Pelfrey and Thole: The Battery That Energizes The Mets

Earlier today, Mike Pelfrey and Josh Thole both appeared on WFAN, with Pelfrey talking to Boomer Esiason and Craig Carton and Thole discussing the Mets with Joe Benigno and Evan Roberts. Both Pelfrey and Thole are enthused about the new regime at Citi Field, offering nothing but positive thoughts on the Mets and the direction of the team.

Some highlights of the conversation with the newly re-signed Mike Pelfrey include the following:

• Although he feels bad about what happened to Jerry Manuel and Omar Minaya, he feels the Mets did the right thing by hiring Terry Collins and Sandy Alderson.
• Feels the rotation is fine, especially with the recent signings of Chris Capuano and Chris Young
• Brushes away doubts that this year's rotation needs work by mentioning that last year's rotation did better than anyone expected.
• Quite pleased with his new contract (one-year, $3.925 million), which represents a significant raise from his $500,000 salary in 2010.
• Says agent Scott Bora$ was pleased with the Mets initial offer of "between $3.5 and $4 million, but closer to $4 million."
• Embraces his new role as the ace of the staff while Johan Santana recovers from surgery.
• Doesn't think the Jets have a chance against the Steelers.

Photo taken by Studious Metsimus staff. That's right, we bad!

Aside from the last comment about the Jets' chances against the Steelers in the AFC Championship Game, Big Pelf gave Mets fans hope that 2011 will not be a disappointing season. He expects to be on the mound every fifth day, regardless of how he feels, and will not make excuses for poor play. He recognized that he had a poor month in 2010 (from June 30 to August 4, Pelfrey did not win a game and gave up 62 hits in 30 innings, leading to a bloated 9.00 ERA over that five week stretch), but vows to learn from that shaky month to be the pitcher he knows he has to be.

Whereas Pelfrey talked mostly about the pitching staff and his own status on the team, Josh Thole talked about every aspect of the team. He talked about the pitching staff as well, but also discussed his hitting style and the outlook for the Mets' everyday lineup. Among the topics Thole discussed with Joe Benigno and Evan Roberts were:

• Expects fire and ambition from Terry Collins.
• Not expecting the starting job to be handed to him.
• Going into spring training with the mindset that he's fighting for a job.
• Likes to hit in the 2-hole, but will hit anywhere TC puts him.
• Won't try to hit home runs, but thinks Citi Field plays perfectly for his type of swing, allowing him to collect more hits.
• Clicked the most with R.A. Dickey, since he caught him often at AAA-Buffalo and always sat with him the day after Dickey's starts to discuss what went wrong and what they can improve upon for the next start.
• Expects Dickey to improve on last year's performance since last year was Dickey's first year as a full-time knuckleballer and has a much faster kunckleball than most other knucklers, giving hitters less time to react.
• Thinks Mets have the bats in the lineup to hit the Phillies' pitching since they have former Silver Sluggers and All-Stars in the lineup.

Photo not taken by Studious Metsimus staff. Guess we not so bad as we claimed.

With the departure of Pedro Feliciano, Mike Pelfrey is now the longest tenured pitcher on the Mets, having been with the team since 2006. With Johan Santana's status for the first half of the season unknown, it will be up to Pelfrey to become the ace of the staff. Other than the aforementioned horrible five-week stretch from late June to early August, Big Pelf pitched like a wily veteran.

Prior to June 30, Pelfrey was 10-2 with a 2.71 ERA. After August 4, Mike was 5-3 with a 2.78 ERA. That's a 15-5 record with a sub-3.00 ERA for 27 starts. Like it or not, the 27-year-old Pelfrey is the leader of the staff. He might still be young, but he's not a kid anymore in baseball terms. It's time for Pelfrey to be consistently good for all 34 of his starts.

As for Josh Thole, he sounds much wiser than his 24 years. He's not taking anything for granted and is willing to learn from the team's veterans. He's cognizant of his role on the team and will not hesitate to talk to his teammates whenever he needs advice.

Until Johan Santana returns, Mike Pelfrey will be the #1 guy in the rotation. For the time being, Josh Thole is the team's #1 catcher. Both players are going to have to bring their "A" game to the table if the Mets are going to improve in the National League East. From what they said today on WFAN, it looks like they're both eagerly anticipating showing New York and the rest of the baseball world that the Mets are going to be a big surprise in 2011.

Mike Francesa And The Case of Roberto Alomar vs. Craig Biggio

Earlier this afternoon on WFAN, Mike Francesa was talking about the Hall of Fame vote when a caller asked him about his opinion on Craig Biggio's chances to get into Cooperstown now that Roberto Alomar was elected. To my surprise (and the caller as well), Francesa said that Biggio should not be elected into the Hall of Fame.

The caller vociferously disagreed with Francesa's statement that Alomar was superior to Biggio in every way, leading Mike to huff and puff and blow the caller's opinion down.

Between every other sentence ending with "Alomar hit 20-something points higher than Biggio" (despite the fact that Robbie's career batting average was .300 as opposed to Biggio's .281, a difference of 19 points on every planet not inhabited by Francesa), Francesa went on to toss random stats on why Alomar was far better than Biggio and why Biggio is not a Hall of Famer. He said:

• Alomar won 10 Gold Glove Awards to Biggio's four.
• Alomar made 12 All-Star teams to Biggio's seven.
• In Alomar's best season, he drove in 120 runs; Biggio's career-high was 88.
• Alomar hit .313 in 58 postseason games; Biggio hit .234 in 40 playoff games.

