8
2012
Morning Grind: What Should Happen With Pelfrey This Winter?
An article by 
In all the drama, the peaks and valleys throughout this season, most of us have forgotten about Mike Pelfrey, and the fact that he is entering his final year of arbitration coming off Tommy John Surgery. We’ve seen the roller coaster career of Pelfrey, and now it has reached the point where his time with the Mets is in severe jeopardy, and rightfully so.
Pelfrey is making $5.68 million for a season in which he made three starts. Now this winter, the Amazin’s have to decide whether to commit to Big Pelf for one more season, or non-tender him and let the 2005 first-round draft pick walk as a free agent.
Frankly, it is time the Mets bite the bullet and chose the latter. He has yet to become a successful MLB pitcher for the Mets like he was supposed to be when they drafted him out of college now seven years ago, and paying him like a major league starter is not wise. Now with not only questions about his performance prior to the surgery, but his health and abilities post-op, a six million dollar gamble is not something that this team can afford to do, especially with all the holes on this roster as is.
Plus, there isn’t a need for Pelfrey on this ballclub anymore. Next year, Johan Santana and R.A. Dickey will head a rotation with young talent like Jon NIese, Matt Harvey, and Dillon Gee, not to mention the fact that Zack Wheeler is on his way. Yes, you can never have enough pitching, but that $6 million –assuming it would be re-invested, and that’ a big if– could be used for a right handed bat in the outfield not named Jason Bay, or some bullpen help, or an upgrade at catching.
This team has so many more immediate needs than to negotiate with Scott Boras and Mike Pelfrey, especially with him coming off a major procedure like Tommy John surgery. We always knew that Pelfrey was not long for this club based on his performance. Eventually, we knew there was going to be a time in which he and the Mets were going to have to part ways, and it appears that that time is this winter come the arbitration deadline.
About the Author: Clayton Collier
Clayton, a Long Island native and die-hard Mets fan, started writing online about three years ago. He is currently a Journalism major with a minor in Broadcasting at Seton Hall University. Although very disappointed with the current state of the team, Clayton remains hopeful that the young prospects in the farm system will bring the Mets back to a respected franchise in baseball once again. Besides writing for MMO, Clayton is also a staff member at 89.5 WSOU, Seton Hall's modern active rock radio station. You can contact Clayton by following him on Twitter: @Clayton_Collier or E-mailing him at MaybeNextYearMets@yahoo.com
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Bye bye Pelf…wish you the best in your future endeavors.
Mike,
You said it quite successfully and succinctly. No other posts on this subject are needed. My prediction is he’ll be pitching for one of these teams: the O’s, Rockies, Diamondbacks, Padres or Seattle and my guess would be Seattle.
Mitch,
Sorry I called you Mike. A person as insightful as you about our Mets should at least get the correct attribution. Please forgive me.
It’s Ok Lou
If I had to guess, I say he will opt to pitch in the national league. If given the choice, most pitchers will opt to pitch in the national league where the lineups are weaker due to the pitchers hitting. Unless he has a chance to pitch for a contender in the AL, I think he will opt to stay in the NL.
I like to think of NewYork as a big market. As such Pelfrey should be on the team next year. No negotiations just an offer and then arbitration. He is a league average type pitcher and those guys bring about 6-7 mill a year in FA. However the nickle nursing Mets should let him go. When it comes to budgets I am starting to become a pesimist. The resources “saved” will not be reinvested they will just be lost but they will use this as an excuse. Man that sounds weak lol. It is true that we have no real spot on the roster for him right now but we didn’t have a spot for Young until Gee went down. Maybe long relief is in the cards I don’t know. I just can’t seem to let go of guy tht has value until it is a lost cause. Maybe I need to go watch some of his games until I am frustrated enough to say cut him lol.
Bye Bye Pelfrey.Let’s hope Harvey and Wheeler don’t fall victim to the hype machine like this guy did.Ooops.I guess that can’t happen with Alderson hyping them.One of them will win the Cy Young award in 2014.Sandy is never wrong.It’s the fans and the media who don’t know what they are talking about
Of course you don’t know the difference between how Pelf was developed and how Harvey and Wheeler have been developed.
of course the donal that always demands proof when he can’t counter a position that is well thought out, knocks a guy for not seeing the difference in development that donal cannot explain, because he doesn’t know anything more than the vague lies that the lord spews out. So if you have a brain of your own, show us donal. Prove the differneces and while you are at it prove to the world why every pitcher in the Met system needs exactly the dsame development? Prove what every organization knows is pure bull, Go ahead donal, for once show us your genius. You may call the lord first.
What difference is that? Both Pelfrey and Harvey spent less than two years in minors, less than 300 innings in the minors, and both were called upon out of desperation. Do you have something that proves they werent handled differently?
