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The Mets have told Mike Pelfrey he will be the team’s fifth starter, making his first appearance against the Braves in Atlanta on April 5.
…fair enough…like most of us had been saying, the job should have gone to el duque if he is healthy…if he is not, then go to the disabled list and give pelfrey another chance - his third in 12 months - to take hold of a spot in the starting rotation…
…good luck, mike…be aggressive…b…e…aggressive…
…Update…12:29 pm…
To hear from Pelfrey, check out the Journal News.
right move…..let pelf take his whipping like a man, the duque will comeback and make his countdown to his next D.L trip
Uhhh… Shouldn’t Johan be pitching that Saturday? If not, I’ll be livid…
nope…you counted wrong.
i think you forgot to count Monday’s game (3/31) as the first game of the season.
Johan will be pitching Sunday though….
But there’s a day off on the third…?
They’ll pitch Pelfrey to give Pedro an extra day’s rest.
Can’t say I agree with them, I’d almost rather see Sosa make spot starts to let Pedro catch his breath than knocking all 5 pitchers out of their starting rhythm, but my job isn’t on the line if the Mets don’t perform this year.
He ’should’ be. I dont understand how giving Pedro more rest forces Santana to take more rest. He’s pitching BEFORE Pedro.
I’d pitch Santana on his normal schedule, Pedro on Pedro’s schedule, and fit everyone else in around that.
The division is going to be close, I’d rather get Santana 3-4 more starts instead of the 5th or worse starters.
On the other hand, the Mets have 16 straight games from April 15th to 30th, and a 19 game stretch in late May – early June. So it does make sense to get them the extra day rest now when they can. If it wasnt for the 5th starter situation being so bad it would be the obvious choice.
It does seem like trial by fire, but hopefully Pelfrey does well. That would be incredible if he could do the whipping instead of the other way around. This is so exciting! The season is less than 30 hours away for us!!! LETS GO METS!
Trial by fire? This kid has had numerous chances to step up and has failed everytime. Not because he does not have the tools, the problem is between his ears. Similar to Maine, Pelfrey has to learn within himself how good he is. Once he does that, the sky will be the limit for him.
It’s very difficult to learn how godd you are when you are not any good. He has one pitch. One. As in O-N-E. 1. That’s not good enough in the bigs.
It’s very unfair to count the 2-seam and 4-seam fastballs as the same pitch, and his slider’s already good enough to be used on favorable counts.
That said, I’d rather Pelfrey went to AAA until he experienced the same epiphany Maine had last year when he realized that he can challenge hitters because his stuff’s nasty.
Pelfrey has enough natural movement on his fastball not to have to nibble, and once (if) he learns to trust it, he’ll be a decent major league pitcher.
Joe Cowley once pitched a perfect game. Who? Exactly. Pelfrey is not a decent major league pitcher no matter how many seams he can touch or avoid.
Ignoring the fact that Cowley’s promising career was ended by calcium deposits in his right elbow and not confidence issues, he never pitched a perfect game. His lone career shutout, which came on August 3, 1984; he gave up 3 hits and walked two.
“It’s very unfair to count the 2-seam and 4-seam fastballs as the same pitch, and his slider’s already good enough to be used on favorable counts.”
I’ll agree with that, and Pelfrey’s four-seamer and two-seamer are MARKEDLY different pitches. In fact, the split with said pitches is so radical that it would be analogous to comparing a circle changeup and a screwball. Pelfrey’s two-seamer is really not quite a true two-seam fastball…it’s actually closer to a classic sinker (think of the pitch Carlos Silva throws and Al Jackson and Jack Fisher once threw). With a classic sinker, you snap your wrist like you’re throwing a curve or slider, but you keep BOTH of your fingers bent (as opposed to one straight and one bent on a slider, slurve, or curve).
Pelfrey’s two-seamer is thrown with a two-seam fastball *grip*, not a classic sinker grip. But his wrist snap is VERY different than it would be when throwing a four-seamer. In fact, it’s actually closer to the wrist snap he uses when he throws his slurve. Unless you propose to argue that his two-seamer and his slurve (in the technical sense, he doesn’t throw a slider) are the same pitch, Pelfrey has two plus pitches.
He still needs to learn control of the slurve, but considering the similar wrist snap to the two-seamer, I’m not surprised he’s making progress. His only junk pitch at this point is his changeup.
hmm…don’t know what to make of this…do they think el duque is still not ready or his his bunion throbbing, or both. Hopefully pelfrey will mirror that performance against the braves from last year and glavine will mirror his performance on the last day of the season last year…then well be fine.
I have to assume that Duque is going to start on the DL. So, it is entirely pssible that Pelfrey did not beat him out. I personally don’t see Pelfrey as ready.
If that is the case, what happens when Duque is ready (or as ready as he will ever be)? Do they demote Pelfrey? Cut Duque? Send Duque to the pen?
