The success of the Mets rotation this season will depend on health. First, there is Johan Santana. We all know he is recovering from surgery and that the process will still take some time. Though he is showing tremendous strides this spring, he still will be treated carefully as the season progresses.
Other starters like Jon Niese, Dillon Gee and R.A. Dickey will have to not only stay healthy, but stay consistent. If they do that, it will most likely come down to one man: Mike Pelfrey.
His 2010 was a sign of progress, as he posted a 3.66 ERA in 204 Innings Pitched. More importantly, he only gave up 12 home runs. The following season (last year) he digressed. While allowing 21 home runs in 193 Innings Pitched, he posted a 4.74 ERA.
The question with the former Mets first round draft pick, is which Mike Pelfrey will we see in 2012? The answer to that will go a long way to seeing how successful this team overall can be. In his very first start of Spring Training, he allowed four runs in 2.2 IP.
Those runs came primarily on two homers from St Louis Cardinals bats. He settled down to last 4.1 IP, and would have had a respectable line had he not allowed those long balls. While it's true that results like this are not particularly important this time of year, it can be used as a gauge to measure his progress in the offseason.
He used his cutter and changeup as opposed to his sinker. The results were mediocre. His sinker was crushed for the most part when he did go to it.
With all this said, the Mets will be looking very closely at Pelfrey this month to see if he has made any significant adjustments to his arsenal in order to move on from last seasons' debacle.
If this start was any indication, he hasn't.
1 comment:
Pelfrey always blows in Spring Training, even back in 2010, he couldn't seem to find his groove until the season started.
That sinker takes awhile to get the feel of and average pitchers like Pelfrey have a tendancy to have alternating good and bad seasons. My hope is that since Pelfrey will get a feel for his sinker right as the season starts and carry that deep into the season.
He does have the ability to give you fits though, especially after throwing the same sinker over and over again. ATleast Dickey varies his knuckleball speed, Pelfrey just doesn't have a good changeup to keep batters off balance. What ever happened to that splitter he was working on? He doesn't seem to be mixing it in with 2 strikes on the batter to give them something to think about.
Post a Comment