Mack and Company and... Mike Pelfrey

Mack:  $5.675 million... really?

                                                                     Gary Seagren

Gosh old Mike Pelfrey. Well when you consider were paying $137 million to Santana who's won 40 games (and we'll be lucky to get another 15 or 20 wins more) another 36 million for Perez's 3 wins and 45 million for Pedro Martinez's 32 wins Mike's a friggin bargin! Also if he can go say 7 and 5 by the All-Star break what will he be worth in a trade?

Christopher Soto

Correct Mack. Even though Pelfrey did not perform well in the 2011 season, the fact that he threw 200+ innings is a huge deal in terms of money. Not many guys can stay healthy enough to throw that many innings in a season plus Pelfrey does have "potential upside" in terms of his performance in 2010. With those it was anticipated that Boras would have asked for $6MM+ with the Mets probably offering no more than $5.25MM (assuming of course). In Arbitration, there is no negotiation. The arbitrator is tab with having to choose who has a better case for there choice of salary. While, YES he didnt perform, it is well known that the Mets are not in a good financial position and are cutting costs in any possible way. This could have become a negative viewpoint in an arbitrator's eyes that could have swung the decision Pelfrey's way. We will never know because its a common practice for the Mets and most Major League teams to reduce risk and come to agreements ahead of the February hearings. So while a 34% rise in salary may not be justified in the fans eyes its a lot better than a possible 66% possible raise if Boras could have won the case.

Erik Hudson

OK, here's a question.  Since he's a free agent next year and represented by Boras, who will he be saying Pelfrey is a comparable to and how much will he ask for?  Remember he favorably compared Oliver Perez to Sandy Koufax (with a straight face) when he became a free agent.

Christopher Soto

Most likely the most durable, sinker-esque pitcher the majors has had. Boras will definitely be pushing the durability/200 innings every year subject. Based off that he may link him to Jon Garland. As for the sinker-esque park I cant think of someone off the top of my head. (A healthy Brandon Webb perhaps???)

David Groveman

I'm so down on Mike Pelfrey that he's probably going to win the Cy Young to spite me. 

Conrad Youngren

I think Chris nailed the Arby bracket so the signing was reasonable assuming they wanted him at all (that's the real question). 

They obviously did, and 200 IP in 33 starts is 6 per game.  I'm not a fan of the "quality start" stat and my eyes often deceive (they must have wrt Pelfry),  but a 4.73 ERA in 200 IP puts him on the fringe of that category.

Charles Thompson

I think its a disgrace that a pitcher can pitch as poorly as Pelfrey did and still walk away with raise.  Any player for that matter.  You play like shit, no get paid shit.  This is madness!!

Michael Freire

Well, I just finished up my rant about him last week.    I think he is a run of the mill, back of the rotation type pitcher.  Not what was expected of him when he was drafted and someone the Mets could replace with a low cost veteran and not lose much, if anything, at all.     Making things worse is that he is getting almost 6 million dollars at a time when the Mets are slashing payroll and project an entire team payroll of around 90 million dollars.    Something seems a bit off, here.

The only thing I can figure is that the Mets see Mike as an "innings eater" and figure that he will be gone before the games matter again.