When discussing John Maine this season, the issue of length has come up, as if this season’s statistics are a drastic departure from the Maine of 2007.

And part of it is true. At this time last season, Maine was 7-4 with a 2.90 ERA, nearly a full run lower than his ERA now. He had pitched at least seven innings six times, including going into the eighth inning twice. This season, he’s only finished off the seventh inning once, a game which he nearly completed on May 7 against the Dodgers.

But Maine remains one of the Mets’ most consistent starters, perhaps second only to Johan Santana. Out of his 15 starts, he’s only failed to finish six innings four times, and in none of those games did he give up more than four earned runs. That’s the very definition of “controlling the damage.” Maine also still maintains an ERA that hasn’t been over 4.00 since April 10.

But questions of Maine’s length shouldn’t suddenly arise like they have. There was evidence of Maine’s problems with pitch counts last year. Even in the midst of his stellar first-half, Maine’s May 2007 had five starts where he pitched five innings twice and six innings three times. In all those starts, Maine threw at least 95 pitches.

Moving into Maine’s problematic second-half last year, some of Maine’s August 2007 starts brought up the discussion the first time. Maine had his worst full month in the majors that month, going 2-3 with a 6.32 ERA. But more glaringly, he had three starts in a row (Aug. 15 at Pittsburgh, Aug. 21 vs. San Diego and Aug. 26 vs. Los Angeles) where he gave up only three earned runs but failed to pitch six innings. In those games, he had horrendous pitch counts of 117, 118 and 111. In that Aug. 15 start, Maine had 34 foul balls off him.

Is Maine really doing more poorly than last season? Joe Janish mentioned in a recent post to Mets Blog the following statistic:

Last season, Maine averaged 4.04 pitches per plates appearance and 17.1 pitches per inning, as compared to 4.17 and 18.0 this season, respectively.

But this is skewed because this is comparing Maine’s entire 2007 season to a little less than one half of his 2008 season. Now, taking into account his stellar 2007 first-half, Maine is doing worse with pitch counts than at this point last year. He averaged 4.04 pitches per plate appearance and 16.8 pitches per inning at this point last year.

How about looking at his last two months of baseball before this season, though? In August and September 2007, Maine averaged 4.16 pitches per plate appearance and 19.1 pitches per inning. Those are actually worse stats than his 2008 campaign.

Outside of Santana, who has pitched seven innings nine times this season, no one has been more consistent in the Mets’ starting rotation than Maine. Quality of innings pitched always takes a backseat to length, especially considering any accomplished bullpen should be able to pitch three innings with a lead and finish out the win. In this day and age, where fewer and fewer pitches are going seven innings, let alone farther, going more than six is gravy.