Luis Castillo: .304 AVG, .383 OBP, 0 HR, 4 SB, 11 RBI, and 16 R.

He’s on pace for 89 R, 61 RBI, and 22 SB.

Thank you, Luis. Stay healthy, please. Oh – You’re still utterly slapping at the ball, but thank you.

I’m going to throw it out there:

Zack Greinke pitches a no hitter tonight (May 15th) against the Baltimore Orioles (at least another complete game shutout). Sorry in advance if it doesn’t happen.

Who has the most home runs on the Brewers?

Ryan Braun?

Prince Fielder?

Mike Cameron?

Corey Hart?

JJ Hardy?

Nope… It’s 2b, Rickie Weeks – the Perennial 20hr/30sb candidate, however his sub .240 avg keeps him out of the top 10 rounds and out of the top 5 2b’s. He’s a solid 25/20 candidate this year now. His sb’s need to pick up a little though and they should.

Free Agent Watch: 2 Guys I’m somewhat passionate about -

*Chris Coghlan/3b (and maybe 2b/of) -Florida Marlins. If anything happens to Uggla/Hermida/Ross/Bonifacio this kid could stud it up. They want him in the lineup bad. He just hit his first career homerun. Keep watch!

*Philip Hughes/sp-Yankees. I know he had a horrendous start against the Orioles and not a great start against the Red Sox, but this guy is an aboslute stud and could be better than Joba for the rest of this year. His fastball moves and his curveball is sick. If he’s dropped in your league, pick him up and at least stash away until he keeps hot. I understand Wang may be back up – hopefully the Yankees understand they need Joba in the bullpen so Hughes can start. I’m assuming he’d have to string together 3 solid starts before that happens, but if it does – Jump.

Inning 7:

*I don’t know any other team bloggers that write a blog prior to the game being over (inning 7) – knowing the game is already over. The Mets just don’t come back by 4 runs. Well they just got one. I actually debated hard between writing the Mets just can’t come back or the Mets just don’t come back, and the thing is – they can come back. They have the talent. They have the lineup. They have the heart. They have the passion. Maybe maybe maybe they don’t have the ‘mentality’– even more nauseating – how many games have the Phillies come back from in the 7^th inning-on this year already?

*Watching tonight’s game – even worse than the inability to come back was Jerry Manuel not taking Pedro Feliciano to match-up Brian Stokes against Matt Diaz. Here is a righty who hits lefties, but no – let’s pull a Willie Randolph and leave in the lefty. Come on Jerry. Willie was fired. Let’s not put faith in front of statistics – at least not when it comes to lefty-righty matchups. That’s baseball rule number 1, and if you think the statistics are straying from that trend, you know the Mets bullpen will regress to the means.

*The reason Bobby Cox and the Braves have been so successful past their aces is because he will literally yank a pitcher for the better match-up. I understood Casey Kotchman (lefty) was on deck, but you still take out Pedro Feliciano for Brian Stokes (righty) to face Matt Diaz (righty) with the bases loaded in that situation.

*Uh…fantastic hit-and-run. Hat-tip to Bobby Cox. COME ON METS!