Pelf wasn’t a victim of the hype, he just got called up to friggin’ early…
He should’ve been gone last year. Not sure what was our Genius GM thinking… i am sure he had a good reason or a better eye than us because how can a guy who was garbage last year deserved a raised is beyond comprehesive!
then again, he’s an educated ivy leaguer who knows more than all of us..
they signed him because the team was already short SP, and there was no way to know if Santana would even be pitching. And they paid him that because that is how the system works (arbitration), and middle rotation 200 inning veteran types get that much.
Or he’s a person who sees beyond his own little world and realizes that Pelfrey was in fact a league average back of the rotation guy and got paid like on. That just because he didn’t live up to the hype doesn’t mean he was a total failure.
According to depodesta, pelfrey was a very, very, very good pick.. Not sure what you talking about donal.. Pelfrey is a #3 starter in the league right? and depodesta said that if you draft a guy in the first round, and he becomes a #3 or #4 then that pick was very good…
The pick might have been good ( I disagree) but the development sure as hell wasn’t.
Of course, none of what you just dropped onto your keyboard has to do with what I pointed out.
Development????? Explain development??? You wanted his arm to fall off in the minors or something?
He was handled really badly. Only pitched a total of 176 minor league innings. He was brought up WAY before he was ready and shuffled back and forth in 06 and 07.
I’d like him to get more than a dozen minor league games before his major league debut. I’d like to have him develop a second pitch to go along with his sinker (which still needed work). I’d like to let him learn how to pitch in a professional rotation and deal with the occasional shellacking.
Mike Pelfrey was an extremely successful starting pitcher at Wichita State for three years. A local kid from Wichita, he had a great freshman year in 2003 (10-2, 2.49, 98/15 K/BB in 105 innings), then followed that up with even better sophomore (11-2, 2.19, 125/24 K/BB) and junior (12-3, 1.93, 143/30 K/BB in 140 innings)
Think about this, he was consider top 3 talent but because his bonus he was bumped to #9 and picked by us.. Developing my as$.. When you’re a bust, you’re a bust… No matter development etc, it’s all in the pitching staff and the pitcher to help his case… from 104 IP in his Freshman year all the way to 140 in his junior year… Not sure what you mean.. Wheeler has less career IP at his age than pelfrey did, and he’s ready to be up next year.
Now, if you wanna use the he was rushed in 2006 because we had noone and everyone got hurt? maybe, but it was only 4 games, and he showed he was ready, in 2006 in his minor league season he threw 96 Innings, allowed 81 hits, struck out 110 batters, so he showed fashes of dmination in the minors all year before being promoted. If the mets felt he was ready there must’ve been a reason for it, and clearly, those stats (which all you gooners do) clearly showed why he was promoted to the majors..
Sure, he dominated AA in a few starts. But he only got two starts in AAA that year.
Pelfrey needed a lot more time in AA and AAA before being called up. He should have made his debut in April 2008, not July 2006.
Also, I disagree with your point about “When you’re a bust, you’re a bust…” In my opinion, there are two parts to player development 1) finding the talent and 2) developing it. A player needs ample time at the appropriate levels. A college pitcher is NOT ready to pitch in the majors that quickly, especially one who pitched in the Missouri Valley Conference….
(Also, Wheeler has 100 more innings pitched than Pelfrey did at 22 and he will probably get another 75 IP before being called up next year.)
Agree with you on this. No way now we’ll ever know what difference it would have made had he not been rushed. Could have been none, but more likely could have been more consistent at the ML level had he had the time to develop those secondary pitches.
And if wheeler fails? then what would you blame it on???
Alex, I posted Wheeler’s and Oliver Perez minor league numbers here yesterday. In their minor league careers they are bot the same. Perez had a higher strikeout rate and LOWER walk rate, however not by much. That said Perez is a lefty and faced more righthanders, than Wheeler did left handers. So in that sense when you look at the splits, Perez blows Wheeler away. Hopefully Wheeler will start doing something soon to separate himself from his Oliver Perez-esque performance thus far in his pro career. But all those walks, all those wild pitches and hit by pitches are tops in the league including his strikeouts. A trait we’ve all seen before.
Given the fact that Perez was called up by the Pirates at 20 years old, and he didn’t fare too well in the major leagues, could be he suffered the same fate as well.
maniac, hmmmm, very interesting….did yo u watch him pitch the other day??? thoughts on that if you did please
‘If Wheeler fails’…..
If he does we can all discuss it then. No need to put the cart before the horse just yet.
You assume every bad thing requires blame. If Wheeler fails, we look at what happened.
Maybe they misjudged his talent. Maybe they did a bad job developing him. Maybe he didn’t work hard enough. Maybe they over worked him. Maybe there was an injury no one knew about and went untreated.
Or maybe his skills just didn’t translate at the major league level.
Maybe they misjudged his talent”
Maybe he didn’t work hard enough. Maybe they over worked him. Maybe there was an injury no one knew about and went untreated”
Or maybe his skills just didn’t translate at the major league level.”
same can be said for pelfrey
Not really since we are past that stage and have a lot of evidence to say he just didn’t get a chance to develop.
