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Last night on SNY’s Mets Hot Stove, Mike Pelfrey had the following to say, when asked about the day things started to click for him last season:
“I think the biggest thing was believing in myself… Sometimes you go out there and try to do more than your capable of. Finally, in the LA game, and I kind of backed off and just tried to throw strikes and I learned there that, hey, I just need to be myself and I can be successful. I don’t need to do more than I am capable of. And once I learned that I started gaining more confidence, I started having better games, and it just took off from there.”
…i will be the first to admit that i thought pelfrey was destine to be a back-end starter, if not a reliever, but i think that speaks more to my impatience…
…i actually expect pelfrey to take a slight step back at some point next season, because i think that is only natural…this is why i am very much in favor of the Mets signing a guy like Derek Lowe, because i think the additional millions will be worth the consistency he delivers…being able to bank on essentially the same start, game in and game out, from lowe and Johan Santana, will be vital when given pelfrey’s understandable adjustment and John Maine’s recovery from shoulder surgery…
…at any rate, once pelfrey learns how to command an inning, and matures in that sense, be it next year or the subsequent years after, i believe he has the potential to be a Brandon Webb type, if for no other reason than he has a 95–mph fastball to compliment those pitches down in the zone…i look forward to continuing to watch him develop…
To watch all of Pelfrey’s interview with Kevin Burkhardt and Dan Graziano, courtesy of SNY, click here.
Lastly, to watch Burkhardt’s interview with Daniel Murphy from his home in Jacksonville, Fla., click here.
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I can’t believe that Omar thinks his outfield is “set”. Wake up and sign Manny.
That being said, if the Mets can get Lowe and Wolf/Garland, we would be set.
I don’t want to hear about our payroll issues. If the mets do nothing else, I will refuse to go to games and/or purchase ANYTHING that has to do with the Mets. If the Yankees can spend, so can the Mets. Don’t believe the hype that the Mets don’t have the money! It is BS
Is anyone else getting bombarded with pop ups when they come to Metsblog? I think they open up the other SNY blogs. As soon as the main page loads It opens up like 12 more tabs in my browser and I have to shut it down. (This time I clicked on the comments before the main page finished loading).
While I was never in the “trade him” crowd, I was one who loudly suggested that Pelfrey should be sent to AAA last spring to work out the kinks. That he was able to work them out at the ML level, especially given the El Duque & Pedro situations, was a nice surprise.
1 – The Mets offense may very well be set! You don’t think there’s a chance that Tatis/Murphy, Beltran, and Church can end up being a very good outfield? Because they certainly can. Obviously, there are guys who would be an upgrade in LF, but I don’t think they’re horrible without a new LF. I’d rather upgrade at C or 2B to be honest.
2 – Use Firefox and adblock+
Regarding the pop ups, I’m not seeing them perhaps because I’m using Firefox with Ad Blocker Plus.
People, get over it, we’re not signing Manny. And honestly, as good a hitter as he is, he’s an awful defender and the chances of him being worth the money by the end of the contract would be very small. Think Pedro….There are other, cheaper, safer options on the market like Dunn or even Burrell, who would help the offense and would have a much better chance of being good over the life of the contract.
Anyway, in regards to Pelfrey, I loved watching his maturation last year. I think we tend to forget how highly touted he was out of college. I agree that he might regress a little this year, but I also wouldn’t be shocked if he developed even further. He has fantastic stuff, and if he keeps pitching with confidence he’s got a chance to be special.
Mike Pelfrey’s projected 2009 by ME ok guys:
17-6 2.96 ERA 156 K’s 215 Ip..
I also noticed that Pelfrey seemed to stop monkeying around with his off speed stuff and stressing about throwing them for strikes. When things clicked, he threw his fastball 90% of the time, and that’s the way he should use it because of its movement and velocity. Especially considering his goal is to have the batters make contact and beat it into the ground. Offspeed stuff is not that critical for him to succeed with the kind of 2 seamer and 4 seamer he has.
He really doesn’t have the 95 mph fastball anymore, though – not that it’s necessarily a big deal for him if he sits in the low 90s like he did last year. He traded velocity for movement, and it made a lot of the difference.
Chan Ho, excellent observation about the fastball. I concur. I know I (and perhaps most fans agree) that homegrown talent sticking around and doing well is special. I attended Pelfrey’s first major league start, still have the ticket, and cherish it.
Alex,
are you projecting Pelfrey, or Johan?