Okay, I'll give Francesa the benefit of the doubt on the last comparison. Alomar was a better postseason player than Biggio. As a result, his teams were better. Alomar won two World Series and played in the League Championship Series five times. Biggio, on the other hand, didn't even make it to the NLCS until his 17th season in the majors. Overall, he appeared in two League Championship Series and one World Series (losing to the White Sox in 2005).

But the caller was not trying to argue that Biggio was better than Alomar. Rather, he was merely attempting to say that Biggio should join Alomar in the Hall of Fame when he becomes eligible to do so in 2013.

All Francesa did was run down the list of categories that Alomar was better in. Not once did he look at the stats that Biggio was better than Alomar in. In addition, he made no consideration of certain variables that would bring down Biggio's numbers.

For example, when Francesa mentioned that Alomar drove in 120 runs in his best season (1999), he did not say that Robbie was Cleveland's #3 hitter that year (149 starts in the three-hole). The year Biggio drove in 88 runs (1998), he was the Astros' leadoff hitter in 155 games. Many hitters drive in 120 runs or more hitting third in the batting order. Not too many hitters can drive in as many as 88 runs batting leadoff. In addition, Biggio was hitting directly behind the pitcher for most of his career, while Alomar played the majority of his career in the American League, where everyday players bat in the ninth spot.

Craig Biggio played in 2,850 games over his major league career. He was the Astros' leadoff hitter 1,564 times and their #2 hitter 754 times. That's over 2,300 games batting in a spot in the order where you're not expected to be an RBI guy. Yet Biggio found a way to drive in 1,175 runs over his major league career, which Francesa failed to mention was MORE THAN the 1,134 runs Roberto Alomar drove in over his career. Oh yeah, both Alomar and Biggio started their careers in 1988 so they perfectly overlapped each other.



What else did Francesa overlook while he was pounding his chest over Alomar's superiority to Biggio? Let's consider these five items:

1) Biggio scored 1,844 runs in his career to Alomar's 1,508. Only 12 men in baseball history have scored more runs than Biggio. All of them are in the Hall of Fame except for Pete Rose, who is ineligible for Hall of Fame consideration. By contrast, Johnny Damon has scored more runs (1,564) than Roberto Alomar and I don't think the Hall is going to be calling Damon five years after he retires.

2) Craig Biggio hit 668 doubles in his career, while Alomar hit 504. It is true that Alomar is one of only 51 men to ever surpass the 500 double plateau, but Biggio's total is fifth on the all-time list, surpassed only by Tris Speaker, Pete Rose, Stan Musial and Ty Cobb. If they sound like Hall of Famers, that's because they are (except for the man who liked the horsetrack a little too much).

3) Biggio hit 291 HR as opposed to Alomar's 210. Whereas Alomar only had three seasons of 20+ HR, Biggio produced eight such seasons. In fact, Biggio had as many 20+ HR seasons after his 38th birthday (three) as Alomar had in his entire career.

4) For as great a hitter as Alomar was, he only won four Silver Slugger Awards over his career. Biggio did him one better by winning five. Maybe Biggio's extra Silver Slugger Award had something to do with the fact that he picked up over 1,000 extra-base hits over his career (1,014 to be exact) compared to Alomar's 794.

5) Alomar's career fizzled out after he was 33. Once he turned 33, he only hit .262, with 58 doubles, 20 HR, 116 RBI, 167 runs scored and 28 stolen bases. After Biggio turned 33, he hit .266, but had 279 doubles, 139 HR, 469 RBI, 724 runs scored and 68 stolen bases. Biggio actually started driving the ball more as an elder statesman than as a spry youngster.


Now let's stop comparing the two and just focus on Biggio. Tell me these numbers aren't Hall of Fame-worthy...

.281 batting average, 1,844 runs scored, 414 stolen bases, 668 doubles, 55 triples, 291 HR, 1,175 RBI (mostly as a leadoff hitter, which by the way, was the position in the order Rickey Henderson batted out of. Henderson had 1,115 RBI despite the fact that he played five more seasons than Craig Biggio.)

I feel like I'm forgetting something. Something's missing up there that would shut Mike Francesa up regarding his anti-Craig Biggio shpiel. Ah, yes. Now I remember. Come closer to your screen so that you can't miss it.

CRAIG BIGGIO HAD 3,060 HITS!!

The last time I checked, if you had 3,000 hits, you were going to the Hall of Fame, assuming that you weren't on the permanently banned list (you're such a dummy, Pete Rose) or tested positive for steroids. (Don't point your finger at me, Rafael Palmeiro. You know I'm talking to you.)


Alomar didn't make it to 3,000 hits, calling it a career after picking up 2,724 safeties. Even if Mike Francesa ignored all of the other statistics, surely the 3,000+ hits for a non-gambling, non-PED using Biggio would have been enough to make him change his mind on his Hall of Fame candidacy.

But alas, we're talking about Mike Francesa here. Whatever he says is gospel. Who are we to disagree with him? He's the one with the radio show. We're just little ol' sports fans.

Be thankful he's not in charge of the Hall of Fame Committee. If he was, Craig Biggio would have to pay his way to Cooperstown to see all the players he should be enshrined with.