Pelfrey has taken step back in 2009 season
It's time to stop playing the "what if'' game with the Mets and start dealing in reality. Face it: The chances of this injury-ravaged team turning its season around are about as good as Jon & Kate getting back together.
That the Mets have started the final two months by losing two of three to the going-nowhere Diamondbacks serves as a timely reminder that we're past the point of assessing this team as a whole.
Now starts the process of breaking down the Mets' individual parts and determining what went wrong.
If you're grading on a curve, Mike Pelfrey gets a passing grade because, frankly, he never got hurt. Gold stars go to anyone in the clubhouse who can say that.
But the fact that he's not Oliver Perez and he's not John Maine does nothing but mask the real truth here: that the guy long billed as a pitching phenom has - go ahead and say it - regressed.
That his 4.75 ERA is more than a run higher than it was at the end of last season only scratches the surface of the problem. His strikeouts are down. His walks are up. He's averaging less than six innings a start. Opponents are hitting .285 against him. Keep in mind, too, that Citi Field is as pitcher-friendly as it gets.
Remember the Mike Pelfrey who went 11-3 with a 2.96 ERA during a 19-start stretch from May 31 through Sept. 5 last season? That hard-throwing sinkerballer has yet to show up in 2009.
If you're looking for a bright spot, at least know that he admits the obvious. That this season so far can be classified as a disappointment.
"This season, I'm not satisfied with the way it's gone," Pelfrey said. "I know I need to be better. I need to be consistent. I know that drives the coaches crazy."
The Diamondbacks entered yesterday's game with a .324 on-base percentage (12th in the National League) and 799 strikeouts (second most in the NL). And when Pelfrey began the game by striking out the side, it certainly looked as if he were readying for a positive day.. But just like far too many other outings this season, Pelfrey's sinker flattened out and he struggled with his command. And he's lucky his final line - three runs, five hits, three walks - was not worse. The Diamondbacks left three runners on in the second and two in the fourth and fifth innings.
"It's kind of frustrating, you know?" Pelfrey said. "The name of the game is going out there and executing pitches, and I got away from that today."
Jerry Manuel described Pelfrey as "just like any young pitcher handling different challenges," and in that respect it is important to remember he's only 25 years old.
But the difficult task in evaluating Pelfrey is balancing the mistakes of his youth and inexperience with the glimpses of greatness from last season. That has been non-existent in 2009.
The way Pelfrey is looking at it, the book on his season is far from closed.. "I plan on finishing strong and being a lot better," he said.
A good start on that front would be becoming more economical with his pitches. The 107 pitches he logged in five innings Sunday was exactly one more than Jon Garland used in nine innings for the Diamondbacks.
Pelfrey believes he knows what he has to do, saying he has to "pound that sinker early in the count." And because he's had success in the majors before, it's easy to trust his words, to believe he knows the answer.
But for a fan base and front office grasping for positives from a lost season, it sure would be nice if they could see some sustained evidence in 2009 that the old Pelfrey does in fact still exist.
