused Maine to confront Manuel in the dugout and what he was most upset about.\u00a0 After the game Maine said he hadn\u2019t talked to Manuel and didn\u2019t know why he was pulled from the game.\u00a0 Someone has said that Maine would be going to the doctor Friday, but Maine knew nothing of this.\u00a0 When the team showed up to the park Friday, Maine had neither gone to the doctor nor talked to anyone on the team about doing so.\u00a0 He was placed on the disabled list with \u201cshoulder weakness\u201d and was told he\u2019d be getting tests next week. \u00a0Elmer Dessens was activated, and didn\u2019t arrive at the park until the 5th<\/sup> inning, which suggests as least that they hadn\u2019t decided anything and weren\u2019t willfully hiding it from \u00a0John Maine. \u00a0\u00a0Maine still insists he\u2019s not injured, so we\u2019ll see what these tests reveal and where the Mets go from there. \u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s not like he\u2019s pitched horrendously either.\u00a0 His previous start wasn\u2019t good, but he has a 4.3 ERA with three quality starts going back to his four most recent starts.\u00a0 The Mets are 2-2 in that stretch.<\/p>\n This situation does not make anyone look good.\u00a0 I\u2019m already biased against Jerry Manuel and his poor decisions and management style going back to 2008.\u00a0 I\u2019m frustrated with John Maine, but it\u2019s hard to dislike a guy that works as hard as he does and is as competitive.\u00a0 You can\u2019t ask much more than that from a player; if you want to criticize Omar Minaya for keeping him because you didn\u2019t think he was talented enough, that\u2019s fine, but as long as John Maine (Or Oliver Perez) is a Met, I\u2019m going to root my hardest for them.<\/p>\n Almost 48 hours later, Maine has finally admitted that he\u2019s felt a small amount of pain, similar to what he felt last year, in his shoulder.\u00a0 He still insists he doesn\u2019t need the DL, and that might be true, and maybe he should\u2019ve seen the doctor yesterday instead of Monday, but this does validate Warthen and Manuel a little.\u00a0 However, they could\u2019ve stuck to their guns and not let him make the start if they suspected injury in the bullpen, and they could\u2019ve probably gotten him to a doctor yesterday, and at least waited before putting him on the DL.\u00a0 Mejia needs to go down anyway, and wasn\u2019t available yesterday, so it wouldn\u2019t have hurt to demote him and bring up Dessens and wait a day for Maine\u2019s results.<\/p>\n I have to wonder if this pain is a result of Maine switching his mechanics back to what he\u2019s comfortable with.\u00a0 Obviously what Warthen had him doing this spring and early in the season was not working, but they need to find something that both keeps Maine\u2019s shoulder from hurting, and allows him to be effective.\u00a0 Nothing we\u2019ve seen from Warthen suggests he can do that.\u00a0 I never thought I\u2019d miss Rick Peterson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This Maine situation is seemingly more complex than we know.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know what it says for clubhouse relations, control of the clubhouse, hiding injuries, actual performance, or all those other immeasurable things.\u00a0 What I do know is that Manuel and Maine are not getting along, Maine has been up and down performance-wise all year, … <\/p>\n