Mike Pelfrey dominates......too bad it's against Single A players

Mike Pelfrey is not a very good pitcher. To call him mediocre is generous. His numbers this year (3-6, a whopping 6.11 ERA) make him one of the worst starting pitchers in the majors this season. He spent a few weeks on the DL and is back with the Twins for a start this weekend against Toronto, but his first game back was a rehab start with the Class A Cedar Rapids Kernels last Monday that I was at.

It was in all likelihood his best start in years, a crisply pitched, 6-inning win against Peoria, with six strikeouts, just two earned runs given up and lots of baffled 20 year old kids who aren’t used to seeing a major league pitcher. The game showed in stark relief the difference between a pitcher in the majors—even a bad one—and a pitcher at Single A.

Pelfrey was a man among boys out there. Before the game even began you noticed a difference in their size. Pelfrey is a 29-year old 8-year veteran, and puberty is long in his past. He’s thick and muscular, wide shouldered, and struck an imposing figure on the mound. Compare his adulthood to a typical Single A pitcher who is thin and scrawny, a wisp on the mound, all arms and legs, still close enough to puberty to be embarrassed by it.

Pelfrey also moved with an efficiency and purpose that most Single A pitchers lack as they try to figure out how to get their bodies to do what they want them to do. He didn’t waste energy moving unless that movement helped him get the ball to plate. Pelfrey pitched with haste, too, getting the ball and throwing it, getting the ball and throwing it, and avoiding three ball counts (he had only two all game).

Single A pitchers take so much time it’s like they’re reciting the Gettysburg Address to themselves between pitches, and three ball counts are the rule.

Pelfrey’s pitches went pretty much where he wanted them to (although he said afterward he was having trouble spotting his fastball at first), the result of all that efficient body movement. His fastball flew with purpose, his breaking pitches moved with sharp determination. They popped in the catcher’s glove with a loud “whump” you could hear in the cheap seats down the right field line.

 

Most Single A pitchers have fastballs that move limply through the air and breaking pitches that threaten to drift away with the breeze. They land in the catcher’s mitt with a muffled thud. It seemed like Pelfrey could put the ball within an inch or two of where he wanted it. With everyone else the goal seemed to be ten inches, maybe a foot.

As a result, Pelfry had the Peoria hitters guessing all night, swinging at pitches well out of the strike zone, watching other pitches go right down the middle without taking the bat off their shoulder. They had obviously never seen a pitcher with such skill and confidence, with no clear weakness to exploit with their level of talent. One Peoria hitter in particular struck out twice on called third strikes that left him so baffled he looked back to the umpire as if he’d help him figure out what he should do.

But the game showed not only the difference between a major league pitcher and a Single A pitcher, it showed the difference between a major league hitter and a Single A hitter, because so many of those pitches that left Single A batters muttering to the umpire are going to be hammered this weekend. Those pitches outside the strike zone that Peoria flailed at helplessly will go for balls against the Jays, and those pitches in the zone that Peoria hitters watched in confusion will be drilled to the gap.

UPDATE: Or maybe he'll take some of that good Cedar Rapids juju with him back to the majors and pitch six shutout innings against the Jays.