It's Time

It's time.  It's time for Mike Pelfrey to emerge from the depths of mediocrity to perform like the 9th overall selection in the 2005 draft should perform.  Yes, he showed flashes of brilliance from the middle of June to August last year.  But now he has to give us a full season.  From the beginning of April to the end of October he needs to be that stud that we've all been waiting patiently for for the last 3 years.  And from what we saw of him last year, I think it's time that we witness this greatness.

Big Pelf came onto the scene in the middle of the 2006 season to mixed reviews.  He only threw 4 big league starts, but his ERA was undesirable and he only reached the 6th inning in 2 of those starts.  There wasn't a strict pitch count with him, he simply wasn't getting the job done.  In a season when the Mets held a very comfortable division lead, Pelfrey just couldn't seem to pitch consistently enough to hang around the majors for an extended period of time.  

In 2007 Pelfrey made the rotation out of spring training and started in the beginning of April, yet didn't record his first win until September.  During this time it had to creep into every Mets fans mind of how could this keep happening?  How could our "phenom prospects" keep turning out like this?  Over the years we've seen so many "superstars" come through our farm system.  We waited on Gregg Jefferies, Paul Wilson, Bill Pulsipher, Jason Isringhausen, Alex Escobar, Lastings Milledge, and Phil Humber to all prove their All-Star talent.  And we waited.  And we waited.  And none of these stars ever turned out to what we wanted them to be.

This is where I thought Mike Pelfrey was headed.  Every time you thought he was taking 2 steps forward, he would take 3 steps back - and in some cases back to Triple A.  But in the middle of June last year he turned a corner.  He not only found his stuff, he gained confidence.  Confidence almost to the point of cockiness, which in his case is a good thing.  To prove this point he started his own feud with Cody Ross and the Florida Marlins.  He showed an inter-division rival that he wasn't the young, inexperienced rookie anymore.  He wasn't going to be pushed around.  He was going to compete and try to dominate every time he took the mound.

Who knows why he turned that corner.  Some can attribute it to Rick Peterson's departure and the fact that Dan Warthen now let Pelfrey bring back his curve ball.  Some can say he started dominating around the time he ditched his ridiculous looking mouthpiece.  Whatever the case may be, he turned that corner.  And here we are on the horizon of the 2009 season hoping that he can continue this momentum.  If he sustains his over-powering stuff that he showed us last year and takes that confidence with him to the mound in every start, he is going to show the world why he was that top 10 draft pick in 2005.  For Mike Pelfrey coming into his own, his time is now.

Mets Blog Writer:  Jeff Bertinetti