Frankly, they are so short on SP depth, that if Duque is healthy, they have to try and get some games out of him.
Actually, I guess there is the option that someone is desperate enough to trade for him. Can’t really see it, but who knows?
Putting on the rose colored glasses, but if this works out (meaning Pelfrey gets the confidence boost he needs, and being around Pedro and the Jacket gets him going), and Pelfrey blossoms into a legit starter, it will really help cover the holes next year. If Pelf spent the year at AAA, you still wouldn’t know what you have.
I guess there is no way that Pelfrey is pitching for a spot in the rotation, unless Duque never does come back. If ED is truly just finishing his rehab, then Plef knows he is just filling in until he goes back to AAA.
Now, who knows if that will relax him (no pressure) or not!
It’s the 5th starter, people. If whoever is in there goes 8-8 this year, that works for me. Bullpen can help out since Santana starts the next day.
He will be competing with likely these guys:
Phillies – Eaton
Braves – James or Jurrgens
Cubs – Lieber
Cards – Reyes or Lohse
Astros – Sampson
Reds – Bailey
DBacks – Owings
Dodgers – Loaiza
Giants – Correia or Sanchez
Padres – Germano or Prior
I’m guessing the bats might also help outl
yeah its only the fifth starter, but you never with injuries (pedro), you need as many starters as you can, don’t dismiss the 5th starter down the line, all of a sudden he very becomes important to the team.
Only a fifth starter? If the fifth starters last year had had a less dreadful record, we’d have won the division easily.
if the bullpen had been half decent in the month of september, we’d have won the divison. he’s right, it’s the fifth effing starter.
Fair enough, but we don’t skip our #5, so it means many more starts than those other teams.
well saturday in atlanta against glavine…hes the braves 3 starter not that i think he’s good at all
Pelfrey isn’t good enough to go 8-8.
homer bailey didn’t make the reds
What does his shirt say in that pic?
GO BIG 2ELF?
what the hell is a TWO ELF?
are you serious…its PELF
aw c’mon, it’s PELF! more pics from that day are on my flickr account (username: mrzeising).
i would’ve never made the shirt in an XL if I had known Wags would be wearing it… haha!
Maybe done on purpose to exaggerate the bigness in Pelf? (No homo.)
haha, well i just copied the way my own shirt was… Rick Slate asked for XL’s so that’s what I gave him. I dunno if he knew who he was putthing the shirts on at the time.
You made them? Nice… Are you just a friend, or actually part of the organization?
yeah it was me – thanks! just a fan. i made a shirt saying GO BIG PELF to wear to spring training (blogger Brooklyn Met Fan made up the nickname). The players got a kick out of it and then Slate asked me to make 2 Men’s versions to bring to the next workout. He had Wags and Joe Smith wear them for the day… it was so funny. Story and pics are on Brooklyn Met Fan’s site, Metsblog linked to it at the time (march 12 ish?). Last week BMF and I were interviewed about it for Mets Weekly, hopefully the piece will air this Saturday!
Well the best start of Pelfrey’s brief major league career so far was last Sept 1 in Atlanta (I was there, he was dominant) so he should have some confidence in that park against that team.
Good move Willie. You were due
Great he can start 0-8 in 2008 now
Last call Mike. Please, please, please take this spot and run with it we need you to. If not, Pelfrey and Church to the Pirates for Nady, wait for Alou to break again and put F. Mart in left (if he does well in AAA) and count on El Duque till he breaks then Sosa or any other of available retreads (J. Weaver?, W. Williams? or whoever at the time) for the 5th spot. Just prognosticating, stirring the pot.
It would make life so much easier if Pelf would finally stick here.
stop with this good move willie bull …. if duqe felt well he would be the number #5 and i guess it would be the right move since pelf failed to pitch himself into the rotation this spring… that being said.
hope he pitches well, dont think neone wants to see this guy fail
I’m guessing the organization had to talk Willie into the idea of giving Duque more time, not that it was Willie’s good idea.
pisses me off bcuz as the #5 all we need is 10 wins 4.50 ERA , keep the team in the game on most days ans stay healthy
Well Pelfrey certainly didn’t earn it.
Pelfrey and Church for Nady would not be a good trade. Nady isnt really much better than Church and wed prefer a left handed bat. I dont think hte mets will bring up Fernando Martinez early this year unless his numbers are up a bit in the minors….he did hit for a high average this spring which is good but he didnt really slug the ball…I think the mets will keep him down there and let him develop his power and stroke before they bring him up…the last thing wed want is him hitting .300 with 2 home runs and 23 RBIs in 70 games
No offense to EL Duque but let Pelfrey pitch now.He needs to suck it up and figure out how to pitch, how to use another pitch to set-up his fastball. ANd if EL Duque isn’t ready they always have Tony Armas Jr., don’t they? He can be this year’s Lima or Brian Lawrence (yikes!).