Before we go any further, I need you to do two things.
- Understand this post is not about Mike Pelfrey’s performance in 2011 or whether or not I feel he should play a role in future seasons. Those are topics for another time.
- Read this article by the New York Post’s Mike Puma.
This article reeks of a setup. It reads as if Puma went fishing for something “controversial”, took a portion of what Pelfrey gave him, fed it to the anonymous Met in the piece, and got a reaction he could go to print with.
Take a look at the state of the 2011 Mets and convince me I’m wrong.
- Hopes of the post season are over, so writing about a pennant chase is out.
- The front office has a plan, is sticking to that plan, and is no longer fodder for interesting material.
- The Wilpons have been eerily quiet and uncontroversial since Fred hit bottom back in April.
- Nothing very relevant has developed with the Madoff Mess recently.
- Terry Collins has control of the clubhouse, and all of the players understand their roles and are giving max effort.
What in the world can the media write about to obtain top advertising dollars?
I will give Puma some credit. He does attempt to be fair by including Pelf’s approval of the organization’s future direction, and his desire to remain a Met.
Shame on the anonymous Met quoted in the piece. Regardless of how you feel about how well Pelfrey has performed this season, you should know better than to go off on him in front of a reporter/reporters. Surely you knew said reporter’s motive was to create a controversy to write about. You flat-out have to be smarter than that.
That being said, this is much a do about nothing. Don’t take the bait.
UPDATE: The Day After
For the first time in quite some time I was disappointed with SNY’s Gary Cohen and Ron Darling. I stopped listening to last night’s telecast right before Pelf got drilled with the line drive. Turned the volume off and just watched. It troubled me that no one seemed to pick up that the quote attributed to Pelf was clearly a portion of a larger conversation.
Don’t worry Gary and Ron, you’re still the best in the biz, no one’s perfect.
Don’t get me wrong, Pelf shouldn’t have started talking about this year’s playoff hopes not being realistic. However, I don’t feel it’s fair to bash him without being able to read the entire statement/quote.
Again, why aren’t more people bothered by the “anonymous” teammate?
For the record, here’s Pelfrey’s thoughts about the quote provided by ESPN New York:
As for his comments in the Post, Pelfrey said his thoughts were taken out of context and misinterpreted during what he thought was a positive conversation.
“I didn’t think I said a negative thing,” he said. “That is why I was shocked.”
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