JUPITER, Fla. — The Mets’ pitching staff is all about what if? There is no wow factor. Can a staff survive and flourish when there is no wow to its game?
Across town, the Yankees have some big-time wow in CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett. Then there’s Javier Vazquez, who was the Braves’ best pitcher last season, solid as a rock Andy Pettitte and Joba beater Phil Hughes.
The Mets have Johan Santana and the Four Question Marks.
One of those question marks, John Maine, was on display in a 2-1 loss to the Cardinals yesterday at Roger Dean Stadium. Maine surrendered two solo home runs (Brendan Ryan and Albert Pujols) over five innings. Considering the state of Mets’ pitching this spring, that was cause for celebration.
Most important, Maine’s fastball showed a little more skip to it, if not a rise in velocity, and his slider had a bit more bite. His performance offered hope.
When manager Jerry Manuel was asked about the lack of a wow factor from his staff this spring, including this outing, this is what he had to say, an honest assessment of what the manager has seen:
“I thought today, even though you might not call it a wow performance, but I thought it was a competitive performance against a good hitting lineup.
“There were some good sliders and changeups. It wasn’t a wow, but that’s very, very serviceable for us as compared to what we’ve been getting. That was very decent.”
Serviceable and Decent. That could be the Mets’ next slogan following their popular Prevention and Recovery logo that’s on the walls of their clubhouse and on jackets Mets staff members have been sporting this spring, including one worn by Jeff Wilpon yesterday.
Serviceable and decent. But is that enough? Is that enough to carry the Mets into contention in the NL East considering the NL champion Phillies have added Roy Halladay, who is much more than serviceable and decent. Is that enough to beat back the Marlins and Braves?
No one on the free-agent market wowed the Mets. No one really wowed me, other than John Lackey, but there is a fair amount of doubt in the Mets clubhouse.
Do they have enough starting pitching to excel? The feeling is that the Mets have a good enough lineup, especially when Carlos Beltran returns. But is there enough starting pitching to get the job done with Santana, Mike Pelfrey, Oliver Perez, Maine and Jon Niese?
Pelfrey has been telling anyone who will listen that the Mets have enough, and that last year everyone was picking the Mets with basically the same staff.
Maine, who came up with that “what if” line this spring, offered this after his 88-pitch (three hits, one strikeout) performance, a performance that dropped his spring ERA from 11.37 to 7.94.
“I think there is a little bit of what if to it,” Maine began.
“Right now it’s a matter of getting, especially me and Ollie, out there every five days. You know what you are getting from Santana. And Pelfrey is pretty consistent, too, so it’s just a matter of getting me and Perez out there.”
All of them, especially Perez, have so much to prove.
Serviceable and decent is a start. But it’s going to take more than that.