Will the real Mike Pelfrey please stand up?

Remember how I said Mike Pelfrey needed to make a statement last night? Well, I wish he'd retract it. Pelfrey was awful, throwing 74 pitches and allowing 6 runs over 1.1 innings. Needless to say, this outing combined with the currently anemic offense lead to a 13-2 rout in the desert. I have no idea what's going on with him right now, but he seems to have regressed into Crazy Pelf. The quick, efficient pace at which he was working to start the season has completely disappeared, and despite what Jerry Manuel says, I think his confidence has too. Ron Darling made some interesting comments regarding Pelfrey last night. He said that Pelfrey seemed to be aiming the ball rather than picking a quadrant of the strike zone and attacking it. Darling believes Pelfrey has been taking a passive approach to pitching, saying, "You gotta go out and win the games - the wins won't come to you."

I like this theory and attitude. When we talk about pitchers being frustrating, we're saying the same things for the most part: he's not throwing strikes, seems to be afraid to go after hitters, and doesn't have the right mindset on the mound. Right now, Mike Pelfrey is the embodiment of all these things. I'm not sure where or how exactly he lost his way, but he has to get back on track because there are enough tenuous pieces in the rotation as it is - we don't need Big Pelf having a breakdown.

As for the offense... it's just getting depressing. It seems like we can't string together hits OR come through with runners in scoring position. Jason Bay always seems to be slumping - even when he's hitting - and at this point, I'm not holding out hope for any big offensive resurgence. I'm going to consider any production we get from Bay a bonus, even though we signed him to be a major part of the offense. The poor showing in San Francisco didn't worry me as much because at least the Giants are competitive. The Diamondbacks are a last place team - the kind of team GOOD teams beat.

I'll be looking for R.A. Dickey to right the ship tonight. I don't think we could have possibly asked for anything more out of Dickey, but at the same time, I can't shake the feeling that we're rolling the dice too many times by continuing to send both Dickey and Takahashi out as starters.

Post All-Star Break Blues

Things have not been very happy in Mets-land following the All-Star Break. While fans and the team had been counting down the days until Carlos Beltran's return to the line up (which I refused to acknowledge until it actually happened), losing Jose Reyes due to an oblique strain was not a welcomed development. I have no idea why Reyes wasn't shut down leading up to the Break, but I was also in California so maybe there was some phenomenal explanation I just haven't heard since returning to the east coast.

Anyway, four games into the second half the Mets are reeling just a tad. After dropping the first 3 games, they salvaged the series in San Francisco... but only after K-Rod made things horrifically interesting (read: blew his fifth save of the season then recovered for the win in 10 innings). K-Rod - or K-Fraud as he is being referred to in some circles - has just been riding a roller coaster this season. He's also dragging Mets fans along for the ride. As much as I recognize the glaring need for another starting pitcher, the closer situation is going to continue to be a problem unless Rodriguez can figure himself out.

This brings me to my next point: Oliver Perez is reportedly meeting the team in Arizona but will not be activated for tonight's game. It depresses me that the Mets are seemingly unable to grasp the concept of a sunk cost. You know how everyone is always saying that the Mets can't just release Perez because so many teams would jump at the chance to acquire him and then they'd have to watch him be successful somewhere else? Where the hell are all these teams NOW, when the Mets have been trying to trade Perez according to reports? We need to find a starting pitcher so that Hisanori Takahashi can move back to the bullpen and stop pitching like Ken Takahashi. Don't get me wrong, Taka was a shot in the arm at first, but now we're lucky if he survives his second time through a batting order. If that's the case, we might as well start Perez... and Lord knows I don't want to do that.

Big Pelf is looking for a bounce back start tonight after a rough end to the first half followed by skipping a start due to a stiff neck after the flight to California. Having recently completed some cross-country flights myself, I actually sympathize with this, as ridiculous as it may sound. A lot of the Mets' first half success was due to Pelfrey, and if we're going to continue to be successful and consider a playoff run, we need him to return to pitching like an ace once again.