The New York Times reports that John Maine will remain with the Mets as a reliever, and depending on the status of Pedro Martinez, may make a spot start…

Martínez, who
rejoined the team Thursday but was unavailable for comment, was
scheduled to throw on the side Friday or Saturday. But even if he
throws Friday and says his sore hip feels better and that he is
stronger, it is unlikely the Mets would rush him into starting
Wednesday. Either Maine or Steve Trachsel, Friday’s starter, would
replace him.

Mets GM Omar Minaya refused to discuss Dontrelle Willis directly. But those close to Minaya said he would be open to trading Lastings Milledge or Mike Pelfrey, his top two prospects, if Willis were available. - New York Post

The credibility of this rumor seems suspect since a player, who in this case would be Pelfrey, can't be traded until a year after he signs his first pro contract. The earliest the Mets could trade him would be January of 2007.

As anticipated, Mike Pelfrey has gotten the call up to the big time for his first Major League start.  Saturday, Pelfrey will take the hill against the Florida Marlins.  As reported earlier, Pedro Martinez was placed on the 15 day DL, retroactive to June 29th with a Hip issue.  Nice to see the kid getting his shot in the bigs and also glad to see that Pedro will be getting some much needed rest heading into the All-Star break.  The Hotfoot wishes Pelfrey good luck and get well soon to Pedro.

As the Mets gear up to add Mike Pelfrey to the mix this weekend, NY Sports Day provides us with a nice rundown of the pitching prospects in the Mets organization.

Here are some names you should know, as you may one day see them hurling for the Amazins'…

Binghamton:
Willie Collazo
Mike Pelfrey
Eddy Camacho

St Lucie:
Jose Sanchez
Phil Humber
Michael Devaney

Hagerstown:
Jonathan Niese
Deolis Guerra

Brooklyn:
Nelson Portillo

Kingsport:
Nicholas Carr

Get a full detailed synopsis of each prospect on NY Sports Day.

Mike Pelfrey held New
Hampshire to one run on two hits while striking out 11 and walking
three in seven innings in a 6-4 B-Mets win.

Adam Rubin reports that observers of recent performances say Pelfrey still needs to work on his
breaking pitch, which is in-between a slider and curveball. Pelfrey
said he’s trying to improve the plane on the pitch, getting it to act
more like a true curveball. “I feel like I’m getting better every time
I go out there,” Pelfrey said

Toby reports that Philip
Humber worked four innings yesterday, allowing solo HR to the first two batters he faced,
and nothing after that. He struck out
two and didn’t walk a batter while working around 3 Mets errors in his four
IP.

Toby also reports that with the
Tides down 3-2, Lastings Milledge
came to the plate with the bases loaded in the bottom of the sixth inning.  Playing his first game in Norfolk since his return from NYC, Milledge
cleared the bases, driving home three with a go-ahead double.  He finished 2-4 and was the only Tide hitter
with multiple hits.

Royce Ring picked up the save, his
seventh for his one scoreless inning of relif. 
Ring has thrown 24 scoreless innings over his last 21 outings and the
Tides website points out that the Norfolk scoreless innings record is 24.1 set
by Ober Moreno in 2003.

Be sure to keep a close watch on Toby's blog for all Minor League Mets action, he does a fantastic job of recapping the events on all levels of the Mets minors on a daily basis.

The Daily News is reporting that the Mets are mulling over the possibility of promoting Mike Pelfrey to the Mets bullpen soon…

Keeping Score At Shea brings us the following info on the Mets top rated prospect…

He pitched his second game of the season last night going 6
innings.  He allowed 4 hits (1 triple), 1 unearned run, 0 walks and 7
K's.  So for the season is line is:

     1-0, 2 GS, 11 IP, 6H, 1R, 0ER, 1BB, 13Ks, 0.00 ERA, 0.636 WHIP

…and here's a bonus report from Joel Sherman on MSGnetwork.com on a guy who might give the Wookie in the Nats pen a run for his money in the “dude's big” department, the 6'3″ , 230 lbs Henry Owens….