The Mets’ starting rotation has not been particularly good in 2011. The best pitchers on the staff have thrown like league-average innings eaters, and the worst have thrown like Mike Pelfrey. They have combined for a 3.89 ERA, which, though slightly better than the NL average of 3.92 for starters, is underwhelming when you consider that they pitch half their games in Citi Field.

Still, if the Mets starters have not been stellar, they have been remarkably (knocking wood) stable in 2011. Since Dillon Gee replaced Chris Young in the rotation in early May, none has missed a start. And — though this is likely partly due to the change in managers as well as the change in personnel — Mets starters seem to have cut out the disastrously short appearances we became accustomed to in the last couple of seasons.

In 98 games so far, the Mets have had nine starts shorter than five innings. Of those, only two starts have been less than four innings: D.J. Carrasco’s 3 2/3-inning spot start in April, and R.A. Dickey’s 2 2/3-inning effort in Chicago in May when he tore his plantar fascia.

Last year, Oliver Perez alone had three starts of less than four innings. So did John Maine. By my count, the 2010 Mets totaled 28 starts of less than five innings and 14 starts of less than four.

Of course, it’s only July. There’s plenty of time for pitchers to break down, trades to cost the team some of its more reliable arms, and September callups to muddy up the picture.

And it’s worth noting that last year’s staff was better than this year’s, stability or not. Thanks to the presence of Johan Santana, a great season from Dickey and an up year from Pelfrey, that rotation finished with a 3.80 ERA. And this year’s starters have only average .1 inning more per start than the 2010 set.

Just seemed worth noting is all.

The Mets appear to need better starters for the front end of their rotation. But I wonder if a case could be made that, given the general flakiness of pitchers, a team with a good offensive core might be well served tooling up with more great hitters and building a deep rotation of pitchers good enough to keep the club in games while the offense scores runs. Innings-eaters are the new market inefficiency, or something like that.

Might hit a snag come playoff time, of course, but then there’s always a lot of randomness at play in October.