If Wheeler fails, it won’t be because of bad development, especially if they wait until June or July to bring him up from AAA. The Mets put Pelfrey in a position to fail…
They won’t tender him. Maybe a MiL deal to work on his rehab, with an out clause? Similar to what Young got this season. But paying him 4.5mill+ (minimum I think he can get in arbitration) to spend at least 1/2 the year rehabbing, then building back into shape, makes no sense, since they would lose him at the end of the year anyway.
Agreed.
I think its time to move on. If I could feel bad for a guy making millions to play a game, I’d feel bad for Pelf. The guy was just over hyped, under developed and constantly tinkered with.
the reality now is that there is no room for him on this team unless he takes a Chris Young type deal. Even if Gee isn’t ready by Opening Day, we still have Familia, McHugh and Wheeler to fight for that last rotation spot.
Donal — By virtue of his baseball maturity and his 2012 record, Collin McHugh is the closest to the big show. His WHIP was 1.160, his ERA was 3.09, and his BB/9 was 2.7, each of which was better than both Wheeler’s and Familia’s. All three had good K/9 records with Wheelers the best at 9.2. Familia has a lot of natural talent, but his 2012 WHIP of 1.670 and his BB/9 of 5.4 are mediocre when competing against the other top guys.
I was having a good morning until I read this. Why would we want him back. I would bring back Young before Pelfrey
I would bring back Young before Pelfrey”
Well, it might happen my friend.. The cheaper they are the more this FO likes them… SMH, sad reality, sad reality..
Mets do not have to pay pelf 6 mill, they can simply non tender him which they will and sign him to a league minimum deal with incentives. He will rehab and pitch in minors and provide depth for mid season, also he can put in contract if he does not pitch by a certain date in this case let’s say June, then he can have a out right release. You can never have enough pitching has seen with mets injuries in previous years and this year, and Pelfrey as a 6,7,or 8th starter is not shabby and needed in my view. Mejia will provide early depth next year provided they let him stay a starter which they should, wheeler should be ready mid season hopefully, and famillia will be a year closer. I am sure he will make a veteran minor league signing as well. as far as the bullpen it looks like edgin, Parnell, and Francisco are back and that’s a good start. Mike Adams has to be a target along with jp Howell to go with edgin. There are some relief pitchers they can add that are not bank breaking as well. Certainly need a catcher upgrade and it’s hard not to go after Napoli cause he provides a righty bat and a upgrade at catcher At the same time. At this point I see a bright future with gee, neise, Harvey, and wheeler even though Wheeler has not pitched in majors yet. In my view at 5 mill next year dickey and Santana in last year of deal They should be trade bait and only for one player, save those prospects and both Santana and dickey for king Felix, he will go on market. When santana leaves after next year His money should go to the king to head that young rotation in 2014. No question they trade for him and sign him long term. It is a must in my view. Bays money will also come off and enable more money for a hitter. Rome was not built in a day, relax by 2014 this team will be a strong contender for the world series.
This really isn’t up for debate. Of course they won’t tender him a deal. They will non-tender and then attempt to bring him back on a lesser deal, most likey a MILB deal. I also expect him to stay.
Why isn’t it up for debate? He has Boras for an agent, what lesser deal is that? Just because you expect him to stay I don’t see why you declare this subject unworthy of debate and that your opinion on the matter is somehow the only one that matters.
you can debate (or more like wonder) about if he will sign a rehab deal with the Mets or leave for another team, but the Mets non-tendering him (to avoid paying 4mill+) has to be more sure than death, taxes or Bay sucking.
the real issue with Pelf is his poor timing, since this is his last year coming up before hitting FA. If he had say 3 more years under team control, they might tender him this year to keep him down the road.
But, in his case, quite likely a team pays him this year to rehab, maybe make a few starts late in the year, then watch him wander off to FA.
Non-tender this bum. Offer him a $700K minor league deal, take it or leave it. Kiss is has goodbye because Boras wont take it. Hast la vista, Pelf. You were never worthy of your nickname Big Pelf. You was squirmed under pressure, had hissy fits on the mound, and showed up sucking a blue pacifier. That’s how I will remember you.
I think Pelfrey was a victim of unfair expectations to be honest. It’s kind of like when Tom Brady got hurt, nobody EXPECTED Matt Cassell to be Tom Brady. But then he proved he could have a solid season, and then expectations from that point on were so high. Cassell never proved to be the guy everybody thought he could be based on those expectations.
If he’s healthy, he’s a solid 4/5 starter. There’s nothing wrong with that – if the expectation is that you are a 4/5 starter.
He has a lot to prove in terms of HEALTH before he gets a contract.
When he’s healthy – he’s a work horse. That is a very great quality to have as a 4/5 starter.
But if there’s a way to bring him back and the finances work for NYM then I think he deserves a chance to come back.
He could be like the Mets Joe Blanton in a way.