Last night, Mike Pelfrey gave up nine hits, three earned runs, walked three and struck out five in six innings.
…he looked good and looked bad… the good news, however, is that he made adjustments, stuck it out, found his fastball and was able to pitch six innings, when it looked like he might be in for a doozy 
earlier in the night – especially after David Wright booted a ground ball… nevertheless, it’s been a disappointing season for pelfrey…
Pelfrey, said the following to reporters, following last night’s game:
“I definitely need a break, a chance to clear my head and come back next year ready to go. I think any way you look at it, I’ve had a bad year. I’ll try to learn from it and come back next year and set even higher goals than I’ve had this year… and hopefully, I can achieve them.”
…hey, mike, after this season, i think we all need a break to clear our heads…
This season, Pelfrey is 10–12 with a 5.08 ERA in 30 starts, during which opponents are batting .289 against him.
…he doesn’t do the one thing he must do, which is keep the ball down and get double plays, helping to set up his tailing fastball for strike outs, like Brandon Webb… last season, in which he finished the year with a 3.72 ERA, pelfrey got 15 double plays during his 13 wins, but just 14 double plays in games he either lost or got a no-decision… this season, he has produced just 15 double plays all season, nine of which in his 10 wins, with other six coming in either a loss or no decision…
Shut him down or let him throw in relief. Why take chances. He’s only scheduled for 1 more start. Give the ball to Stoner. Maybe he can be lights out in the eighth. You never know…
Give him the Final start. Let him try to end the year on a high note. Let him get his innings up past 180, because that’s what good pitchers do.
Chalk this year up to the Verducci effect. I don’t like these theories because the great pitchers usually are the exception. He went from 73 innings to 200.
To recap what the rule actually is:
Named for Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated, this is a negative forward indicator for pitcher workload. Verducci, who called this the ‘Year After Effect,’ found that pitchers under the age of 25 who have 30-inning increases year over year tend to underperform.
I would say a 130 inning spike followed by an underperforming year by a 24 year old pitcher would fall directly into that category.
Pelfrey did not go from 70 IP to 200 IP, you are leaving out his minor league innings from 2007.
In 2007 Pelf threw 80 IP in the minors for a total of 152.2 so the increase is 48. Which clearly qualifies him for that warning, but its not the absurd increase that you were suggesting.
I wouldn’t be good for him to throw less than 180 IP this year as I would be looking for him to react 210-220 next year. He’ll be 26 next year anyway, but you prefer to see nice gradual increases instead of ups and downs.
actually Pelfrey would make two more starts, the second being on the last day of the season. With Misch out of the rotation they shouldn’t give two starts to Stoner/Broadway.
I can see where Pelfrey packs it in before that final start, but they need to challenge him with things like this. He needs to learn how to be tough when things aren’t going ideally for him. This presents a nice opportunity to do that.
I think to a degree he’s been victimized by poor range in the middle of his infield. With Cora and Castillo manning the middle, a groundball pitcher is done no favors.
I wonder why with that kind of power behind his pitches why he doesn’t strike more people out.
All of his pitches are hard and poses little deception to the batter. They can make some contact easily, even if its just fouling off pitches… just like the issues Maine was having.
Both of them really need an off speed pitch they will use.
I agree about the range hurting Pelf more than others. But Castillo has been ok this year, when last year the Castillo/Delgado combo was much worse than Castillo/Cora on defense. So maybe that’s a push, and its just Pelfrey performing worse this year.
Can we stop making excuses for Mike Pelfrey?!
“Gee, he had some positive. He was good for two innings, so what that he gets rocked in two others!”
Please. Let’s stop babying Pelfrey. He took a serious step back this season. The fact is he needs to get his head on straight, work hard in the offseason and come into spring training ready to be the #2 the Mets think he can be.
If he struggles like this again, then he needs to be traded because the Mets can’t afford to wait on the hopes of something that may never materialize.
I don’t know what good trading him would do, unless some other team over values him and thinks they can turn him around. Right now his trade value is probably as low as it can be.
Pelfrey has reached the end of his draft contract and will be in arbitration after 2010. What you do is to downgrade his role in the rotation and ride out his relatively cheap years. Let him show if he is worth keeping for the more expensive arbitration years of 2012-13. No need to rush to give him away. For the next two years he’ll be relatively underpaid for his performance.
I’mot suggesting you trade him now. I’m saying that if he repeats this performance next year THEN you trade him because he clearly won’t develop here.
Give him back the mouthpiece again.
Pelfrey needs to MISS more bats, period, you can’t get by in the show on inducing groundballs for a living.