Following up on last night’s thoughts on the Mets’ rotation and their ability to go deep in games, here are the key numbers for the Mets’ five primary starters:
| Pitcher | IP/G | BF/G | P/G | BF/IP | P/IP | P/BF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Santana | 6.81 | 27.88 | 103.35 | 4.10 | 15.19 | 3.71 |
| Martinez | 5.31 | 23.85 | 90.69 | 4.49 | 17.09 | 3.80 |
| Maine | 5.60 | 24.13 | 101.21 | 4.31 | 18.19 | 4.20 |
| Perez | 5.73 | 24.88 | 97.62 | 4.34 | 17.03 | 3.92 |
| Pelfrey | 6.16 | 26.40 | 102.28 | 4.29 | 16.60 | 3.87 |
The thing that really jumped out at me is that Maine has thrown at least 7 full innings in a start only twice this season compared to 11 times for Pelfrey, 6 for Perez and 16 for Santana (Pedro’s done it once). At the opposite end of the scale, Perez has twice failed to throw 2 innings in a start, which pulls down his averages, while Pedro’s injury-shortened first start is the only time any of the others has thrown less than 4 full innings.
As you can see, Santana and Pedro are both efficient with batters, while Maine is extremely inefficient. Pedro’s problems are his lack of effectiveness (the high number of hitters per inning) and durability (the low pitch count), while Maine’s innings are held back almost entirely by the number of pitches he eats up getting through each hitter; he throws nearly as many pitches per start as Santana and Pelfrey.
for the record, is it too late to float a Big Pelf for big time pitcher bid?
He’s been barking about his confidence being the key, and I’ sure it is, for the most part, but his four-seamer gets some credit as well.
He’s no longer a rook with a single pitch (the sinker)
The Maine phenomenon is extremely weird. He’s walking too many guys, that’s undeniable, but more than anything else guys foul off a lot of pitches against him.
His K rate is good, but he has so many deep counts and so many extra pitches due to the foul balls. Not sure what he needs to do to remedy this, but he has to do something.
I suppose a continued focus next year on simply throwing strikes is the best thing. I don’t know.
Pelfrey certainly makes better economic pitches than McCain does.
And seth enters into the post-of-the-year candidacy.
Crank,
This is OT, but concerns pitching — how is it possible that anyone can be considering someone other than Cliff Lee for the Cy Young in the AL?