Mike Pelfrey

The Tigers inexplicably gave Pelfrey a two-year, $16 million deal last offseason. His strikeout rate has been below the league average every season of his 11-year major league career, and often among the bottom five among league qualifiers. Yet he is guaranteed $8 million to be a long reliever and emergency starter in 2017. We recommend you roster Pelfrey on your team right after you do the backstroke in the pit of a volcano or practice doing headfirst slides across a giant cheese grater because either of those experiences will be less painful than watching Pelfrey destroy your ratios. Just because a major league team insisted on rostering this incredibly replaceable skill set does not mean that you should follow suit.

After two injury-plagued years, Pelfrey finally stayed healthy and had a productive season in the Minnesota rotation. Pelfrey started the season hot with a 2.28 ERA through his first 11 starts. However, he was a bit lucky as he had just a 34:19 K:BB ratio and 63 hits allowed in 67 innings. While Pelfrey didn't completely fall apart in the second half, he had just a 5.23 ERA with a 4.4 K/9 the rest of the season. Pelfrey will join Detroit's rotation after signing a two-year, $16 million deal with the Tigers, but his upside seems limited given his historically weak strikeout rates and lack of stellar control or extreme ground-ball rates to act as a counterbalance.

Pelfrey struggled last season with a 7.99 ERA and just a 10:18 K:BB ratio in 23.2 innings before he was shut down with a sore elbow that eventually required surgery to relieve pressure on his ulnar nerve. The right-hander will compete for a spot in the starting rotation this spring if healthy, but he will face better competition than last season when he made the rotation and he hasn't shown much since he joined the Twins. Since he's in the final year of his contract, the Twins may move him to the bullpen or have him add depth in the minors.

Pelfrey struggled with a 5.19 ERA in his first season back from Tommy John surgery, but did have velocity and strikeout rates close to his career averages. He did improve with a 4.97 ERA and 7.0 K/9 in his final 10 starts, so there's reason to think he'll improve in his second year back from going under the knife. He signed a two-year deal to return to Minnesota and will likely begin the season as the team's No. 4 starter.

Pelfrey made just three starts for the Mets last season, before requiring Tommy John surgery in May. However, he says he'll be ready for the starting of spring training. He signed a one-year deal with the Twins and should begin the season in the starting rotation if healthy. Pelfrey is an extreme contact pitcher without pinpoint control, which could lead to struggles in his first season back from Tommy John surgery.

It looked like Pelfrey had taken a step forward in 2010, cutting back on big innings and reducing home runs allowed. Those strides led manager Terry Collins to name Pelfrey as his Opening Day starter in 2011 with Johan Santana out. That move proved disastrous as Pelfrey struggled with the command and control of all of his pitches from the beginning of the year and never got on track, regressing in the areas he made strides in during 2010. Pelfrey, who earned $3.925 million last season, is eligible for arbitration and his poor year might depress his award enough to warrant the Mets bringing him back in 2012 as the team's fourth starter.

Pelfrey recovered nicely in 2010 after posting a 5.03 ERA during the 2009 season. He won a career-high 15 games and also tossed more than 200 innings for the second time. Overall, Pelfrey's numbers were good, but after topping out at 10-2 on June 25, he struggled for the next six weeks and almost lost his spot in the rotation. The key for Pelfrey is his split-finger fastball. When it's on, it becomes the solid second pitch he needs to go with his sinking fastball. When it stays up in the zone, he becomes a one-trick pony and gets hammered. Pay attention to his pace on the mound and body language as those are also tell-tale signs as to how well he is pitching. Pelfrey continued his career pattern of not giving up key hits with runners on base, so it may just be finding a way/learning to limit the damage. That said, he made solid strides last season in cutting back on big innings and reducing home runs allowed and he should open 2011 as the Mets' top starter with Johan Santana out.

Big Pelf came up extremely small in 2009, failing to build on his success from 2008. The skids really came off Pelfrey's season after his first nine starts of the year, when he was 4-1 with a 3.88 ERA, as he finished 10-12 with a 5.03 ERA and 1.514 WHIP. He allowed 18 homers, six more than last year - and he pitched 16.1 more innings in 2008. Pelfrey's walk rate climbed to 3.2 per nine innings this season from 2.9 in 2008, contributing to the rise in his WHIP from 1.360 last season. Pelfrey had a tumultuous year - he consulted a sports psychologist in May to help him deal with a case of recurring balks and he became a first-time dad, all while fighting to contain a competitive fire that sometimes pushes him over the edge. Pelfrey has a lot to prove in 2010 and is penciled in to the middle of the Mets' rotation.

Pelfrey finally took that next step in his development, having the kind of year Mets fans and his owners had been hoping for, with 19 quality starts in his 32 outings. Pelfrey earned a rotation spot with a solid enough spring coupled with Orlando Hernandez's injury, but struggled early and nearly lost his spot, before turning it around with a brilliant June-August, then faded in September, which may have been due to the nearly 50-inning increase in his workload. Pelfrey's struggles late came when he left his sinker up, which usually does not occur when a pitcher is tired, as he normally gets more downward action on it, but he may have overcompensated for his tiredness by trying to throw harder, resulting in less downward action. Pelfrey learned how to pitch in 2008, dialing down the velocity on his 92-97 mph sinking fastball for better control, and he will open 2009 as the team's second or third starter. If he can find a way to beat Florida, against whom he went 0-4 with a 7.11 ERA, 15 wins could be in the cards.

Pelfrey, who still relies on his 92-97 mph sinking fastball way too often and seems uncomfortable throwing his breaking pitch, lost his first seven decisions before notching his first major-league win in September. Those seven losses came in between several stints in the minors, and after notching his first win, Pelfrey earned two more pitching fairly well before getting blasted his final start of the year. Despite the small strides, his inability to consistently get his slider over for strikes and develop his other off-speed pitches have dimmed his status as a prospect. Pelfrey may get a chance to fill a starting spot out of spring training but he could just as likely be dealt elsewhere or open the year at Triple-A.

Pelfrey, like Philip Humber, signed in the offseaon after he was drafted, but unlike Humber, Pelfrey did not suffer a major injury and was able to advance all the way up to the majors in his rookie year. Pelfrey blew through three levels in the minors, posting a combined 9-2 record while striking out 109 and walking 33 to go along with a sterling 2.43 ERA in 96.1 innings pitched. He possesses a 92-97 mph sinking fastball and can effectively neutralize lefties with a straight changeup. However, after being promoted, he lost confidence in both his changeup and curveball, forcing him to rely solely on his fastball, which hurt him in the majors. Pelfrey strained his right lat muscle in August, sidelining him most of the remainder of the season. He then was unable to work on a slider, which might replace his curveball. He is expected to be 100 percent by spring training where he might compete for one of the spots at the back-end of the Mets rotation.

The Mets selected Pelfrey ninth overall in the 2005 draft. At Wichita State, he consistently blew hitters away with a 92-97 mph sinking fastball and effectively neutralized lefties with a straight changeup. He has become more consistent with his curveball, too. After a similar holdout and layoff, 2004 first-rounder Philip Humber overthrew and needed Tommy John surgery. Hopefully the same won't happen with Pelfrey.