Some Mets players either don’t care or don’t get how fragile their fan base has deservedly become.

Otherwise, how do you explain John Maine’s comments after he allowed five runs in 2/3 of an inning in a spring training loss to the Marlins on Sunday. Maine said he believes the poor performance was a result of him coming out of the bullpen.

“My mechanics felt fine,” Maine said. “I just wasn’t kind of that into it. It wasn’t good. It’s just I wasn’t all that prepared.”

Well, that’s good to hear. Especially when you consider Maine is part of a trio of starters, along with Mike Pelfrey and Oliver Perez, that are the Mets’ biggest question mark entering 2010.

Johan Santana, who threw four scoreless inning starting yesterday’s game, could get away with that because of his impressive resume, but the list ends there.

Back-to-back collapses in 2007 and 2008 were followed by an injury-plagued 2009, when the team finished 70-92 after some picked them to win the World Series. The Mets signed Jason Bay, but did not add a pitcher to put behind Santana in the rotation.

Maine’s awful outing in itself could be cause for worry, but it eventually would have been forgotten. The entitled attitude is what has to be frustrating for Mets fans. The thought that Maine, who went 7-6 with a 4.43 ERA last season in between bouts of arm fatigue that limited him to 15 starts, feels he can downplay a relief outing just because he is a starter has to be frustrating for Mets fans.

“The feeling that it’s not my game is the hardest thing,” said Maine, who was scheduled to start Saturday but was pushed back because of rain.

“It’s a waste of a day.”

But that’s on him, not the Mets for using him as a reliever.