Mike Pelfrey |
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Michael Alan "Mike" Pelfrey (born January 14, 1984 at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio), nickamed "Big Pelf," is a starting pitcher for the New York Mets in Major League Baseball. He is a 6' 7", 230-pound right-handed power pitcher.
After his junior year at Wichita State, Pelfrey entered the June 2005 amateur baseball draft. Having chosen Scott Boras as his agent, there were concerns that Pelfrey would hold out or require a higher-than-market value contract. The Mets selected him with the ninth overall pick, even though he was projected to have gone higher than that. After six months of negotiations, the Mets signed Pelfrey to a four-year major league contract on January 10, 2006. The deal reportedly included a $3.5 million signing bonus and $5.3 million in guaranteed salary.
Pelfrey began the 2006 season on the Single-A St. Lucie Mets, going 2-1 with a 1.64 ERA in four starts before being promoted to the AA Binghamton Mets. With Binghamton, he was 2-1 with a 2.66 ERA and 55 strikeouts in 47 1/3 innings over his first eight starts. He throws a hard four-seam fastball at speeds up to 98 mph, a sinker, a two-seam fastball, a curveball, a slider, and a circle changeup.