Johan Santana

John Maine has been injury riddled for most of the 2008 and 2009 seasons, but the Mets do need to make a decision on whether he fits into their plans for the starting rotation in 2010.

After Johan Santana, the Mets starting rotation in 2009 was shaky at best, and even Santana was not healthy enough to finish the season as he required elbow surgery in August.

After going through a horrific, injury-plagued 2009 campaign, the New York Mets head in this winter's Hot Stove with many questions and seemingly too few answers.

Everyone's knee-jerk response to solving their issues revolve around signing a couple big ticket free agents and praying for health. It seems like the 2010 version of the Metropolitans will be a playoff contender, but still a cut below a dominant Phillies club.

Does the name Pedro Martinez ring a bell, Omar? It should.

You were smart enough to bring him to New York, and it was a brilliant move, because it started a whirlwind movement by Latin players who wanted to come to New York to be in his presence.

Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado, Johan Santana, all expressed publicly that coming to the Mets to play with Pedro was paramount in their decision to want to play in New York.

The fact that Omar had the chance to re-sign him this year at a much lower cost to the organization was a wasted effort on Omar's part.

There are going to be a lot of Mets fans that are not going to be too happy with me after they finish this article.

In fact, I'd venture to say that there will be a few who will refuse to finish it because they will say I'm not a true fan, I am being too negative, and that I am giving up the remainder of the 2009 season.

All of the above may be so, but since this is definitely an opinion piece, if you don't mind, allow me to fire away.

It's that time again. After sifting through the dust, that has been the first half of the 2009 Major League Baseball season, we look at who are the leading candidates for baseballs awards.

Although the Los Angeles Dodgers have the best record in the league, do they have any candidates worthy of an award?

Albert Pujols has put up a mezmerizing season. Does he deserve the N.L. MVP?

Has this been a strong rookie class?

Let's take a look.

Thank you once again, Bud Selig. Twelve years ago, you gave baseball fans across the country, and especially in the New York/New Jersey market, something to watch every June and July: inter-league play.

Mets ace Johan Santana may be the best pitcher on the planet. He has proven himself throughout his career, first in Minnesota, and now during his first two seasons as a New York Met.

But Santana hardly looked the part of the "best pitcher in baseball" Sunday afternoon. The Yankees lambasted him for nine runs in only three innings of work during the Mets' embarrassing 15-0 dismantlement in the Bronx.

The outing was the worst of Santana's career.

Johan Santana would have become the ace of the Yankees after the 2007 season, if the club agreed to include Phil Hughes in a proposed trade with the Twins. The Yanks at the time overvalued Hughes, and the deal fell through.

Now, Santana leads the Mets. On Sunday the left—hander took a historic beating in the Bronx. He allowed nine earned runs for the first time in his career in a Yankees’ 15—0 romp.

Santana allowed nine earned runs on nine hits in three plus innings and saw his ERA soar from 2.39 to 3.29.

At this juncture, there are not many of us that would trade places with Mets manager Jerry Manuel.

His team has been decimated by freak injuries and lingering illnesses to the point where they are out of major league-level players. The lineup these days looks like one out of an early March split-squad game.

New York Mets at Washington Nationals; JJ Putz to have surgery

The first time the Mets played the Nationals, it was late April and the Mets were on a four game losing streak, coming home after getting swept in St. Louis. New York won the opener of that series and took two of three from the worst team in baseball.