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In the New York Times, Ben Shpigel wonders if Mike Pelfrey can come close to following the same career path as Brandon Webb, however, Saturday’s duel was indicative of the distance between them. 
Shpigel writes:
“Webb, despite giving up a three-run homer in the sixth to Carlos Delgado, improved to 7-0 because he relied on his trusty sinker to record 12 groundouts over six innings. In Webb, Pelfrey sees a more — much more — advanced version of himself. More precisely, he sees what he aspires to become.”
…it is easier said from here, but my observation is that pelfrey needs to just trust his stuff and let it fly…for whatever reason, it looks like his preoccupied with being too perfect which equals too many walks…let if fly mike and pound the strike zone…
Meanwhile, at his ESPN.com blog, Buster Olney describes how WFAN broadcaster Howie Rose noted that Pelfrey worked extra hard to get moisture on his hand.
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Webb became untouchable when he developed a good curveball. Pelfrey needs to develop that out pitch.
The Mets have done a really poor job of developing him in this regard. He can’t just get by throwing sinkers down in the zone. He needs a swing and miss pitch.
I seem to remember that Big Pelf had a curveball, but The Jacket took it away from him . . . Ugh.
Ha, your memory is correct. And then he was asked to learn a slider, and then made the big club before he ever had a chance to test it in the minor leagues.
Criminal.
I don’t know about you, but I’m starting to
get a little skeezed out when I see Pelf lick
his fingers.
peterson said it was like eating ice cream with ketchup, or something like that.
It wasn’t a pitch he could throw for strikes, and his mechanics on it were dangerous. That’s why it was taken away.
He was a college pitcher when he had the curveball. He was never allowed to work on it with a MLB or minor league pitching coach.
It’s not like Pelfry’s slider – Peterson’s preference – is being thrown for strikes anyway.
Go back to the curve Pelf. Hell with Peterson on that call. Throw what you know.
If he can’t throw either for strikes, then for sure stick with the slider, for two reasons:
1) less dangerous mechanics
2) more deceit – his arm action for the slurve was completely different to his fastball, and therefore easier to spot.
Brandon Webb??? That would be nice, but let’s start a little lower…baby steps… He’s not even Oliver Perez yet… although you could draw that comparison as far as inconsistency goes.
i honestly wanna see him again with Schneider behind the plate…hes not gonna be a shell of Webb this season, but if he can have a successful season, maybe 10-7 or so…. then work this off season, it will be good for him
Same here mrose. All I know is the struggles came when Schneider went down. I’m curious to see if Brian being back changes that at all. What I have seen is with Brian behind the plate Pelf pounded the bottom half of the zone with his sinker.
yes, spot on. totally different then what we have been seeing. Who knows if it had anything to do with schneider, hopefully its that simple.
Couldn’t agree more. Have to feel this was a big reason Schneider was brought to NY, and in the games he caught Pelf it seemed to pay off. Lets hope he can Ollie a bit more grounded tonight too.
By the way, are we still carrying three catchers?
Or was the 25-man adjusted once Schneider was determined to be healthy?
Also, who dropped when Alout was activiated?
I missed the transactions.
Gustavo Molina was dropped for Alou. We’re only carrying 2 catchers.
Very few guys come in like Tom Seaver or Dwight Gooden. These guys had absolutely brilliant fastballs and a good second pitch. Guys who have good stuff take time to develop and require our patience. I have no trouble with the way Pelfrey is pitching.
Junkers are intrguing. Guys like Bannister who are forced to hit their spots early in there careers can succeed at the major league level much sooner.
We took 2 or 3 from the best team in baseball. We can’t be that bad.
Ryan Church is my new hero.
Webb is a fairly good comparable. Look back at his career, and he wasn’t spectacular in the minors, or when he first came up. But once he got the sinker working (and controlled) along with his other stuff, he took off.
Given the age differential, it isn’t inconceivablethat Pelfrey could be nearly as good as Webb is now in 4-5 years.