As per (to be redundant) The The Eddie Kranepool Society, we should trade both Carlos Delgado and Carlos Beltran. Basically, the personality/mentality point is brought up again. Well I don’t really know why the Mets would trade a fantastic defensive and offensive centerfielder and a hr-rbi 1b at this point in the season when the division is up for grabs (not to mention the current win streak – uh…finally) – maybe because it’s the most we could get for Carlos Beltran for the rest of his career/contract and because we only have Carlos Delgado until season’s end before Daniel Murphy takes over 1b? Now this was written prior to the streak, however I felt just as passionately before the streak. Either way I don’t see how we could do that at this point unless we get a top notch starting ace + center fielder back for Beltran and I don’t see that happening from any team in a race or not. Plus we’d need that center fielder to be offensively producing right away. Maybe if the Mets fell out of it, I can definitely see such a trade happening at the break/deadline, but I don’t see that occurring either. I guess it’s not a question, but if it was, then the real question is what could we get for Beltran and or Delgado? Maybe we could send Delgado and Beltran to the Mariners for Jose Lopez/2b, Ichiro/of, Bedard/sp. Obviously, there’s an extenuating factor of neither of these teams wanting such a deal (mainly Delgado, even though I still think he’s more than stellar). Of course the Blue Jays could work with us sending Roy Halladay-sp + Vernon Wells-of + Aaron Hill-2b for Carlos Delgado , Carlos Beltran, Jon Niese, Brad Holt, but would either team really do that? Most likely Delgado and Beltran would have to go separate ways. Maybe Beltran (along with Fernando Martinez-of) could finally become a Yankee for Robinson Cano + Phil Hughes. The Yankees do have multiple OF coming off the books next year (Hideki Matsui and Johnny Damon in addition to Xavier Nady with Brett Gardner and Melky Cabrera being expendable while the Yankees get spendable). I’d like to see what kind of a deal the Mets and Yankees can pull off with this basis. The Mets should be interested in a Hughes + Cano for Beltran + Fernando Martinez deal if we can somehow land/sign/accept a centerfielder via trade elsewhere or even from the Yankees (I guess Melky Cabrera could fill in), but I think Hughes may become, if he wasn’t already, untouchable via trade (even after his past rough start). I think this Mets-Yankees trade could actually work out if the Mets also send top SS prospect Wilmer Flores or Reese Havens in there for when Derek Jeter/ss is done. Hmm… It gets more interesting as I write:

Could that work? I’ll tell you what… Cashman and Minaya (or the next Mets GM), why don’t you guys talk? The Mets can always throw in Luis Castillo/2b and Ramon Castro/c since the Mets seem so willing to trade Ramon (obviously we’d have to provide their salary or should at least).

Hopefully you read one of my last posts regarding Johan Santana as the NL MVP for 2009 (http://www.majorleagueblogging.com/baseball-news/mets-rotation-johan-santanamvp-trade-needed/). Basically it gave Johan Santana’s stats up to that point and iterated the need for a starting pitcher via trade.

In Santana’s 1 loss, he had a line of 7 innings; 3 hits; 2 runs (BOTH UNEARNED); 1 walk; and 13 strikeouts. Unfortunately, he went up against Josh Johnson/FLA. Last night he went up against Chan Ho Park/PHL (horrendous). Nauseatingly, Park went 6 innings; 1 hit; 2 walks; 1 HBP; and 5 strikeouts. Santana 1-Up’ed him (not in hits) going 7 innings; 2 hits; 3 walks; and 10 strikeouts.

Johan Santana is now 4-1 with a .91 ERA and a .91 WHIP. He’s got 54 K’s in 39.2 IP. He’s 2nd in the NL in wins; 1st in strikeouts; 2nd in WHIP; and 1st in ERA.

Prior to last night’s game he was giving up 1.1 runs a game and was only getting 2.2 runs a game from his offense. Now he’s given up only .91 runs a game (not even a run a game!) and in last night’s win, he got less than half his 2.2 runs a game support. The Mets really need to start provding him with some runs. No matter how much I stress that statement, it will still be the understatement of the world.

Johan Santana is still undefeated against the Phillies, the Mets new and beyond obvious, nemesis. He is now 3-0 lifetime against the Phillies in 7 career starts with a 2.44 ERA – phenomenal.

