Single: Head over to ESPN.com, Sportsline.com, and Yahoo! for some great fantasy baseball prep. 

I already had my draft, and let me tell you starting pitchers are thin.  Makes me more and more thankful that we have four really solid guys in Johan Santana, Pedro Martinez, John Maine and Oliver Perez.

Double: At the Journal News, John Delcos quotes Moises Alou as saying, “I’d love to get over 500 at-bats. If I do that I can have a great season. And, if I do that the team can have a great season.” 

The last time he had over 500 at-bats was in 2004 when he had 601 for the Cubs.  He’s only had over 500 at-bats three times in the last eight years.  While I’d love to see Alou step into the batters box 500 times this year, I just don’t see it happening.  Willie has to almost treat him like a catcher, rest him most day games after night games, etc.  Let’s be realistic, he’s 41 and was consistently hurt in his mid 30’s.  I think he can get close to that number if Willie rests him properly.  Most sundays he should send Alou for a day-off, tell him to go see a movie.  He’d probably enjoy one, seeing how movies are in color now. 

Triple: According to Newsday, Jose Reyes plans on cutting down on his antics this year such as his clubhouse dancing and celebratory handshakes.  Tuesday Reyes said, “No more handshakes. People kept saying we got teams fired up when we did those handshakes, so now I want to focus more on baseball.” 

Sometimes they seem a bit too choreographed but really, he didn’t bat .205 in September because he slapped Carlos Delgado’s hand a few times before he entered the dugout.  Sometimes most people–including me–often take this game like its a religion of some sort.  Baseball is a game, a sport, a very important and intense one at that.  And we in fact are hypocritical when we look down on these players for demanding too much money and treating it like a job. I know I’ve thought they should  be thankful that they have the privilege to play baseball for a living.  So yeah, let them enjoy it, make sure they know its not a job.  Jose should slap hands bump fists elbows and feet when he hits a homerun.  

Home Run: The usually quiet-mannered Carlos Beltran recently said, “So this year, to Jimmy Rollins — we are the team to beat!” After he proclaimed a division title last year, Phillies’ SS Jimmy Rollins responded, “Has anyone heard of plagiarism?”  In an interview for 950 ESPN radio, ESPN senior baseball analyst Jayson Stark discussed how there were people in the Phillies locker room suggesting there would be a brawl. 

This hatred between the two teams really has just blossomed over the last few years, since both teams have been good.  The rivalry really spiked with Rollins’ prediction of the division crown last year, and the Mets collapse allowing his seemingly absurd prophecy to be true.  What’s still humorous though, is that I still don’t see them as our biggest rival.  Even though there has been all this tension and hatred lately, the Braves have been our rival for so long and probably again will contend for the NL East Title as well as the wildcard.  To me, the Phillies are a grumpy third wheel that just desperately wants some attention.  Really, we won as many playoffs games as they did last year. 

For CBSsportsline, fantasy analyst Eric Mack breaks down potential pitchers that will be in their 3rd year in the Majors, which according to him is when pitchers hit their stride.  Number 4 on his list is John Maine.

He concludes his piece on Maine by writing:

The offensively capable Mets should make him a big-time winner, and he should be able to stretch out better through the second half this time around. Last year was really his first full year in the majors after a couple of half seasons before 2007.

He also wrote an article where he discusses that players also hit their stride when they are 27, which Maine will be.

Also of note, he pegs Phillies’ SP Cole Hamels and Marlins’ SP Scott Olsen for breakout years.

Worth reading, especially if you’re into fantasy baseball.  This could really be a great year for Maine, because–to me at least–his issues seem to be mental, like losing focus and control.  Hopefully maturation will change that.

Over the next week, I’ll be breaking down the things that have to go right for the Mets this year if they want to make the playoffs.

Already, I have discussed Pedro’s arm, and the bullpen.

Note: All of this is done assuming we do not make any significant acquisitions of any sort, be it through trade or a free agent signing.

Today, I’ll be looking at what we need from John Maine and Oliver Perez this year.  First lets look at Maine’s numbers from last year:

Maine had a phenomenal first half of the season, going 10-4 with a 2.71 ERA and a .214 opposing batting average.  However, after the all-star break Maine struggled.  The second half of the season, Maine was 5-6 with a 5.53 ERA and a .261 opposing batting average.  His final numbers were 15-10 with a 3.91 ERA and a .235 batting average against.

After seeing him throw only 15 starts in 2006, the Mets really couldn’t have expected any better from Maine last year.  In those 15 starts, he was 6-5 with a 3.64 ERA and a .211 opposing batting average.  However, in those starts he gave up a whopping 15 home runs.

