As the Mets fell to the Rockies 8-3 last night, you couldn’t help but wonder about the makeup of Mike Pelfrey who continues to make the case that he may never be a number two or three pitcher. As Gary Cohen and Keith Hernandez pointed out last night, Pelfrey is woefully short on guts and smarts when he’s on the mound.
Pelfrey lasted just four innings, and allowed seven runs on six hits and five walks. The walks killed him as they were followed up by homeruns from Carlos Gonzalez and Todd Helton. It was a terrible showing by Pelf. He has yet to show the composure that is expected from a top of the rotation guy. One can only refer to his 2009 season as a giant step backward, and the promise he showed last season is but a distant memory.
Much like Oliver Perez, when Pelfrey gets rattled out there, he is not able to recover and you may as well chalk the game up as a loss. We’ve seen it so many times before. Some jokingly refer to it as the “yips”, but I don’t think this is a joking matter.
After the game, Manuel expressed some doubt when asked if he could envision Pelfrey as a lock for the rotation in 2010.
“In all honesty, it would have to be a concern if we don’t see some improvement.”
That’s a far cry from Omar Minaya’s off season declaration that Mike Pelfrey had locked down the number two spot in the rotation. So now what?
Pelfrey continues to walk batters at an alarming rate. He can’t seem to pitch out of the stretch which is a big problem when you’re a pitcher who pitches to contact like he does. He is not a smart pitcher. By that I mean he doesn’t seem to posses the intellect to evolve throughout the game. For example, during Todd Helton’s first at-bat, he busted him inside with fastballs. The second time around and with runners on base, he grooves Helton another inside fastball only this time Helton was waiting for it and yanked it out of the park for a three-run homer. You can’t keep throwing the same pitches to a major league hitter and not expect the hitter to make in-game adjustments, especially a great hitter like Helton. A top of the rotation pitcher would know that. After the game, Pelfrey acknowledged his terrible performance.
“That was embarrassing,” Pelfrey said. “I didn’t belong on the field tonight. I was terrible. I feel more bad for my teammates that had to play behind me. I was absolutely awful. “
In his last two starts, Pelfrey has given up 17 hits, 12 runs and 10 walks in just 9 2/3 innings. Start sounding the alarms.
There were some other things of note in last nights game…
David Wright returned from the DL and had some fine at-bats, notching a single, a walk, and a run scored in the game. He looked great and it looks like he’s going to be just fine. The Mets will play it safe and give him the game off today.
Angel Pagan had a couple of hits, but also had a huge baserunning blunder that wiped out a potential big inning for the Mets. Sadly, it’s not the first time Pagan has done this.
Getting back to Pelfrey…
The Mets have some big concerns heading into the off season. Their rotation now consists of Johan Santana, Jon Niese, John Maine and possibly Fernando Nieve. All of them will be returning from injuries that required surgery and wiped out their seasons. The only healthy member of the rotation is Mike Pelfrey and he doesn’t seem qualified to be anything more than a fifth starter.
The decision to pass on Roy Halladay (or Cliff Lee) may haunt this team for a long, long time.
Believe it or not, this started out as a game recap.
Obviously it evolved into something else…
You can thank Big Pelf for that.
Yet the team seems to have enough pitchers that will be healthy next year to see if they could get a reasonable five starters coming out of them.
Perhaps they will not get a # 2 man, yet who knows, maybe the could get lucky with one or two of them.
But what about Pagan in LF, and Murphy at 1st base?
They said that maine would be healthy in spring training last year when he had bone fragments removed. They were wrong and it wiped out his entire season in 2009 as well. Anytime you perform surgery on a pitchers throwing arm it’s never as simple as they say it is. In my opinion, the Mets will be lucky if just one of those four pitchers comes back and pitches effectively, because that’s the other thing they neglect to tell you. Coming back from arm surgery is one thing, pitching effectively again could take as long as one year.
