3/9/18

Tom Brennan - BIG PELF, SMALL RESULTS


Tom Brennan - BIG PELF, SMALL RESULTS

Once upon a time, the Mets had a rising phenom named Mike Pelfrey.   Drafted #9 overall in the the 2005 draft by the Mets, Pelfrey brought  big stature (6'7", 240) and big hopes.

He started his minor league career in 2006 - and he pitched in the majors in 2006.  How terrific?  Hopes were really high.

What did the Mets get out of Big Pelf?  Big disappointment, as Mike went 50-54 as a Met, with just 2 solid Mets seasons, in which he won 13 games and 15 games.

Overall in his career, just 68-103, 4.68, with only 838 Ks in 1,476 innings and a pretty high career WHIP of 1.51.

Which means the Mets parted ways with him at the right time, as after his Mets days, Mike pitched like Jay Hook, going just 18-49 for other teams.  

Jay, who toiled for the terrible Mets in the early '60's, ended up with a 29-62 career record, in case you had forgotten.

What does the career of first rounder Pelf tell us about Jake deGrom and Noah Syndergaard?  Nothing.  They are operating at an entirely different level than Pelfrey ever did.  

Will each pitch enough to exceed Pelf's 171 career decisions, though? We can only hope they both far exceed that total.

What does it tell us about Harvey, Matz, and Wheeler?  

We can only hope each does not turn into the next Mike Pelfrey.  It would be painful for them to end up with similar career mediocrity, and we can only hope each of the 3 makes a sharp right turn back onto Ace Street in 2018.

What about Lugo, Gsellman, and Flexen?  

Hopefully as good or better than Pelf in the long haul.  But they've a lot still to accomplish and prove for that to happen.

What does it tell us about Rafael Montero, Kevin McGowan, and Corey Taylor?


The trounced trio surrendered 10 runs quicker than the bat of an eyelash on Wednesday to a 2nd tier Yanks squad, including the Grand Salami that Taylor coughed up..  

Those 3 have a very long way to go to come anywhere close to the mediocre career results achieved by Sir Mike Pelfrey.

In fact, if those 3 combined ever match Big Pelf's 68 career wins and 4.68 ERA in the bigs, I will be shocked.  And, as Mack often refers to me, I am usually the optimist, glass half full type.

Coach Pelfrey is heading on now to be a pitching coach at Newman. His pitching career certainly did not pan out as he and Mets fans might have once hoped, but his accomplishments were decent enough, and I wish him well.

6 comments:

Mack Ade said...

No one had a better fastball that was heading out of the box left and then would come back and hit the corner.

It was unhittable by lefties.

Reese Kaplan said...

As Woody Allen once said (and reminiscent of Pelfrey's new coaching career), "Those who can't do, teach. Those who can't teach, teach gym."

Eddie from Corona said...

well Mack your statement about Pelfrey's Fast ball is why i truly have always said i am not scout...
But what i said after his first year was trade him and trade him now... I saw someone who had a good year that we could fool someone else in thinking he was an ace... to this day we were those fools...

One of the best things i ever read about the good organizations were they needed to be better at scouting their own player than anyone else...
and sometimes that means to maximize an asset is to TRADE it...

Tom Brennan said...

Eddie, thankfully we did that with the Rickey trade.

TexasGusCC said...

I think of Pelf like I think of Duda: Wasted talent on a stubborn mule. Neither was willing to improve or deversify their game, and Pelfrey for all his talent nibbled and nibbled. Don't miss one, won't miss the other.

Tom Brennan said...

Eddie, my bother said the same thing about trading Pelfrey, but at the end of June 2010, when he was overachieving at 10-2. He said the same about Harvey after the 2015 playoffs. No one listened. They should have.

TexasGus, the comparison of Pelf and Duda is a good one...two underachievers, for similar reasons. Between the ears. Sad.