Asking after Pelfrey

Two good posts on Mike Pelfrey today. Pelfrey has had several outstanding starts lately. Obviously, it would be a major boost to the Mets’ chances if he’s turned the corner on his budding major league career. Peter Bendix isn’t sure the improvement is real, however, noting that his recent starts have come against relatively weak competition.

Meanwhile, David Golebiewski has turned to the PITCHf/x data to see what he can see and finds several things that are different about Pelfrey’s most recent good starts: Increased fastball usage, trading some movement for velocity; modest improvement on the slider and re-introduction of the previously scrapped curveball.

These findings could be indicative of a long-term change, or they could be the byproduct of pitching against inferior competition. His next scheduled start is Tuesday against the Phillies. Should be a good test.