Maine rehabs finger succesfully

Starting pitcher John Maine rehabbed his injured finger on Saturday night for the St. Lucie Mets. Maine earned a victory after throwing five shutout innings, and allowing only five base runners. Three of the five runners reached via hit, and seven of his fifteen outs fell victim to an umpire punch out. Ironically, Maine's rehab start comes the day before Orlando Hernandez's start. El Duque is indirectly linked to Maine because of the long string of trades dating back to July 31st of 2004. Ty Wigginton, Matt Peterson, and Justin Huber were traded to the Pirates (Huber went to the Royals) for Kris Benson and Jeff Keppinger. Kris Benson was then traded for Jorge Julio and John Maine. Julio was traded once again a few months afterwards to the Diamondbacks for Orlando Hernandez. In conclusion, El Duque, John Maine, and Jeff Keppinger are the remaining pieces of the "Kris Benson deal."
With the aformentioned acquisition of Hernandez, Dave Williams, and the emergence of Alay Soler Maine's spot in the rotation is lost for now, although down the road a chance may re-open. Soler may prove to be overmatched in the majors, Hernandez may prove to have nothing left, and Dave Williams may never get his act together. However, even with all that said Mike Pelfrey and Brian Bannister should be ready and healed, respectivley by the time all of those things happen, if they do come to pass. However, hopefully none of those things happen, Hernandez re-discovers his NY past, Soler builds off of his first start, and Dave Williams becomes a nice middle reliever in the bullpen. All in all, it's unlikely we will see John Maine at Shea Stadium again this season.