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According to Marty Noble of MLB.com, Mike Pelfrey’s struggles last season - and in his last spring outing against the Marlins - may be attributed to tipping his pitches.
Noble writes:
“Like many young pitchers who seldom relied on changeups in their formative years, Pelfrey, 24, would open his glove wide when he reached in to grasp the ball deep in his right hand for the offspeed pitch — and not do the same on other pitches.
Dugout spies caught on to that in a New York minute.
But worse, when Pelfrey initiated his delivery of a fastball, his tongue became visible.”
…it always amazes me when stories like this come out and it seems like the team the pitcher plays for is the last to find out…hopefully he’s able to resolve it without completely ruining his concentration on the mound…
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well thats sucks….but on the bright side, its easy pretty easy to fix lol
Oh no don’t tell Senator Specter!
Red Herring anyone?
You would think that the catcher would notice first.
I was hoping that this revelation happened AFTER he got shelled in his last start. Too bad…
This was prolly told to him or mets mgt. by one of the new guys aka church, schneider, wise, etc. Better late than neve
I quess Peterson and his magical triangles couldn’t figure it out.
i knew that his tongue was a “tell” for the past couple years. and SURPRISE….so did the mets! believe it or not…THAT is why they made pelf use the mouthguard…simply to keep his tongue in his mouth! and NOT for that jaw story.
okay, I’ll buy that. it would seem to make no sense that the team never saw it.
FWIW, He’s been using the mouthguard since college. I saw a picture of him in his Wichita state uni and he had a mouthguard in. I just don’t understand why he has to chew on it. It makes him look like an idiot. If he pitches well I can overlook it though.
If Pelfrey’s slider was actually consistent and not usually garbage, that would fix this problem pretty quickly. It would also be nice if his mph didn’t mysteriously drop 4-8 mph during random games… and no, I don’t think it’s his change-up.
Good point. It drove me nuts how he was consistently hitting 96-97 in that Atlanta start, and then 90-91 the next ones.
seriously! How did the Jacket not pick up on this??
Easy solution. Chop off his tongue.
I didn’t see the game, but didn’t actually pitch well until the inning he got pulled, and No Show gave up the inherited baserunners?
yeah he pitched “well” until the second time through the lineup, at which point every hitter was sitting on the fastball.
If Pelfrey can’t get an offspeed pitch over the plate, the batters won’t need a “tip” to know the fastball is coming.
pelf should be in the pen for this year. check his splits. dude is effective early and fades fast after. he’d be better in 1 and 2 inning stints. mets need a .500 pitcher in the 5 spot. sosa was good as a starter last year, good enough 7-6, gave up no more than 2 runs in 8/14 games he pitched. that is better than where pelf is currently at. let him develop and contribute effectively out of the pen. he can earn a starting job later on in his career (but doesn’t have to be shoved down our throats now). schilling began in the pen.
assuming of course either el duque or pedro go down, which is inevitable.
Chris, welcome back, did you make the trip to PSL with Matt?
I wish I was with Matt… I was away on business last week. I was fortunate enough to spend a lot of time in PSL during my childhood though as my grandfather lived there. It was fun a whole host of Mets when they were in Single A. I still remember being there for a Butch Huskey walk off homer!
Ya know what would cure this? If he spread his glove . . . then threw an inside fastball, up in the zone.
Make the batter think.
Or just in general, spread the glove before every pitch. Keith has talked about that in the booth more than once… how he used to love it when he saw a pitcher who normally kept the glove tight fanned it before a pitch.
This was a great job by Marty Noble. Worth reading the whole thing.
You mean Noble isn’t a totally useless old fart?
Well, it doesn’t mean the Mets didn’t know, just that Pelfrey hasn’t fully corrected it yet.
So, in other words, the Mets were the last to know something that for professionals, certainly the much-acclaimed Jacket, should be the basics. When you consider that we lost making the playoffs by a game or two, this is huge. How could this happen???? Pisses me off. At least Pelfrey knows and I sure hope they will rectify the situation.