First off, I’m not some old-timer* grousing some nonsense like, “Yeah, Tom Gibson threw 300 innings a year in the 60s and he’s in the Hall of Fame.”  I am a firm believer in watching and indeed ‘coddling’ young pitchers. I think there’s a special circle of hell being sized for Dusty Baker’s waistline right about now. I think there’s no doubt that the Mets flat-out destroyed Dwight Gooden’s career, and for that matter they didn’t do Ron Darling any favors either. Protecting pitchers good, abusing pitchers bad.

But is Pelfrey being abused this year? He is going to pitch more innings than he ever has in his pro career. If he averages 7 IP a start over the next five starts, that puts him at 198 for the year, versus 152.2 in ‘07 and 117.1 in ‘06. Sounds bad. But could it be that the innings are getting easier, now that Pelfrey has quit walking the park, and the Mets have agreed to turn the occasional DP behind him? Allow me to steal reference material from Danny:

Pelfrey, 2007: 17.7 P/IP (major leagues only)
Pelfrey, 2008: 16.4 P/IP

When we look at pitches thrown it doesn’t appear as dire. Pelfrey did throw 119 pitches against the Rockies on July 13, working eight shutout innings. Apart from that effort, he’s been right around 100 pitches every time, and he throws some 98% fastballs — easy on the arm. In fact, he’s thrown between 98 and 102 pitches in 13 of his 26 starts, which sounds like he’s actually on a pretty strict pitch count, to me.

It won’t prove anything to point out that Pelfrey isn’t throwing as many innings at age 24 as Pitcher X, whose arm got blown out. Nor would it prove anything to compare his workload to someone whose arm hasn’t been torn to shreds. For every Brandon Webb I bring up, you can bring up an A. J. Burnett. Before long somebody’s going to mention Livan Hernandez, and that’s not good for anybody.

Instead, let me just end with this idea: If there are pitchers on the Met staff who need rest, it’s not the starters — it’s the bullpen. Heilman, Sanchez, Pedro2, even Joe Smith and Scott Schoeneweis pitch in 70 to 80 games a year. And that doesn’t even account for the two times a week where they warm up in the seventh inning, air it out in the pen, and don’t actually make it into the game. That’s their night off.

So I wouldn’t fret if Pelfrey keeps showing up in the ninth inning, as long as he’s cruising. If he’s thrown 135 pitches through eight, though, I’ll go gangsta on Jerry as fast as anyone else.

*But I am old.

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