My last post, written a few weeks ago before the Mets-Giants series in San Francisco, was written at a time when starting pitching for the Mets was good, but not great- playoff worthy, but not championship material.
Truth was, the Mets starting staff wasn't getting the job done, and Jerry Manuel was putting too many innings on his bullpen. Since then, there has been a drastic improvement with the starting staff.
After not having a single pitch thrown by a starter in the 8th inning of a game this season, the Mets have had two pitchers go into the 8th this week, including a complete game by Livan Hernandez. John Maine has improved his pitch count management, and Johan has been, well, Johan.
However, the best revelation has been Mike Pelfrey. The 6' 7" righty has had a solid record all season- he started 4-0 and is now 4-1 - but the record was not indicative of his struggles. In Pelfrey's first four starts, he failed to complete six innings and had an ERA of 6.00.
His last four starts have been the exact opposite of his beginning. Pelfrey is 0-1, but sports an ERA of 2.28 over that stretch, allowing only seven runs in 27.2 innings. Pelfrey has also more than doubled his season strikeout total in his last two starts, recording 12 in those starts compared to 11 in the first seven. More importantly, his ERA has dropped to a respectable 3.88 and has dropped after each of his last seven starts.
Most comforting to Mets fans are two things: the team's 7-2 record when he pitches- whereas the team is 7-3 in Santana's starts- and the reintroduction of Pelfrey's curveball.
Former pitching coach Rick Peterson took the curveball out of his repertoire, instead having him focus more on his slider. However, in the last two starts, Pelfrey threw his curveball late in games and it proved effective, allowing him to go an extra inning or two.
The fact that Pelfrey saves his curveball for the third trip through the order, and opponents have had a very difficult time adjusting to the newest addition- well, it's really an old pitch- and it has acted almost like a second wind. Many pitchers today are told to throw everything early and often in games until you can't throw anymore.
However, Pelfrey's use of his pitches gives older fans flashbacks to a different generation, when pitchers held back one or two pitches to dominate hitters late in games.
This new look pitcher has clearly elevated himself to become the second best pitcher on this staff, and if he continues his strong stretch, the Mets could very easily have one of the best 1-2 punches in the National League.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Mets Need Rotation to Step Up
One of the hot topics around the Mets earlier this week was Jerry Manuel's use of the bullpen. Many people argued that he overmanaged his bullpen Monday night when he removed Johan Santana in the sixth inning of a tie game, only to see the bullpen (with help from Jose Reyes' error) allow 6 runs (plus one inherited run of Santana's) in 2-2/3 innings.
While it is easy to blame Manuel for pulling the plug too early on Santana, who had thrown 108 pitches to that time, you also need to lay blame on the starting rotation as a whole. In 33 starts by the Mets staff, pitchers have only completed 7 innings six times, and Mike Pelfrey is the only pitcher other than Santana to have done so, going 7 against Philadelphia and Atlanta in each of his last two starts.
Tonight's starter, John Maine, acknowledged the need for the starters to do better, including himself even though he has pitched well of late, saying, "It's just three good starts in a row, and next time hopefully I'll lower the pitches a little bit and get to the seventh."
Maine has won three straight starts with an ERA of just 2.00 during the stretch, but his high pitch counts have forced Manuel to use his bullpen more than he'd like. Remember, while the Mets were faltering last year and their bullpen continued to blow leads, many pointed to the extensive use of the bullpen earlier in the year as a reason for their late season struggles.
While the talent in this bullpen far exceeds last year's messy bunch, the trend has continued from last season. This season, Pedro Feliciano, who lead the Major League with 86 games pitched last year, has already appeared in 19 games, which is matched by J.J. Putz. Bobby Parnell, Frankie Rodriguez, and Sean Green have been used extensively as well, each notching at least 15 appearances.
Some of that blame must be attributed to Manuel, but the starters must go deeper into games. The Mets pitching staff is good, as evidenced by their 3.95 team ERA, good for 4th in the Majors. However, Mets fans should keep their eye on this statistic: Mets starters currently rank 23rd in innings pitched, while the relievers have thrown the 10th most innings of any team. The bullpen has the 3rd best ERA in baseball, but that won't continue without a major boost from the starters.
While it is easy to blame Manuel for pulling the plug too early on Santana, who had thrown 108 pitches to that time, you also need to lay blame on the starting rotation as a whole. In 33 starts by the Mets staff, pitchers have only completed 7 innings six times, and Mike Pelfrey is the only pitcher other than Santana to have done so, going 7 against Philadelphia and Atlanta in each of his last two starts.
Tonight's starter, John Maine, acknowledged the need for the starters to do better, including himself even though he has pitched well of late, saying, "It's just three good starts in a row, and next time hopefully I'll lower the pitches a little bit and get to the seventh."
Maine has won three straight starts with an ERA of just 2.00 during the stretch, but his high pitch counts have forced Manuel to use his bullpen more than he'd like. Remember, while the Mets were faltering last year and their bullpen continued to blow leads, many pointed to the extensive use of the bullpen earlier in the year as a reason for their late season struggles.
While the talent in this bullpen far exceeds last year's messy bunch, the trend has continued from last season. This season, Pedro Feliciano, who lead the Major League with 86 games pitched last year, has already appeared in 19 games, which is matched by J.J. Putz. Bobby Parnell, Frankie Rodriguez, and Sean Green have been used extensively as well, each notching at least 15 appearances.
Some of that blame must be attributed to Manuel, but the starters must go deeper into games. The Mets pitching staff is good, as evidenced by their 3.95 team ERA, good for 4th in the Majors. However, Mets fans should keep their eye on this statistic: Mets starters currently rank 23rd in innings pitched, while the relievers have thrown the 10th most innings of any team. The bullpen has the 3rd best ERA in baseball, but that won't continue without a major boost from the starters.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)