Johan Santana now has 31% of the Mets wins on the season. With complete concerns and inconsistency from Mike Pelfrey, Livan Hernandez, Oliver Perez, and John Maine (pitched solid other than bb’s in his past 2 starts), Johan Santana is infinitely important. I understand that the CY Young is the award to receive for a pitcher, and it epitomizes how great of a season a starter had, however, the MVP is how fantastic a player is and helps his team. There’s no doubt in my mind that Johan Santana at this point is the NL MVP and should be by season’s end. Of course the obvious competition is Albert Pujols/1b-STL. He is absolutely amazing: .364avg-28r-11hr-31rbi-4sb-.467obp-.747slg-1.215ops. According to ESPN, he’s on pace for 167r-66hr-185rbi-24sb. These stats are sensational. He’s the best hitter in the MLB. And if those stolen bases keep up he’ll be by far the best fantasy player (even with out them he will be). If you’re willing to trade him for needed roster slots, you better get a top notch player at each position you need: I’m talking Youkilis/1b; Hamels/sp; McCann/c. And then you can provide an extraneous SP & C back (just a wee-bit of fantasy talk).

Honestly, it’s up in the air, and Albert Pujols (#1 overall on ESPN Player Rater) is so utterly valuabe to the Cardinals. They have other hitters performing right now though – Ryan Ludwick/of; Chris Duncan/of; and Yadier Molina/c. They also have 3 starting pitchers performing well: Joel Pineiro; Kyle Lohse; and of course Mets’ horror Adam Wainwright. I’ve explained before in my last post. The Mets have solid offense: Reyes-Murphy-Beltran-Delgado-Wright, but they only have one great starter: Johan Santana (#5 overall on ESPN Player Rater) – http://games.espn.go.com/flb/playerrater?

I love it when this happens. A friend of mine texted me an offer he received.

He would receive: Chipper Jones/3b & Daniel Murphy/of

for: Josh Hamilton/of & Melvin Mora/3b

On ESPN, preseason, Josh Hamilton was ranked 18th, and he was #10 on Mock Draft Central’s ADP (average draft position, which I thoroughly enjoy attending to). Chipper Jones was ranked 49th on ESPN, and had a ADP of 49 as well – pretty consistent. As per my own (new) rankings (http://www.majorleagueblogging.com/major-league-baseball/new-fb-rankings/), I have Chipper currently at #74 because of injury concerns and Josh Hamilton at #14.

Daniel Murphy vs. Melvin Mora is an argument as well. I like Daniel Murphy a lot this year batting 2nd for the Mets, but Melvin Mora at 3b will still but up decent rbi numbers with a batting avg that won’t hurt. I don’t think people realize he went 77r-23hr-104rbi-3b-.285avg last year. Melvin Mora also has Brian Roberts, Adam Jones, Nick Markakis batting in front of him, which is very nice, when he gets back from the DL early-mid May.

Up to this point, Chipper has gone: 8r-1hr-4rbi-0sb-.316avg. I’ve already seen Chipper Jones miss 5 games since April 15th (9 days ago).

Josh Hamilton has gone: 7r-2hr-10rbi-2sb-.246avg. Even if Hamilton misses a few games, and isn’t as good as last year, he should still go 90r-29hr-110rbi-9sb-.295/.300avg, while Chipper performs to about 85r-22hr-85rbi-3sb-.325/.333avg. I’ll take 5-10 more Runs; 7-10 more Homeruns; 20-25 more RBI’s; and 5 more Stolen Bases from Josh Hamilton, plus I’d rather have Melvin Mora than Daniel Murphy, once he’s back from the DL.

Now I’m not sure what 3b/Corner Infielder there are on waivers for my friend, but chances are i’ll pick up someone while Mora is out.

Feel free to use this post as a trade thread. I’d love to answer your questions/give you suggestions for or against your trade offers out there. Give me some background though – who’s on waivers/what your team needs are – keeper league, etc.