This year, the Mets need at least the same type of performance from Maine.  Even though he left town on the wrong foot, Tom Glavine’s consistency will be difficult to replace, and Maine has to be one of the guys that steps up.  While expecting him to put up numbers the way he did before the all-star break last year is ridiculous, Maine has to be more consistent throughout the year.  A large part of the collapse was set in motion by poor performances from guys like Maine (despite his two gems in September).  Especially in the weak hitting NL, Maine needs to post an ERA hovering around 3.50 while collecting 15-17 wins.

Now Perez:

Last year, Perez was 15-10 with a 3.56 ERA and a .229 opposing batting average.  However, Perez often had difficulty with walks, issuing a total of 79 last year in 177 innings pitched. 

In 2006, where he split time between the Pirates and Mets, Perez struggled.  He was 3-13 with a 6.55 ERA while batters hit a strong .293 against him.  So, in truth–despite his universally recognized talent–last year’s performance by Perez was really a minor miracle.  He added 12 wins to his line, had three fewer losses and his ERA dropped by over 3 runs a game. 

Expect big things from Perez this year.  Beyond the fact that he’ll almost certainly benefit from another season under the tutelage of Rick Peterson, it’s a contract year for Ollie.  On the open market, a lefty who won 15 games and struck out 174 people will definitely cash in.  The Mets need consistency from Perez.  Despite his strong numbers, Perez would fall into phases where he can’t find the strike zone or just can’t get his slider across the dish.  The Mets need more consistent performances day in and day out from Perez this year.  They need him to walk less people, and win another game or two.

With an oft-injured ace in Pedro Martinez, an oft-injured starter in Orlando Hernandez, and very shaky 5th spot in the rotation, the Mets need Perez and Maine to build on their solid performance to last year, if they want to lead the Mets to the playoffs. 

Gerry Fraley at The Sporting News ranks the starting rotations in the National League and puts the Mets 9th overall out of the 16 teams.

9. Mets: RHP Pedro Martinez, RHP John Maine, LHP Oliver Perez, RHP Orlando Hernandez, RHP Mike Pelfrey.

Martinez and Hernandez are nearing the end. Maine and Pelfrey are still learning. Perez can be very good or very bad. His frequent walks lull fielders to sleep

The Diamondbacks, Padres, and Dodgers rank 1-2-3.

I wouldn’t lump Maine in with Pelfrey at all, thats a really poor job there, however I have to agree that among the rest of the rotations in the NL, the Mets are middle of the pack. Pedro has to show he can throw a full season, El Duque is almost guaranteed to go on the DL at some point, and Pelfrey is a big fat question mark. Maine and Perez to me are the only next to sure things.

You can hear comments from Omar Minaya, John Maine, and Oliver Perez on Sportscene Radio.

Maine played Santa Claus at today’s annual Christmas At Shea day, along with Mr. Met and Oliver Perez, who was Maine’s elf.

The Mets are marketing Maine and Perez quite a bit, which seems like a way for them to deflect their issues with trying to land an ace to place on top of their rotation this off season. Omar continues to say the Mets will do what they can but feel comfortable going into the season with who they have now.

SNY will be airing another edition of Mets Hot Stove tonight at 6:30pm and again at 11:00pm. Tonights show will feature special guests John Maine, Oliver Perez and Omar Minaya, and will be hosted as always by Kevin Burkhardt.

Hot Foot will post a recap of the show later this evening.

Several readers pointed out to me yesterday that some of the bigname sports blogs were reporting Met starter John Maine was outed by the gossip columnists as a lover of womens clothing.

Metsblog’s Matt Cerrone has it from team officials that despite said ‘reports’ John Maine is in the state of Virginia, and not clubbing in NYC.

Which is unfortunate, because we were hopping to roll out a weekly fashion column here at Hot Foot with John and MetsGal. She will be very disappointed.

Peter Gammons on ESPN lists a number of players whose statistics are trending positively or negatively over the past three seasons.

Among them, John Maine is trending positively with his win total increasing from 2 to 6 to 15 over the past three seasons.

Carlos Delgado is trending negatively, with his OPS falling from .981 to .909 to .781 over the past three seasons.

The Baltimore Orioles have declined their $7.5 million club option for 2008 on former Met RHP Kris Benson. Benson missed the 2007 season with shoulder surgery.

Benson, 32, signed a three-year, $22.5 million contract while with the Mets prior to the 2005 season. He was traded to the Orioles for current Mets pitcher John Maine and relief pitcher Jorge Julio, who was again traded away by the Mets to Arizona for pitcher Orlando Hernandez.

Benson last pitched in 2006 going 11-12 with a 4.82 ERA for the Orioles.

Roughly two weeks ago, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald pointed out that Benson could be among one of the free agent targets for the Marlins in the offseason as his price will come down tremendously after missing the 2007 season due to an arm injury.