Today in the New York Times, Ben Shpigel catches up with Mike Pelfrey, who is the sole “upper-level” pitching prospect that the Mets retained in an offseason that saw Phil Humber, Kevin Mulvey, and Deolis Guerra shipped out of town, in addition to position prospects Lastings Milledge and Carlos Gomez.

While the Mets rotation is currently set with Johan Santana, Pedro Martinez, John Maine, Oliver Perez, and Orlando Hernandez, Pelfrey knows that he will get his shot at some point this season, and he appears determined to learn from a difficult 2007 and not repeat the mistakes the resulted in a 3-8 record and 5.57 ERA. Via Shpigel:

On the mound, he has vowed not to revisit the tentative pitching style that overshadowed his first month with the Mets. Rather than throw in the mid- to high 90s, Pelfrey said he aimed the ball, diminishing his velocity, and concentrated too much on his secondary pitches. When he rejoined the team in early July, he had better movement on his heavy sinking fastball. Over the remainder of the season, he improved his ground ball percentage by nearly 10 percent (to 67.7 percent from 58.8) and induced 2.09 grounders for every fly ball, compared with 1.43 earlier, according to Stats LLC.