A Major League Baseball pitcher, even the ones who aren’t known for throwing particularly hard, traditionally can hit at least the high 80s, low 90s with their fastball. Unless you’re a knuckleballer, Jamie Moyer, or Livan Hernandez, it’s pretty much required that you hit that minimum level of velocity. Otherwise, no one can tell the difference between the slow stuff and the fast stuff. Last night, Mets starter John Maine threw five fastballs, none of which got to about 85. For a guy who threw 94 last year, this is a problem. And problems with the Mets always seem to cause more problems.
The Mets, thinking Maine hurt, pulled him immediately — he apparently “bounced” several of his warm-up pitches — and boy, was Maine not happy about it. He yelled at manager Jerry Manuel in the dugout, and then kicked up a fuss in the postgame.
“I didn’t get asked a chance [to stay in] and that’s what I’m most upset about. There’s no [effing] reason I should be seeing a doctor tomorrow.”
Then, pitching coach Dan Warthen didn’t help matters:
“I didn’t get asked a chance [to stay in] and that’s what I’m most upset about. There’s no [effing] reason I should be seeing a doctor tomorrow.”
And, thus, here we are — another “controversy.” We put that in quotes because none of this matters. We are talking about John Maine here. John Maine. Oh, and the Mets won last night. Maybe it had something to do with taking the guy throwing 84-miles-per-hour fastballs out after five pitches. Though it wasn’t very nice to call him a liar.