Also, I wonder how much of the “perfection” (which seems to lead to nibbling and avaoiding the strike zone) goes right back to what Peterson is drilling into him? Pelfrey is not the same pitcher that he used to be, and certainly doesn’t seem to be utilizing his talent to any large degree.
Do you think the Jacket would let him jus tgo back to being a power pitcher and “letting it fly”?
I am glad I am not the only one that thinks that Peterson has miscast Pelfrey as solely a groundball-inducing sinkerballer. He can be so much more.
We rushed him because the organization felt they needed him, and we sacrificed development for a quick fix.
He should have never pitched a big league inning until he had a consistent secondary offering. And he throws a 95-96 MPH fastball that explodes up in the zone.
Why are we limiting him?
it’s so easy to blame peterson, or the Mets organization, but we’ve given this guy ample attempts to figure it out, and he hasn’t yet, but the thing is, he’s still good enough to be our #4/#5 starter, so that’s why he’s up here and not in the minors. You guys are writing your posts like Pelfrey is ruined, just let him be, he’s still sooo young, he has great stuff, just let it develop. That’s the difference in developing a pitcher in Arizona or somewhere, and developing him in NY.
It’s easy to blame Peterson and the Mets because they developed Pelfrey incorrectly. You got a guy from college with no second pitch and you decide he’s ready for the big leagues after 96 minor league innings. I mean, you know he doesn’t have a second pitch, because you scrap his curveball and ask him to learn a slider in the offseason, and then stick him into the rotation without even 1 minor league inning to work on it?
I mean, come on. They handled him horribly.
Last spring training you could tell that the Mets were not planning on having him in the rotation but he pitched really good and earned a spot. He’s got great movement on his fastball and when he throws strikes he’s pretty good. If Pedro/El Duque comes back maybe they’ll send Pelfrey down so he can gain some confidence and be ready when Pedro/El Duque goes back to the DL but to say they mismanaged him by having him start last year is unfair. Pelfrey pitched his heart out and won the job.
dude, it wasn’t a perfect situation, but guess what, it very rarely is. Pelfrey has shown he can be successful at the major league level, now he has to put it together. Would we all rather of seen Pelfrey sit in the minors for 2 years? Sure. But at the time, needs of the major league club necessitated bringing someone up, and he was the best option (after performing very well in spring training last year). Then they sent him down to work on it, and he got better. We all want this situation to work out perfectly, but acting like you know exactly what WOULD have worked is ridiculous. No one knows what would have happened or if Pelfrey would have developed better. No one.
I think Darkstar has a point. It all comes down to situations. We were counting on Pedro/Duque to start the season and at sometime going down. If you remember armas was late getting to ST and there was no other pitcher we could turn to to make the rotation except pelf. While i agree pelf needs to develop another pitch in order to be more effective, I just dont see that happening until pedro or duque comes back. They should send him down and get him some innings to develop his pitches. Like dark said the situation called for pelf to step up as ill prepared as he may have been.
You act as if I don’t make reasonable points. If Pelfrey had a great and varied arsenal and magically lost it, then I would agree that we couldn’t blame the Mets for his lack of development.
He’s never had good secondary pitches. Ever. And he has 176 career minor league innings, which is criminally low for someone that was so raw.
If the Mets were forced to use him before he was ready, then the blame lies with the Mets for not having enough appealing options to keep Pelfrey in the minor leagues and developing.
no i understand your point about his development. What im saying is the mets had no choice but to call him up thus impending his development. Shame on the mets for alot of things but i guess its the sink or swim tactic of the Mets….whayagunnado.
ehh…pelfrey has a good sinker but it often flattens out, especially when he begins to tire and thats when he give up these 2 run hrs or 2 run doubles in the 5th which is what ruins him
Despite his struggles, I am a fan of the Pelf.
I think he needs guidance and confidence, which he seems to possess when he is pitching to Schneider.
He needs to learn to have it even without Schneider, but the fact he can be so dominant with Schneider show how he WILL BE.
Patience.
By the way, hats off to Delgado for wearing a path to the mounds at AZ. His encouragements and breaks are invaluable to pitchers, especially Ollie.