Notes: What I tend to do heavily in my rankings, unlike all the other rankings, is group players together based on their position/projection/potential. For example, in round 8/bubble I grouped together 4 cl (Brad Lidge and Jon Broxton as well as Matt Capps and Heath Bell). Broxton has had a great start and Lidge has had a rough one, but by season’s end the stats should be about the same. I also grouped together 6 sp (Rich Harden, Joba Chamberlain, Adam Wainwright, Yovani Gallardo, Josh Johnson, and Erik Bedard). These are all great sp’s with ?’s though – inning/injury concerns. Of course, I have 3+ weeks of the season now to include in my rankings (upping Zach Greinke and Josh Johnson on my list, but honestly guys like Carlos Quentin and Matt Kemp I already thought should be ranked where I have them), but here, I posted my rankings followed by a notes section [In the notes section,  I’ve bolded the players that are in the referenced round]. Within the rankings, I bolded some guys I like and ranked higher than most others, and italicized others I didn’t like as much or ranked lower than others or have since been hurt.

Top 12/Round 1:

In 2009, I think Miguel Cabrera could break 37 homers and 127rbis he had last season. He’s already off to a hot start, batting .431 up to this point. With an increase in runs from 85 to about 100 and to me – a sure increase in batting average from .292 to about .315, I think Miguel Cabrera could be ranked above David Wright this year. Similarly, I see Ryan Braun breaking 40hr and 15sb. If his avg raises passed .300, and I think it will, he too, could surpass Wright because of the HR total, but obviously I would take Wright over both Miggy and Braun b/c of 3b eligibility – Is Miggy 3b eligible in your league though??? Chase Utley to me at 2b just beats out Ian Kinsler (2b) because of the RBI total. He’s healthy, and he’s already got 4hr and 2sb with 12r, 12rbi, and a .362avg. One guy who is absolutely on fire, and probably will stay that way if healthy for a full season, is 2b (position scarcity) Ian Kinsler. His line is already: 15r-5hr-16rbi-7sb-.381avg. Most projections call for about 25sb, but I didn’t see why he can’t break 30 (now 35) with a full season – 118r-26hr-84rbi-34sb-295avg anyone??? Like I said, I’d honestly rank him above Utley if it wasn’t for Utley’s rbis’s – and for that matter at 2b he could also be above Wright/3b, Miguel Cabrera/1b, and Ryan Bruan/of by year’s end. Kinsler had 23 and 26sb respectively in the past 2 seasons in 483ab’s and 518ab’s. With health, and in that lineup, he should approach 550ab’s, score a ton of runs, and should have a decent amount of rbi opportunities. Evan Longoria jumps into the first round again because of position scarcity (3b) over Josh Hamilton (of) and Mark Teixeira (1b). He’s already on fire batting 10r-5hr-16rbi-1sb-.386avg.

Round 2/Players 13-24:

There may be some surprises in round 2. Justin Morneau is so clutch, I just can’t rank him any lower. I think 27-30hr and 120rbi with 95r and 300+ avg is justified where I have him. Alex Rodriguez will miss time, but there’s no question he could still go 100-32-105-12-300. There is only 2 more sure thing 3b’s in Kevin Youkilis and Aramis Ramirez in the next 4 rounds (Chone Figgins, just there for speed and Chipper Jones is so injury prone I think he should be in round 7). The New-B’s here are Carlos Quentin (of) (who is already studding it up, and I have no idea why most projections were so low on him maybe batting avg. He’s got 7hr already); Matt Kemp (of) (don’t love his lineup spot, but still a great lineup with a lot more rbi opp’s and he’s such a great power-speed combo – already at 13r-3hr-14rbi-4sb-.362); Nick Markakis (of) (who would be first round material if he gets more than my projected 23-25hr and 9-12sb. He should hit 100-105r and 105-110rbi with a .307-.315avg.

