Perez

You get the distinct sense that if Oliver Perez can't put it together this year, he probably never will. It's still the bottom of the first inning right now, and Perez has already given up a single, a double, and a home run. Just a little triple and he'll have pitched for the cycle! There's a walk. Oh man, this is SO exciting.

This last week has been promising, don't get me wrong. But if the Mets are going to go anywhere this season, I don't think they'll be able to count on Ollie Perez. Just as I finished that last sentence, Ray Durham pounded a two-run double into the left-center field gap to give the Giants a 4-0 lead. Just as I finished that last sentence, Ryan Horwitz launched an 87 mile-an-hour straight ball into the left field bleachers for the second home run of the inning and a 6-0 San Francisco lead. This is getting old.

In general, I mean. Willie Randolph is out of the dugout and Oliver Perez officially just lasted 1/3 of an inning. That's Tom Glavine game 162 stuff right there...except for the part about Perez not being a Hall of Fame pitcher. But I digress; OP has just been horrible this year. I don't know whether he can't handle expectations, or whether last season really was just a fluke, or whether he really is just a crazy head case, but the exciting, energetic lefty the Mets thought they'd stolen from Pittsburgh has proven to be more of an enigma than anything else.

When you win 15 games one year, hire Scott Boras as your agent, and are entering the walk year of your contract, you have to be pretty special to pitch the way Perez has thus far in '08. Special, in this context, is not a term of endearment. Perhaps it's all part of some elaborate scheme on Perez's part to stay in Queens. He knows the Mets aren't likely to give him a Gil Meche contract. But maybe he doesn't want to pitch anywhere else, so he's doing his best to insure that there's no chance in high heaven he gets a Gil Meche contract, and the Mets will be the only team that wants to sign him.

Next question: is Oliver Perez capable of that kind of cold calculation? I don't think he's very smart. Scott Boras probably is. But I do think that Billy Wagner hit it on the head when he said that trying to talk to Perez about pitching is like talking to a brick wall. Even when Perez pitches well, you kind of get the sense that it's all smoke and mirrors and the slider somehow goes over the plate and it all just finds a way to work out. I certainly don't have any confidence that he'll be able to duplicate his success from start to start; in fact, I've never not been nervous before a Perez outing. Any optimism is always cautious.

Oliver Perez is the pitching equivalent of a really attractive girl with a horrible personality

It just doesn't look like he thinks or cares enough about the science and the head game behind pitching. Where Johan Santana pitches, Oliver Perez throws. And you can't be a consistent and successful major league pitcher by just throwing.

I don't know how much longer the leash is going to be on Perez, but a 15-game winner, however erratic, probably deserves at least a few more starts. The question after that is what the Mets should do if Oliver Perez still can't figure himself out. Send him to the minor leagues? Trade him? Who takes his spot in the rotation? Quite frankly I just hope the kid can realize his immense potential. We've seen it, which is why it's all the more frustrating when he gives up 6 runs in 1/3 of an inning.

****

The Mets did look good on this last homestand. They'll play 7 straight in San Francisco and San Diego, and if this isn't just another flash in the pan they should be able to win some more games here against the NL West's bottom feeders. I can excuse a loss tonight, after the Mets arrived in San Francisco at 4:30 this morning and Perez didn't really do anything to help anyone's cause. In general, I'm trying to hold off on judging the big picture anymore with these Mets, because that's driven me crazy for the last year and the whole thing just kind of keeps repeating itself.

All I want is to see them play well, and maybe provide the added bonus of being fun to watch. The wins usually follow. Two comeback victories in the same week is a phenomena that I'm not used to, and it's really amazing how much it looked like everyone on the Mets just started having a good time in the middle of last week.

****

6-2 in the sixth now. I slotted myself in to watch this entire game, but with a 5:30 wake-up tomorrow morning, it looks like Oliver Perez might have punched my ticket to sleep. It's worth noting that Claudio Vargas pitched magnificently in relief of the lackluster Perez tonight. Somebody wants to stay on the team...


(Image courtesy mikesmets.com)