Look, Pelfrey is a good 4 or 5 pitcher.
Mets need a 2 and a 3.
Maine is coming off of injury and has never thrown 200 innings, so he can’t be a 2. He is a 3.
We need Lowe as the 2 starter, then Maine and Pelfrey 3-4 or 4-3.
That still leaves 5 and believe me NIESE IS NOT A 5!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sign Randy Wolf, put Niese in the minors where perhaps he can develop a 3rd pitch and NOT givwe up a GS home run to a pitcher.
Niese in the rotation is a JOKE
Pelf was one of the biggest suprises of last season. I’ll admit that I was getting sort of down on him too, which also speaks to my lack of patience. He’s going to be a big part of the team this season, so I hope he continues to grow.
(9)
he became a smart pitcher, but to say he doesn’t have that 95 mph is ludacris, i was at that game against houston when he shut them down, he was at 97 mph in the 7th inning.. and to end the game in the 9th he was throwing 96!! he obviously got tired in the end but i think he will have a great year..
(11)
Pelfrey’s..
When Big Pelf was “on,” he was super-exciting. Especially the “PEL-FREY! *clap clap*” game he mentioned. I think this year will be just fine for him.
13-5 3.20 ERA
To use the giving up of a grand slam to an opposing pitcher as a measure of a pitcher’s readiness is not well founded. I was in the stands when Santana gave one up to Felix. I suppose Santana should be sent down?
Pelfrey
33 starts 210 innings
15-8
3.56 ERA
Did everyone get their Holiday greetings email from the mets?
Haplo, he has 2 kinds of fastballs. The 4 seamer he throws up in the zone was 95-96 last year. The 2 seamer (which has the sink and movement) was 91-92. So he really didn’t sacrifice velocity for movement, they are just 2 different kinds of fastballs, one he uses to get groundouts and the other for strikeouts or to get strike calls.
Metsminorsblog has an interview with Kevin Goldstein (baseball prospectus) and he gives a pretty critical view of Nick Evans. Very interesting interview btw, it breaks down a lot of our top prospects.
I’m not sure why everyone is so confident in Maine, I would definitely have Pelfrey in front of him in the rotation. He (Maine) really has trouble going past 5-6 innings when he is healthy, which he hasn’t been able to do thus far. When they were tinkering with the idea of him coming back last season as a temp closer, I was surprised as I think his biggest problem is finishing a batter off. I think he does well to get two strikes and quickly, but then like 10 foul balls come. Does anyone else feel this way?
Of course this changes with the revamped bullpen, but just curious if anyone feels this way a little.
starz31: I received an actual paper Card in the Mail last year… the e-mail thing is appreciated but kind of impersonal :(
(23)
Hey kowalski69, did you used to sit in the Mezz (I forget what section) two seasons ago on Sunday games? I remember seeing your custom jersey and you starting up the chants and such.
Here’s the killer last year for him:
vs the NL east: 3-9 5.03 ERA…
vs the rest of the NL: 10-2 1.90 ERA…
the marlins along were 4-0 against him, other than that nl east he literally DOMINATED!!!
(18),
Thereal,
i’l take that in a heartbeat!!
I still say it wasn’t “confidence” that turned the page for Pelfrey…it was Brian Schneider…seriously look at Pelfrey’s starts before Schneider came off the DL…miserable, and he turned it on in his first start with Brian and never looked back.
The guy can’t hit but unless you want to trade for the even lighter-hitting Jason Kendall we have the best defensive catcher there is.
schneider was not a great defensive catcher last year, his caughtstealing% was a crappy .333 and did not wow me with his defense
I should have been clearer – no doubt, he can dial it up when he wants/needs to, but last year he pretty much lived in the low 90s most of the time. Which is more than fine – it helped him succeed.
F.Calisi: Mezz 18 for 4 years. What’s up bud! Im in Promenade Box 436 his Year, Sundays, Row 1 Seat 24 (Aisle)
(27)
a lot of ppl wanna get rid of schneider, i don’t think he’s the best defensive catcher, but he does call a good game and is unnotice..
Schneider had nothing to do with Pelfrey’s success. Pelfrey did it by himself. And if you think Schneider is “the best defensive catcher there is”, you might want to get your eyes checked.