Round 3/Players 25-36:

Tim Lincecum/Manny Ramirez/Dustin Pedroia/ BJ Upton are all still 2^nd round material to me depending on if you like drafting one ace very early in Lincecum or stolen bases in Upton or position scarcity in Pedroia. Kevin Youkilis somehow remains underrated (especially because he’s 3b eligible). He contributes greatly to 4 categories: about 100-105r; 27-30hr; 109-115rbi; 3sb-4sb; .305-.315avg. I just don’t love Matt Holliday outside of Coors and in Oakland, but his 95/25/95/15 potential is still 2^nd round material if that’s his line by season’s end. Aramis Ramirez could be ranked right before Kevin Youkilis or maybe early into round 4, but at 3b, I still love him in the Cubbies lineup.

Round 4/Players 37-48:

Ichiro Suzuki is sometimes ranked in the top 24, and his avg, runs, sb’s make him worth it there, but his lack of hr and rbi keep him down here for me. I’m usually doing fine with sb providers by now (say Kinsler/2b-27sb, Longoria/3b-11sb, Kemp/of-30sb) or (Wright/3b-18sb, Soriano/of-25sb, and Markakis/of-10sb) – that’s 68sb and 53sb respectively. If you end up with like: Howard/1b-1sb and Santana/sp, and Crawford (of) or Roberts (2b) are already off the board, than Ichiro can get bumped up if you think you’ll need the sb. I’d rather someone else and go for Shane Victorino/Jacoby Ellsbury in round 5 though. To me, Brian Roberts is Ichiro Suzuki at 2b, so Roberts is much more valuable to me. Some people still think Carl Crawford can approach 20hr in a season, and depending on his lineup spot he could knock in 85rbi, but in the 2-whole it looks like he should have a line of 90runs;10-12hr;70-75rbi;30-40sb;283-287avg, which will still justify this rank or even a little higher. I think by now he can be considered injury prone. I honestly think he has top third round potential, but every guy I have in round 3 just knocks him down to round 4. Brandon Phillips is great at 2b, and he’s a solid 4 stat contributor with a nice young lineup, but his average keeps him in round 4 to me. I like Cole Hamels and Brandon Webb here so long as they’re healthy because they symbolize the end of the 4 category top-notch fantasy aces (w,era,whip,k). Josh Beckett, Roy Oswalt, and Chad Billingsley are great, but Beckett’s era could be somewhat high as can Billingsley’s whip, and Oswalt looks to be slowing down a bit and striking out less batters although he was fantastic in the 2^nd half of last year. I like the 3 catchers: Victor Martinez, Brian McCann, and Russell Martin here. McCann’s eye is a worry and Martin’s starting off somewhat slow, but by season’s end I think they’ll be worth it here. If the latter 2 slip into round 5, fine.

Round 5/Players 49-60:

I usually have top power guys (David Ortiz/Carlos Pena), top speed guys (Rafael Furcal/Shane Victorino/Jacoby Ellsbury), or power-speed combos (Nate McLouth/Bobby Abreu/Corey Hart/ Carlos Granderson) as well as position scarcity (Geovany Soto/c; Rafael Furcal/ss; Alexei Ramirez/2b-ss) all in round 5. Soto is just too good to let drop for a catcher. I could see him being a 4^th rounder next year with another consistent year – similar to where McCann, Martin, and a healthy Victor Martinez are. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Victor Martinez, Brian McCann, Geovany Soto, Russell Martin, Joe Mauer, and Matt Wieters all go in round 4 next year. 12 players-6 catchers-1 round…Mark it (round 5 the latest).

Round 6/Players 61-72:

I love Joey Votto for his 7-10 sb and .290-300avg in addition to 24-28hr and 90-100rbi. I wouldn’t mind going with Robinson Cano here either at 2b in the Yankees lineup either. I love Cano slipping to round 7/8 because I think he can perform to the line of 90-95r;18-20hr;90-95rbi;4-5sb;.292-.302avg. Here, I like the 4 closers too: Mariano Rivera, Joe Nathan, Joakim Soria, and Francisco Rodriguez – all great 3 category pitchers with a good amount of k’s for relievers as well, however, personally I wait to draft closers and may look to draft 3 in a row, come round 13/14. Chad Billingsley is already showing why I have him ranked here with 4 wins and a 26:9 k:bb ratio, and a Dodger team that should be just as good for years to come. [Dodgers Lineup: Furcal-Hudson-Manny-Ethier-Loney-Kemp-Martin-Blake] – wow! If Billingsley keeps the whip down, he’ll jump to round 4/5 prior to Beckett and Oswalt. I don’t love Chone Figgins at 3b or Dan Uggla’s avg, but you can’t go wrong with Figgins’ sb’s and Uggla at 2b. Ryan Ludwick (already at 5hr and 16rbi, 1sb, and batting .370), after a great year last year, was way too underrated in this year’s drafts – the power and rbi’s should be there.

Round 7/Players 73-84:

Chipper Jones gets drafted much earlier, and at 3b, he’s so good, but he just doesn’t stay healthy enough for me to rank him higher. We should all know about Chris Davis’ potential by now (and flaws). Carlos Delgado could be Delgado of 2008-2^nd half or 2008-1^st half. I think he’ll go 33-35hr; 110-115rbi. Aubrey Huff was great again last year, and at 3b & 1b, I like him a lot with Brian Roberts, Adam Jones, and Nick Markakis in front of him. I like Garret Atkins enough to rank him in round 6 at 3b, but to me everyone above him as a little more potential/better power/better position scarcity ala Michael Young (ss;3b). Adam Dunn, Joe Mauer (c), and Andre Ethier are all solid options here as well. Dunn looks to be on a mission; I love Ethier batting clean-up in that Dodger’s lineup (and he should get you some sb’s with a nice avg.) I like James Shields and Zack Greinke (round 8 ) b/c each will have both good era’s and whip’s, where as the next few sp’s could have a high whip or era.

Round 8/9; Players 85-104:

Here, as you can see, I favor sp’s. I actually get my first ace in round 7 or 8 and then attempt to draft 3 or 4 in a row. Felix Hernandez and Scott Kazmir can have fairly high whips, while AJ Burnett can have a fairly high ERA, and as good as the next wave of SP’s are (Harden; Joba; Wainwright; EBedard; JJohnson; Gallardo), they all have question marks in some way (inning concerns, injury concerns, or not enough of a sample size). Derek Lee is in a solid lineup, but hit only 22 and 20 hr in the past 2 years. Without pop, and slowing down in sb as well, I can see him falling out of the top 9 rounds next year.

As I said in my notes section, I group players based on positioning/potential/and your statistical needs. I probably won’t rank the next 15 rounds only because I over/under-rate some players based on position, stats, and potential, and then I’d give away all my strategy.Feel free to question/criticize/comment.

At this point the Mets Rotation breaks down as follows:

I would just like to point out that our RP, Sean Green who has pitched 7.1 innings, has 10 K, which is only 1 less than John Maine in 8.1 less innings, and only 5 less K’s than Oliver Perez in 7.2 less innings. I think it’s very safe to say that are rotation as a whole is extremely inconsistent. If the Mets somehow make the playoffs with this team/rotation, I truly believe Johan Santana (if he stays healthy of course) needs to be considered as a MVP candidate. I can’t think of any team needing one player more. If the Cards make it, Pujols is fantastic, but so is Ludwick; Carpenter when healthy is great as is Wainwright. If the Cubs make it, they have a great rotation (Harden, Lilly, Zambrano, Dempster, Heilman haha just kidding) and multiple good hitters (Soriano, DLee, Aramis). If the Phillies make it they have Hamels with at least Myers and Moyer and Utely, Howard, Rollins +. If the Dodgers make it, they have Manny, Ethier, Kemp, Billingsley, but also Kershaw and Kuroda. I know if the Marlins make it they’ll, have Hanley to thank, but they also have Josh Johnson and Ricky Nolasco +. Same with the Braves (Lowe, Vazquez, Chipper, McCann). I know the Mets have multiple good offensive hitters in Wright, Reyes, Delgado, Beltran, maybe Murphy, but they obviously have only one consistent SP in Johan Santana. I’ll tell you right now, if the Mets make it somehow into the playoffs with this exact team, Johan Santana will or at least should be the 2009 NL MVP. With that said, I think the Mets 100% need to pull of a All-Star Break/Deadline Starting Pitching Trade. We need to look at Jake Peavy/Erik Bedard/Roy Halladay or which ever other SP will be available. Now that we have Daniel Murphy for LF, we can trade Fernando Martinez(of). We can also trade our top ss prospect (Wilmer Flores/Reese Havens), our top 3b prospect (Jeff Marte), since we have Wright/3b and Reyes/ss locked in, and obviously we’ll need to give up our top P prospect (Jon Niese/Brad Holt) in order to land one of these starters. Feel free to comment/suggest or alleive my worries, but honestly, no way can the Mets prosper with this current rotation.

