The Mets currently have three starting pitchers under contract for 2008: Johan Santana, John Maine and Mike Pelfrey. With the way Jonathan Niese is pitching, he could be making Omar Minaya’s life a lot easier and penciling himself into the rotation next spring.

He continued his nice start with Triple-A New Orleans yesterday, going six innings and earning his fourth win in five starts for New Orleans. He did allow four runs on six hits – his second straight four-run outing – but he struck out three and walked one.