Forget all the holes this team has. We are about 4-5 years away from being a contending team. We are in rebuild mode. Delgado and Wagner are gone, Beltran’s deal is winding down, Reyes is a free agent after 2010, and none of our prospects are playmakers or gamebreakers. In three years thisteam will no longer have K-Rod, Beltran, Reyes, Francoeur, Castillo, and maybe even Santana will have split too by then.
Mets fans will have “wet” dream come true with a team of scrubs and backups:
1B – Ike Davis
2B – Reese Havens
SS – Ruben Tejada
3B – Dan Murphy
C – Josh Thole
LF – Angel Pagan
CF – Fernando Martinez
RF – Wilmer Flores
SP1 – Mike Pelfrey
SP2 – Jon Niese
SP3 – Fernando Nieve
SP4 – Jenry Mejia
SP5 – Brad Holt
You wanted all those prospects? Good, now suffocate on them!
Prospects are only as good as the person who drafts them. Thanks Tony B and Omar!
Woo hoo, I got freakin goosebumps!!!
PETER, CONSIDERING THE ONLY FIRST ROUNDER IS PELFREY. WE’RE NOW EXPECTED TO SLOBBER OVER THOLE’S SUPPOSED POTENTIAL, BTW HE WAS A 13th ROUNDER. WHAT CAN WE EXPECT? OUR VERY FIRST PICK THIS YEAR HAD 71 SUPPOSEDLY MORE TALENTEDS TAKEN AHEAD OF HIM.
IF YOU WANT TO PLAY WITH THE BIG BOYS (BOSOX & NYY) IN FREE AGENCY POOL, YOU MUST LEARN TO SWIM BY THEIR RULES TO SURVIVE. DOESN’T ANYONE CARE HOW DESPITE INKING TYPE-A FREE AGENTS ANNUALLY THESE “COMPETITORS” MANAGE TO HAVE ASSETS NAMED CHAMBERLAIN,HUGHES,BUCHHOLZ,ELLSBURY, PAPELBON? HOW DO THEY MANAGE TO ACQUIRE TOP QUALITY PROSPECTS WHILE RELINQUISHING FIRST ROUND PICKS ALMOST ANNUALLY? THEY DON’T RESTRICT THEMSELVES WITH FOOLISH RULES. THEY DEAL NON-PRODUCTIVE PARTS WITHOUT BALKING AT INCL CASH IF THE RECEIVED PROSPECTS ARE UPGRADED AND THEY VULTURE THE FIRST ROUND PROJECTED DRAFTEES TO HAVE SLIPPED THROUGH THE FIRST ROUND DUE TO HIGH SIGNING DEMANDS. BY POLICY THE NYM OWNERSHIP RESTRICTS FRONTOFFICE FROM THESE METHODS OF UPGRADING THE FARM.
AS YOU IMPLY, IT’S NOT ONLY ABOUT HAVING PROSPECTS IT’S MUCH MORE ABOUT HIGH QUALITY PROSPECTS. THE ENTIRE DRAFTING SYSTEM HAS ALWAYS BEEN DESIGNED TO FAVOR THE LEAST ACCOMPLISHED MLB FRANCHISES. THE FREE AGENCY SYSTEM IS DESIGNED TO THE SAME ENDS, COMPOUNDED BY THE LUXURY TAX IMPOSITION. WHERE THE ‘HAVES’ GET TO PAY THE ‘HAVEN’TS’ TO CONTINUE NOT HAVING. UNLESS YOU JIG THE SYSTEM ala BOSOX/NYY YOUR ABILITY TO MAINTAIN CONSTANT COMPETITIVNESS AS WELL AS A FULL PIPELINE IS IMPOSSIBLE TO DO SIMULTANEOUSLY.
“Their rotation now consists of Johan Santana, Jon Niese, John Maine and possibly Fernando Nieve.”
This is not accurate.
Maine is no lock for the 2010 Mets — he could be back if they offer him a contract or he could be non-tendered.
Oliver Perez by virtue of 2 remaining years on his contract at $12M per would be a lock, no?
Niese is not a lock for anything — with his 2009 season cut short, he may need to prove himself in AAA first, no?
