There has been a lot of justified whining over the re-scheduling of Sunday night's game from a 1PM to an 8PM affair, meaning a late night cross-country flight without a day off. It's justified because unlike the Mets and the Dodgers, ESPN had matchups to choose from between two teams that weren't traveling anywhere the next day (like the Red Sox and Orioles).But don't blame ESPN for Monday night's brutal loss which featured a six run Giants first inning courtesy of Ollie Perez, because Perez flew to San Francisco at least a day beforehand!
And don't blame jet lag for Ollie Perez's flat and fat fastball, because his fastball has been flat and fat pretty much all season. The only fielders that needed to be awake in the first inning were the fans in the left field bleachers. And I think they had a pep in their step.
And don't blame Carlos Muniz (as Keith Hernandez did) for taking the wind out of the Mets' sails when he gave up four runs and when the game was already halfway out the door in the sixth and seventh. Because Carlos Muniz is a AAA pitcher (literally, as it was made official after the game that Muniz is down to make room for Pedro Martinez.)
Meanwhile, Perez is going to get a gazillion dollar contract next season ... even after Glavining up that first inning on Monday. (I mean really, Oliver ... Brian f***ing Horwitz?)
There has been some discussion from the pundits about whether Omar Minaya needs to make a trade that will change the face of the team midseason, a-la 2004 when Theo Epstein traded Nomar Garciaparra to the Cubs and everybody thought he was insane before the Red Sox went on to sweep the Yankees (in games 4-7) and go on to win the Series. If Minaya is to make a trade like this, it is now painfully clear that it has to involve Perez. No, Perez isn't the pitching equivalent of the 2004 version of Nomar Garciaparra. Nomar, though hurt that season (and every season since) was a .300 hitter in '04. No, Oliver Perez isn't even the pitching equivalent of flippin' Rey Ordonez right now.So no, there's no Orlando Cabreras to be had for Perez. They'd be lucky to get Doug Mientkiewicz (yes, he was part of the Nomar deal). But Perez is going to be someone else's problem anyway next season, as Scott Boras is going to get some sucker to pay Carlos Silva money to get him and his "potential" on the free agent market next season.
He's got potential to throw in-game batting practice is what he's got. And if there's any chance that the Mets could get anything better than the compensatory draft picks they would get by losing Ollie to a city that has his SoCal comfort zone vibe going, even if it's for dimes on the dollar then Omar should really think about pulling the trigger and giving someone other than me (and Rick Peterson) headaches.
21 comments:
And now, the good news: I'm heading out to San Diego this weekend to visit some friends, and we've got tickets to Saturday's game. Scheduled to start for the Mets? Oliver Perez.
Oy.
i'm not opposed to trading perez --his spot in the rotation has offered a weekly tutorial in physical bipolarity -- but exactly who would you get for him?
At his best he's an 80 pitch pitcher, I've clamoring for his removal since April. Someone is going to pay him and I'm pretty sure it won't be Omar. Vargas has as much potential to be a #3 starter as Perez and he doesn't explode at the first sign of adversity.
I would rather get young minor league talent or a bullpen arm for him than picks. Our farm system is a mess across the board, we could use AA guys just as much as compensatory 18 year olds.
Don't sell Ollie short. With his live arm, with his talent, given the right tutelage, he could be the next Victor Zambrano.
I see the whole summer stretching out in front of me, a few invigorating wins, then a series of painful and disheartening losses. I was such a termagant last night after that first inning that my son threatened to write a letter to the Mets, "telling them to play better, because there's more at stake than they know".
Toasty, you could be in for a treat. I was at the Yankee Stadium game in May when Oliver pitched so well - and it seems to me he is settling into a pattern of "every other game I will be chastened by my previous bad outing and actually follow Peterson's advice about my pitching mechanics"
Yeah, e. I'm sure the right pitching coach could fix Perez in 10 minutes...
"Glavining up that first inning..."
Love it.
Gary Dellabate is going to Iraq. His huge green teeth and horrible breath will end the war.
From Willie after the game:
"He's had a couple of those starts where he looks like he gets to the point where he's frustrated with himself. But you cannot allow that to happen. You've got to keep us in the ballgame and tonight he didn't do a good job of that. It was a terrible outing."
Perez is a head case.
Metmaster - Ollie looked like he was frustrated while pitching to the first batter. No joke. I hope that he figures this out.
By the way, I think that his big payday is very much in jeopardy.
Look on the bright side - we were able to go to sleep at a reasonable time after Ollie imploded in the 1st.
Don't blame Keith - he had to try to keep his viewers watching.
Unser,
Keith said it after the game was over and the team was leaving the dugout.
And Toasty,
I bet you Oliver has a great outing in San Diego ... He's said he wants to go back and pitch there so I bet he would look at it as a showcase start for next season.
I wouldn't trade Perez. All he really needs is a good hypnotist.
"When I snap my fingers, you're Steve Carlton".
...or Rick Ankiel. You think we can teach Ollie to hit. Nah, if he has a good start on Saturday we should move his bed into baja while he's sleeping, draw a map for the Padres to find him, grab two single a prospects and rip it home before Million Dollar Password starts.
Did you guys read my post today, or are we just in one of those mind-meld moments?
That was mind meld on my part ... but as you know Toast, we share the same brain (like Ollie and Heilman share the same psychiatric help.)
jeez- its time to fire the therapists then.
Katherine, do we have a diagnosis in the DSM for what ails mr perez?
MD - whoops, my bad. Or maybe he was trying to keep viewers tuned in for the post game show?
As a non-psychiatrist, Demitri, I have no qualms whatsoever about making a wildly irresponsible diagnosis of a person who I have only seen on TV. Actually I had good seats to the game last month - I was probably within 100 feet of him then.
Well, the obvious diagnosis would be "Dissociative Identity Disorder", characterized by:
1. the presence of two or more distinct personality states
2. these personality states recurrently take control of the person's behavior.
3. inability to remember important personal information (in Ollie's case, how to pitch) that is so severe it can not be explained by just ordinary forgetfulness.
Unser, maybe. They were hawking that post game show for a while, telling us "Oh, you stayed up this late so you're obviously a diehard ... you mind as well stay up for MATT YALLOF!!!"
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