Oliver Perez... Why?
Wow. First post in 17-18 days. NOT an impressive run for the Glass Man.
Sorry about the lack of posts lately. I don't have a good excuse beyond working a lot of late nights. Hopefully I can get back into a routine of 2-3 posts a week around here, but time will tell.
Anyway, was just watching SportsNite this morning and saw a piece about Oliver Perez's bid to rejoin the starting rotation, or hell, just make the team, in 2011.
In Kevin Burkhardt's words, Perez's velocity was 88-92, a "far cry" from the 86mph he demonstrated in 2010. True, but it's also a "far cry" from the 94-96 he flashed in 2006 when, you know, he was capable of being an effective pitcher.
In the general depressingness that is the Oliver Perez saga is the memory of what we thought we had when we first acquired him. A "throw-in" to the deal that sent Xavier Nady (RIP) packing in exchange for Roberto Hernandez, one Mets official at the time described netting Perez as a reversal of the Scott Kazmir debacle.
Through Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS and pretty much the entire 2007 season (though I note that he really shat the bed against the Marlins that final weekend), it sure looked like the Mets had gotten that most coveted of baseball commodities, a mid-20s lefty with a power arm.
But it all unraveled pretty quickly from there. 2008 was lousy, and 2009-2010 were just atrocious. Now he's perhaps the most expensive, most unpleasant albatross in baseball (aside from Bernie Madoff, of course).
The good news? At this point, it wouldn't even be painful to watch him go to another team and succeed. I think I speak for all Mets fans when I say we just want him gone already.
- A.F.O.M.G.
Sorry about the lack of posts lately. I don't have a good excuse beyond working a lot of late nights. Hopefully I can get back into a routine of 2-3 posts a week around here, but time will tell.
Anyway, was just watching SportsNite this morning and saw a piece about Oliver Perez's bid to rejoin the starting rotation, or hell, just make the team, in 2011.
In Kevin Burkhardt's words, Perez's velocity was 88-92, a "far cry" from the 86mph he demonstrated in 2010. True, but it's also a "far cry" from the 94-96 he flashed in 2006 when, you know, he was capable of being an effective pitcher.
In the general depressingness that is the Oliver Perez saga is the memory of what we thought we had when we first acquired him. A "throw-in" to the deal that sent Xavier Nady (RIP) packing in exchange for Roberto Hernandez, one Mets official at the time described netting Perez as a reversal of the Scott Kazmir debacle.
Through Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS and pretty much the entire 2007 season (though I note that he really shat the bed against the Marlins that final weekend), it sure looked like the Mets had gotten that most coveted of baseball commodities, a mid-20s lefty with a power arm.
But it all unraveled pretty quickly from there. 2008 was lousy, and 2009-2010 were just atrocious. Now he's perhaps the most expensive, most unpleasant albatross in baseball (aside from Bernie Madoff, of course).
The good news? At this point, it wouldn't even be painful to watch him go to another team and succeed. I think I speak for all Mets fans when I say we just want him gone already.
- A.F.O.M.G.
posted by A Friend of Mr. Glass' at 7:54 AM
2 Comments:
I get the Mets want to give Perez a shot to prove he can somehow turn around 2 years of complete and utter failure. I get it because of the $12 million owed to him in this final year of the contract. I understand that the new GM doesn't want to just eat that kind of money without giving him one last shot.
What I "DON'T" get is that they are again bowing to his wishes and allowing him to compete for a starting rotation assignment. It's one thing to keep him on the roster because he's owed so much $$$, but quite another to allow him to dictate what role he competes for. After the '09 & '10 catastrophes that he put together Perez has no right to tell the team what role he will compete for.
Maybe Collins, Warthen, and Alderson know it's just a matter of innings before Perez implodes again and they just want him to see what thousands already know: he can't pitch. I can't wait for the day I check the headlines and read "Mets release LHP Oliver Perez".
"[I]t sure looked like the Mets had gotten that most coveted of baseball commodities, a mid-20s lefty with a power arm."
Were you ever *that* high on Oliver Perez? I suppose that two-year stretch in Pittsburgh demonstrated that he could dominate, so perhaps that's what led to your optimism. But that walk rate -- he gave out 80 free passes in just 177 innings during his banner 2007 season -- meant that he would never be an elite starter. All that said, this is not a particularly pretty ending. At all.
Fortunately, the Mets inked Jason Isringhausen to a deal earlier this week so they should be just fine. (I wonder if Bill Pulsipher is next.)
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