I am not sure of Nieve’s contract status.
Right now, the Mets 2010 starting rotation includes:
1. Johan Santana coming off elbow surgery.
2. Oliver Perez coming off knee surgery.
3. Mike Pelfrey coming off a year long case of the yips and failure to demonstarte any intestinal fortitude.
4/5. Maybe Jon Niese — coming off surgery.
4/5. Maybe John Maine coming off a tired arm as a result of late-2008 surgery.
4/5. Maybe Fernand Nieve coming off a groin injury.
4/5. Maybe Nolan Ryan, Jerry Koosman or Tom Seaver who were reportedly looking for new contracts when they in town for the recent 1969 celebration.
Wow. I can’t wait for all the excitement that we’ll see in spring traing in February, 2010.
I was going to mention the fact you completely omitted Oliver Perez too. Do you think he’s being moved to the bullpen as the rumors were circulating before he got hurt again? Maybe they should give him a shot in the pen, who knows maybe thats what he was meant to do all along.
Interesting, a possible setup guy that makes more than mst closers. What a tangled web Omar has made for us!
In last night’s game, Pagan made another early bid for the GOAT award. That base running blunder in the first game was incredible. Does he need eyeglasses? What did he “see” that caused THAT reaction? Anyway Castillo had his hit taken away and the inning was curtailed denying runs that we could have used later. But no fear, Pelfrey made sure that he would stake claim to the GOAT award. No doubt there whatsoever.
GOAT was Pelfrey for sure.
GOATS for the 2nd half: Parnell, Pelfrey, Cora, Perez, Pelfrey, Santana, Niese, Green, Pelfrey, Pagan, KRod, LHernandez, KRod, Parnell, Pagan, LHernandez, KRod, LHernandez, Parnell, Tatis, Misch, Perez, Parnell, Murphy, Pelfrey, Stokes, Parnell, Pelfrey.
GOAT Repeaters: Parnell(5), Pelfrey(5), KRod(3), LHernandez(3), Perez(2), Pagan(2).
Parnell and Pelfrey stay in lock step vieing for the ultimate – The Golden GOAT. Stay tuned to see who wins the GOLDEN HORNS!
It is really quite simple: Pelfrey is insane. He is on his way to a bout with Steve Blass disease.
Nah, it’s Ollie that’s insane, Pelfrey just has amnesia.
Why is no one talking about Maine being in the bullpen? If his shoulder is “tired”, wouldn’t the most logical solution be to stick him in the bullpen? I actually think he could be an excellent setup guy.
If his shoulder is tired, wouldn’t it be tired in the pen too?
Simply to say the least the Pelf is not an ideal #2 pitcher in the Mets rotation. The Mets should go out and get a #2 pitcher for the 2010 season like Lackey, Garland or someone else. Pelf should fall to #3 or #4. Pelf has one too many meltdowns this season.
When Pelfrey showed up with that blue pacifier in his mouth I knew then he wouldn’t amount to much. He obviously has some psychological problems that he needed to occupy his mind so he wouldnt bite or swallow his tongue while pitching. Did the Mets know about that when they drafted him? Or was it another one of those deals that Omar makes without checking medical records? Like Putz, and Castillo, and Redding, and Delgado.
I agree with your assessment JoeD. I look at Pelfrey out there and all I see is him licking his hand, taking and putting back on his cap, showing anger which is a no no with hitters seeing this, pacing back and forth. Does he even have a game plan? As stated here, Helton is HOF and Pelfrey needs to learn to adjust the 2nd time thru the order. I was so mad at him last night. It seems that all the good we saw in him last year and early this year has gone down the tubes. Come on Mike, you have the stuff just grow up, stop all the little gestures, concentrate on the mound cause I feel as Manuel said that he should not be guaranteed a spot next year. After watching Redding the last 2 starts I have more confidence in him than in Pelfrey. Get your act together or go back to AAA and work on the nonsense gitters that you display.
All symptomatic of a lack of confidence. The fix may be a stint in the minors and some couch sessions with a sports psychologist.