New York Mets News: Bengie Molina vs. Rod Barajas and John Maine Shines

The news broke on January 19th of this year that Bengie Molina rejected a two year contract offer from the Mets to sign a one year deal with the San Francisco Giants.

I posted my thoughts about missing out on Molina here.  To summarize:

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The Mets have continually displayed patience this off-season. They haven’t over-payed for anyone. They haven’t tied up tons of money for tons of years in an attempt to appease the disgruntled fan base.

Instead they’ve put their offers on the table, with a “go out and find a better offer” approach.

Molina wants a three year offer, the Mets offered him a year with a team option for a second. How a 35-year-old catcher can think he’s going to get a three year deal is beyond me, and apparently beyond the Mets.

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Instead the Mets decided to go with two catchers, Rod Barajas and Henry Blanco, that would do more toward helping the pitching staff than helping the offense.

As it turns out, Barajas would do his part with the bat as well.

While he’s only hitting .231 out of the bottom of the Mets line up, he’s currently leading the team in home runs with seven and is third with 14 RBI.

Molina, while batting .333 on the season, has only hit two home runs while driving in nine.

Sure Barajas is a feast or famine type of hitter, but batting out of the eighth spot in the line up, home runs over batting average is something I’ll take any day of the week.

Last night, his solo home run in the top of the ninth proved to be the game-winning type, bailing out the over-used Fernando Nieve who gave up two solo home runs in the bottom of the eighth to tie the game.

John Maine’s solid effort should not be overshadowed by Barajas’ heroics.

Maine threw six strong innings giving up two earned runs and striking out six. He left the game with a 4-2 lead, and pitched well enough to earn a win.

Maine’s season ERA has finally dropped below 6.0 as he seems to be flourishing while on the hot seat. I’d still like to see more than six innings from John at some point, but I think it’s safe to say he’ll never be the type of pitcher to give you eight innings.

Maine’s velocity, which used to top out at around 94 mph is significantly down meaning his swing and miss high fast ball is a lot harder to miss these days. Without the strike out pitch, batters extend at bats and Maine’s pitch count is regularly around 100 pitches after six innings.

It’s something he may be able to work out by developing some secondary pitches, but for now I’ll take six solid innings out of him, as the bullpen has been very successful for the most part.

The Mets try and salvage the road trip today at 12:35 as Jon Niese matches up against Johnny Cueto.