Pelfrey’s has improved the command of his fastball, particularly down in the strike zone, and he has integrated a curveball into his repertory again. That came at the recommendation of Dan Warthen, who succeeded Rick Peterson as the Mets’ pitching coach on June 17, and Pelfrey recalled exactly why he stopped throwing it. During a bullpen session in September 2006, Pelfrey failed to throw a strike in 19 out of 20 pitches. Afterward, he said, Peterson told him never to throw the pitch again.I went on an interview the other day where I had to write some code on a whiteboard, which is the worst way to gauge programming prowess - me in a monkey suit, they with their grimaced visages watching the guy in the monkey suit make all kinds of mistakes he wouldn't ordinarily make because he's nervous and in a monkey suit - and they didn't want to hire me because of my poor grasp of the programming language.
Now, I'm no pitching coach, but if I saw a guy not throw a pitch for a strike 19 out of 20 times, I'd make the guy try to throw it for a strike for another few hundred times before declaring the pitch off-limits.
We could've spared ourselves so many losses at the hand of Pelfrey and his one pitch of varying speeds and unvarying flatness that made me and so many other fans grimace ourselves.