Every season including this, you could hop in to a league at this point and put together a decent fantasy team with free agents. Even guys on ESPN’s top dropped list (http://games.espn.go.com/flb/addeddropped) I enjoy: John Maine(sp), Ramon Hernandez(c), Jeff Francoeur(of), Justin Upton(of), Chien-Ming Wang(sp), Jarrod Saltalamacchia(c), Cameron Maybin(of), and even Khalil Greene at ss. Hopefully you read my last post: Fantasy Baseball: Free Agent Strategy (http://www.majorleagueblogging.com/author/dschwartz/). You could see who you could have picked up last year and potential break outs for this year that were drafted late or not at all. Below is a team put together by only 22/25 of ESPN’s most added list, meaning some leagues didn’t have these guys rostered at all until recently:

I was planning to look at ESPN’s top drop/add list, and I saw that Roto Authority – Fantasy Baseball (www.rotoauthority.com) attended to it as well (Fantastic Fantasy Baseball site by the way). So I’ll only talk about one player that even after his April 16th start, I’m somewhat surprised to see on ESPN’s most dropped list so fast: John Maine. I’ll talk about him since I’ll be attending mainly to the Mets with Major League Blogging Creator, Jeff Gross, as well as the NL East and Fantasy Baseball in general.

I don’t really see how John Maine was previously, the 9^th most dropped player. Again considering he was drafted late as a 5^th/6^th starter on your team, in his first start he only gave up 2 hits and 1 walk with 5 k’s in 5 innings. Now I’m not saying he will stud it up, but he’ll have 140-160k’s in 160-180innings or so and his ERA should be in the 3.85-4.25 range. For a 6^th starter where you drafted him (or now can pick him up off waivers), I don’t see how he should be so high on ESPN’s top dropped list. I think with some run support, his K’s, and Wins should all be usable on your fantasy team (and his WHIP and ERA won’t really hurt you). I think the Mets will really depend on him with the inconsistency of Oliver Perez and health/youth issues of Mike Pelfrey – and oh yeah, the big question that is Livan Hernandez.

In 2008, John Maine had a line of 10w-4.18era-1.35whip-122k in only 140 innings. He had just as many strike outs as hits allowed by the way. Just to throw it out there I guess, Ricky Nolasco last year had 186k, but gave up 192hits in 212 innings. In 2007, John Maine had 15wins-3.91era-1.27whip-180k in 191 innings, and he only gave up 168 hits. So to reiterate, I really don’t see why John Maine should be dropped so much. Also the new stadium looks as though it could help if Daniel Murphy and Ryan Church don’t add to their bloopers, because he does give up quite a few HR’s (Game 1: 2 hits = 2 homerun). A matter of fact, now that I think of it, when I watch John Maine, he looks to me as the Jack Cust of Pitching. He gives up a homerun, a walk, or strikes a batter out.

John Maine (2009): With about 180 Innings, I see a line of 12wins-4.05era-1.32whip-155k.