The Mets defeated the Baltimore Orioles today by a score of 1-0.  For a full recap, go here. 

John Maine was spectacular today, tossing 6 innings of one hit ball.  Maine walked 1 and struck out 7 while lowering his spring era to 1.85.  Joe Smith and Nelson Figueroa followed, throwing 1 2/3 and 1 1/3 innings respectively.  

Luis Castillo went 2-for-3 and drove in the game’s only run.  The Mets only recorded 3 hits with Ryan Church grabbing the other one.     

The Mets come home to take on the Braves tomorrow.  Jon Niese will throw against Tim Hudson. 

Talk about your pitchers duels.  Maine continues to shine this spring.  Lets hope he can keep this up come April. 

Perhaps resident Foot Boss can predict the future, as he seems to in his previous post.

John Delcos on his blog for the Journal News reports that Willie Randolph has announced a four man rotation: Johan, Pedro, Ollie, Maine.

According to Delcos, Randolph feels no one has yet earned that final spot, though Adam Rubin, who writes on his blog for the New York Daily News, that the team plans to activate one of them by the fifth game, giving them extra time to figure it all out.

Update: Adam Rubin cites a Mets official who suggested activating the fifth starter Game 5 doesn’t seem realistic, suggesting that five starting pitchers and a five-man bench will be announced at some point before Opening Day.

I for one, continue to throw my hat into the ring. For $50,000 and a blue batting practice jersey, autographed, of my choice, I will pitch for the Mets. I can’t be too much worse than Duq, and much less money. Throw in some carvel in a plastic Mets hat, and I’ll knock more off my fee. Who am I kidding, I’ll pitch for just the jersey and maybe some seats for once I’m fired for being about as effective as if Jose Lima and Anthony Young had a baby.

The only real surprise, to me at least, is that Maine is below Ollie in the rotation. Ollie on his game, definately better. But I think I’d take Maine on a bad day over one of Ollie’s infamous bad games anyday.

For ESPN.com, Christopher Harris takes a look at 30 burning questions, one for each team.

For the Mets he asks, “What can we expect from the Mets’ rotation behind Johan Santana?”

Harris takes a look at Pedro Martinez, John Maine, Oliver Perez, Orlando Hernandez and Mike Pelfrey, writing a paragraph each about their situation and their potential outlook.

Amusingly, he writes about El Duque:

What can you say about El Duque that wasn’t written in the Magna Carta? The dude is old. If he’s 38, George Burns is 65 and playing the Catskills.

Yes, he’s old. Yes, Alou is old.  But I guess we deserve the old jokes after giving two starting jobs to people who in their wallet have pictures of Marilyn Monroe, some used floss and an AARP card that is set to expire in June. 

I just don’t know why everybody is bashing Pelfrey so much. Yes he struggled last year, to the tune of starting the year 0-7 but still.  But, he has a great sinking fastball, and with time his secondary pitches will improve.  Let’s not forget he showed promise at the end of last year.  He was 3-1 in September, with wins against the Nationals, Braves and Astros.  Plus he can bring some youth to the club.  Sure, Alou and Duque might complain about that new school hip-hop jibber jabber that’s playing in the background, but they’ll be gone soon. 

Beyond this rant, it’s a decent read if you’re a fantasy baseball junkie.

The Mets will stay in Jupiter today to face the Florida Marlins. Pitching for the Mets will be John Maine. Maine was great in his last start, throwing four no hit innings against the Astros last Saturday. Pitching for the Marlins will be right hander Ricky Nolasco.

Lineups courtesy of John Delcos at his blog.

Marlins

• SS Hanley Ramirez
• 2B Dan Uggla
• DH Luis Gonzalez
• LF Josh Willingham
• 1B Mike Jacobs
• 3B Jorge Cantu
• RF Brett Carroll
• C Matt Treanor
• CF Cameron Maybin

Mets

• 2B Argenis Reyes
• RF Endy Chavez
• DH Angel Pagan
• CF Carlos Beltran
• 1B Carlos Delgado
• 3B Jose Valentin
• LF Brady Clark
• C Robinson Cancel
• SS Anderson Hernandez

As always, head on over to the The Hot Foot Bleachers to talk during the game.

Off their first loss in their last seven games, the Mets play host to the Houston Astros in St. Lucie today. Pitching for the Mets will be John Maine. Pitching for the Astros will be minor leaguer Jack Cassel.

Game is being shown on the CW11 and is also available on MLB.tv.

Lineups made available by John Delcos at his blog.

Astros

• 1B Darin Erstad
• SS Tommy Manzella
• RF Hunter Pence
• 3B Ty Wigginton
• 2B David Newhan
• LF Reggie Abercrombie
• CF Nick Gorneault
• DH JR Towles
• C Humberto Quintero

Mets:

• SS Jose Reyes
• CF Endy Chavez
• 3B David Wright
• LF Ryan Church
• DH Olmedo Saenz
• LF Angel Pagan
• 1B Jose Valentin
• C Ramon Castro
• 2B Anderson Hernandez

Valentin playing 1st today.

To chat during the game, head on over to The Hot Foot Bleachers

John Maine’s contract has been renewed in what many are calling ‘completely boring news.’. Numbers have not been released, and Maine is not yet eligible for arbitration.

In other groundbreakingly nonexciting contract news, the team has come to terms with 12 players including Joe Smith, Anderson Hernandez, Gotay, and other we may or may not see at Shea this year.

If Maine has a good season I wouldn’t be terrible surprised to see him receive some sort of extension or reworked contract, especially to avoid another Ollie arbitration scenario. Though don’t look for him to receive Wright and Reyes style contracts.

Update: The post reports Maine received a $59,000/yr raise to bring him up to a $450,000 salary.

According to Adam Rubin, John Maine and Aaron Heilman debated the scientific possibilities of Transporting (scroll down to 9am). The former engineering student Maine thinks it’ll never work, while Heilman appears to believe it will.

We’ve come a long way from having Carl Everett telling reporters dinosaurs don’t exist. Though I’m not sure exactly how much engineering Maine really studied in school, and I’m pretty sure UNC isn’t exactly the MIT of the deep south. I didn’t even know they taught science, let alone engineering, that far into the south.  

John Maine took the hill for his first start of spring training. It didn’t last long and it didn’t look too pretty, either. Maine lasted 1 2/3, allowing three runs on four hits, while striking out two.

Maine, as quoted by Lisa Kennelly of the Newark Star-Ledger:

“I felt strong, maybe a little too strong.”

Maine added that his goal in the outing was to get consistent with his breaking pitches. He also threw a wild pitch on a change up, which he described as “I choked it, big time.” It allowed the Cards third baseman Troy Glaus to score from third.

I don’t get worked up over the first few spring starts for pitchers. They are still getting back into it. Sure, there will be some that may look at this and be concerned. However, I read most of the write-ups of Maine’s rough second inning. The hits were a couple bloops and a chopper. He did throw the aforementioned wild pitch, as well.

His first inning was a 1-2-3 effort, though. Baby steps, folks…

Over at his Daily News blog, Adam Rubin reports the results of the strength and conditioning tests the Mets players took part in which included a 300 yard dash, vertical leap, among other tests.

Rubin writes the overall winner was Angel Pagan. David Wright finished first out of the infielders, Robinson Cancel won the Catchers group and John Maine came in first out of all the pitchers.