Mike Pelfrey threw almost 33% more innings in 2008 than he did in 2007 – he went from around 150 in 2007 to around 200 in 2008. SI’s Tom Verducci has pointed out that a 30 inning increase from season to season is quite frequently a harbinger of an injury in the following season, so I am nervous about slotting Pelfrey in as a #2 starter next year. And, I do think you have to be worried about a regression with Pelfrey – not a permanent one, but still. Additionally, I do not like John Maine at all, he just doesn’t seem strong enough to go deep into games often – incidentally Maine increased his innings pitched total from 2006 to 2007 by 29 innings and suffered an injury. Also, Maine seems to me to be an average pitcher.
I look at Pelfrey and Main for 2009 as 4 and 4A starters. The Mets still need to add two better starters than them, or they risk finding themselves in the position they were in September 2007. I fear the Mets are playing whack-a-mole with this team; fix the problem that pops up each previous season, but don’t forecast weaknesses in your team for the coming season.
I think the Mets have to get Lowe and then bring back Perez or get Garland.
I like the Pelf – Webb comparison, let’s hope it works out that way. I’ve thought of Maine as an Oswalt type.
Chan Ho, who’s better? exactly, he is the 2nd best catcher in baseball of throwing out base runners (behind only Kendall) his entire career every single pitcher has called him the best catcher at “calling a game”….what else is there? if you’re in the top 2 of both of those, how are you not one of the top 2 defensive catchers in the game? I mean if you wanna throw Yadier Molina in there, then fine, Schneider is 3rd best DEFENSIVE catcher, and since Yadier and Kendall arent avaialble (and neither of them hit too much either) who please tell me is a better defensive catcher out there?!!/!?!?!?!? and with Reyes, Wright, Beltran, Delgado, Church this team should have enough offense, how many years did we dread having Piazza and LoDuca behind the plate, offesnively it was sooooo nice, but they both lost us tons of games with their defense.
So you also think it was a coincidence that in Pelfrey’s career his #’s when Schneider catches are amazingly better than when Castro or anyone else caught him…OK. And Dan Warthen didnt help Ollie either and Pedro Feliciano can stil lget people out!!! Seriously, where do you find your PCP, I would love to live in that fantasy world, Mets won the Series the last 2 years in it too huh!!!
i agree with Matt that Pelf will slide a little this year. I see him as 12-9 4.20 era and 180 innings. He needs a couple more good years to figure out what he truly will become(back end pitcher or #1/#2 type) The Mets need 2 more starters if they are to compete with the Philthies and this team needs another bat to lengthen out that horrendous lineup after #5 spot. Lots more work to do for Omar before they can say they are equal to the Philthies.
No, Dan Warthen is useful. He probably had a lot more to do with Pelfrey’s success than Schneider considering that Pelfrey’s issue was mental and he was thinking too much about location – something that Warthen stresses not to worry about (whereas Peterson did). And are Pelfrey’s stats really that good when Schneider caught him? Or are you caught up on 1or 2 good games Pelfrey had in April with Schneider before he went on the DL? Because Schneider came back from the DL and Pelfrey still stunk for a while. You give Schneider too much credit. There was simply no excuse for him to miss that ball that would have had Werth out at the plate that would have ended the game. Instead, he missed it and the Phils won in extra innings. Mike Piazza would have made that play.
1. your nuts.
2. if you wanna play the “schneider is bad cause of one play” game than David Wright should be cut because of that strikeout against the Cubs that cost us the game, yup, that was more crucial.
3. Pelfrey turned it on a full month before Warthen was the coach
4. Schneider started the season on the DL wand when he came off is mysteriously when Pelfrey started throwing pitches to good locations. He came off the DL about a m onth before Peterson was fired…hmm…
5. i will listen to Johan Santana, manuel, Omar, etc over you any day as to who is a good catcher.
6. You still didnt name me the better defensive catchers (who are everyday catchers so no jose molina doesnt count) besides Yadier and Kendall, I said he was top 3, you said I was wrong, prove it, give me some more everyday catchers who are better defensively….Vartitek isnt anymore, used to be, but itsnt anymore, same fro Ramon Hernandez and Pudge. And No, the big time catchers Martin, McCann, Soto, etc are better hitters, not better defensively
I don’t think Chan Ho even payed attention to what Pelfrey himself said in the interview.
There was a big section where he deliberately states that Schneider catching him was the main reason for his success this season. Instilling him with confidence and talking after games.
And guierllNO MOta has it right with his # 3 and 4.
to elephants: all that sounds really good if only baseball was ran with monopoly money