David Peterson made his MLB debut against the Red Sox on Tuesday.
Peterson, 24, was the New York Mets’ first-round pick in 2017 out of Oregon and has consistently progressed through the Mets’ system fairly nicely. Last season in Double-A Binghamton, Peterson struck out 9.47 batters per nine innings while walking only 2.87 batters per nine innings. He held opponents to a .262 batting average.
Peterson compiled 116 innings with a pedestrian 4.19 ERA, 122 strikouts compared to 37 walks, and nine homers. While those numbers aren’t super special, he did feature an above-average pitch ability, especially for a lefty with five pitches. That is very valuable for a team to have and it was reflected in an impressive debut against one of the league’s better offenses in the Red Sox.
Through 5.2 innings and only 78 pitches, Peterson allowed two runs on seven hits, two walks, and three strikeouts.
#Mets rookie LHP David Peterson has been impressive with his release, improved velocity, and solid pitch mix. 5 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 3 K to this point. Very impressive. pic.twitter.com/0LbQJpd0ZV
— Yehuda Schwartz (@yaschwa30) July 29, 2020
The first obvious thing one will notice is the great release point consistency. For a lefty with five pitches to come out from that six-two slot is very effective and impressive. The next point is that Peterson mixed his pitches very well and worked the zone nicely. Aside from his anxious first pitch, Peterson seemed to be very calm and conservative, playing the zone very well.
David Peterson’s first pitch and then JD Davis made a great play to get his first out. #Mets pic.twitter.com/YB6WiryLzK
— Yehuda Schwartz (@yaschwa30) July 28, 2020
Another very encouraging stat was his ability to throw higher velocity. He originally was only someone who can hit 91 mph on his fastball but dialed up until even 94 mph against the Red Sox. His slider and changeup played up into the high-80s which is a good way to keep the batter off balance.
A very cool item was the fact that David struck out JD Martinez not once but twice.
Overall, Peterson threw the ball very well and has earned another look.
“This is something I wanted to do since I was a little kid,” said Peterson. “I couldn’t have asked for much more. This is one of the best days of my life.”
