I disagree. While Peavy pitched a great game, looking at the Pitch Fx data, Peavy's velocity and slider break were far worse today than they were during his last 9-inning outing in 2009 (May 17).
In the game in 2009, his average fastball speed was more than 2 MPH more than the average for the same pitch in this game. And really, his max speed in 2009 wasn't that much more than his max fastball speed today, meaning that in that game last year he spent much more time hovering at or near the 94 mph mark. Today, he only came close to 94 perhaps 4 times, compared with about 9 or 10 times in May of last year. Not to mention that he threw 62 fastballs in that game last season, and only 29 today (we're talking just 4-seem fastballs here, but his 2-seem today had less horizontal break on it than it did in May of last year).
Furthermore, his slider had more break on it last year (4.79 inch average horizontal break) than it did today (3.53 inch average H-break) despite having similar average velocities.
Finally, if you compare his release points from last year to this year (links to the data below), you can see that he is throwing noticeably more over-the-top now than he did last season, when he tended to favor a more sidearm/three-quarters motion. This could explain the reduced break on his slider and 2-seem fastball, but it could also be indicative of something else: his elbow might be in trouble.
That's what I think is really bothering Peavy, and either he doesn't want to tell anyone about it or the Sox know and they don't want to tell the media that one of their few big-name draws has a potentially serious ailment.
Today,
May 17 2009,
May 6 2009
. And if you want to get technical about it, I think that actually might be "hungover worf" from the beginning scenes in Star Trek: Nemesis, when he is lamenting drinking Romulan Ale at Commander Riker's wedding.