I say that we take the Big Pelf and, ala “A Clockwork Orange” or Axel Rose in the Paradise City video, we strap him into a chair and run Brandon Webb video on a loop between every start.
Not sure the players union would be in favor of it, but as long as we win…
I was ready to eat crow when Pelf started well this season, but boy, he’s back to looking awful.
Watching him pitch is excruciating. He’s never ahead on hitters. He throws far too many pitches per out, and he takes so much time between pitches when runners are on.
I’d rather watch Steve Traschel pitch.
I agree Pelf was rushed. Be that as it may, he is not a major league pitcher right now. He has flashes of it, but he’s just not there.
A lot of good pionts made about Pelf. Overall, I think he really was not served well being rushed to the majors. Even this year, if he could have started at AAA and worked on his “stuff” for a couple of months, he would have been better off.
But, since he is here, maybe Schneider will get him going? If he could get the slider working (remember Atl. last year?) and use the fastballs correctly, he might put it all together.
And maybe the curveball should come out of hibernation, just to show occasionally.
And mostly, use the power stuff to challenge hitters and get ahead. When he is throwing well, he can get a lot of foul balls and broken bats. Just needs that 1-2 other pitches to really put guys away.
His slider isn’t a bad pitch, but it becomes neutralized when he keeps falling behind hitters 2-0 with fastballs.
I’m fully convinced that it’s all head issues with Pelfrey. The stuff is there and if he could just throw more strikes with his fastball we wouldn’t be trying to wrap our brain around Peterson’s tutelage, or his mouthguard, or how much more seasoning he needs. I know, easier said than done.
thank you, everyone has been talking about his secondary stuff for over a year now, and its not that at all, its his fastball. I’m not 100% convinced its all mental, but it definitely is playing a role. The guy is so big and lanky, and that fastball can have so much movement on it sometimes, repeating his delivery and then figuring out where that pitch is going to go is not easy. That being said, he needs to trust it more and just aim for more of the plate earlier in counts.
His fastball would be about 1000% more effective if he had a secondary pitch.
um, his secondary pitches aren’t effective when he’s getting behind every single batter while throwing, you guessed it, his fastball. In the starts Pelfrey has looked good in, he has good fastball control, it usually has little to do with his secondary stuff, because frankly, his slider and change aren’t that bad, and can be effective when he gets ahead of hitters.
Thats Pelf/Perez and to some extent maines problem as well. They fall behind hitters and they just dont have another pitch to fight back but the fastball.
The pitchers who can throw their secondary pitches when behind the count are the aces (just listen to Ron’s constant repetition of Schneider’s quote about being able to call any pitch on any count with Santana on the mound).
It’s not entirely reasonable to expect it of the likes of Pelfrey.
Pelfrey also struggles when he gets a hitter in the 0-2 count, he seams to try and dance around with his changeup or slider and ends up throwing 3-4 more pitches instead of just going after the hitter. I think Schneider has been a huge difference since he’s gained respect from the pitchers because he’s known as a good play caller and pelfrey trusts what Schneider is calling. With Casanova calling the pitches its possible that Pelfrey second guesses the pitch selections and shakes him off or just doesn’t trust his stuff as he’s throwing it up there. I think we’ll see a different Pelf when Schneider gets back in there and starts catching him again.
i think Pelfrey will be fine now that Schneider is back. I just wish Scheider came back a day sooner for Pelfrey and who knows maybe we couldve swept the D-backs but I’ll take 2 out of 3 anyday
The bullpen had more to do with the Saturday loss than Pelf. Yes he gave up 5 runs but the Mets had it at 5 to 4 before the bullpen implosion.
It might not be accurate to assume that Pelfrey’s nibbling. Pelfrey himself said post-game that he wasn’t trying to nibble, he was trying to trust his stuff but his command just wasn’t there.
Well, that can happen, but like he said, that’s three outings in a row now so he’s concerned.
He’s been poor the last three outings, but not out-and-out terrible. I still have hope that he can get it back together, and I don’t think Schneider’s return will hurt at all. I like how Brian sets up a target to hit, and it might help Pelf relax knowing he’s throwing to a receiver he’s had some success with.