Last night New York Mets mental patient, I mean pitcher, Oliver Perez allowed three runs in five-plus innings of work in a Triple-A Buffalo rehabilitation start. Today the Mets announced that Perez will rejoin the Mets for a start against the Los Angeles Dodgers Wednesday, July 8. Tim Redding will be moving to the bull pen. Memo to the NY Mets: The guy should be in Creedmoor Psychiatric Center not on a MLB field! He’s lucky he doesn’t hurt himself, or worse, someone else!
Look, no one ever questioned Ollie’s talent. No one ever said that he wasn’t one of the very best pitchers in baseball on days that he threw consistent strikes. Barry Bonds was once quoted as saying that Oliver Perez was the toughest pitcher he had ever faced!
But his career has been filled with too many ups and downs, too many peeks and valleys, too many raw shock tests.
The Padres thought so much of his stuff that had all but declared him as their closer in waiting ready to replace Trevor Hoffman when he first came up. He was going to Mariano Rivera taking over for John Wetland. Then it happened. HE BACAME A BASKET CASE.
They could base an entire episode of “Mental” on him!
He started jumping over the foul lines between innings, talking to himself on the mound (sometimes disagreeing with himself I think?), chewing on the baseball, throwing the ball with a different arm slot each time (just because he could). Then came the walks…. When he gets in one of those (oh my god, I have no idea where this ball is going to go) moments it’s almost Rick Ankiel-like. Remember how uncomfortable that was to watch?
He can be going along mowing down people left and right like Cy Young for 4 innings and then it happens……. a walk on 4 pitches to open the 5th….. then another….. then a dribbler to the mound that the guy beats out to load the bases…. Now it’s 3-0 on the next guy with the bases loaded and then he groves one right down the middle for a blast…. a grand slam. But wait, he strikes out the next three guys! Then the 6th comes along and there is an error behind him to open the inning (now he’s done – he’s lost any ability to focus). A single, a 4 pitch walk, a double clearing the bases……… a 3-0 lead is now a 3-7 deficit. The pitching coach comes out to talk to him……… he speaks but no one is home….. he has no idea where he is at this point…. A 4 pitch walk…… a bloop hit…… a hit batter……. And another bases clearing HR. Inside of 15 minutes the Mets went from up 3-0 to down 3-11.
They run him out there for the next start and he throws a gem……… go figure……. then the cycle starts over.
The Padres couldn’t take it anymore and sent him to the Pirates. He teased the Bucko’s with a GREAT SEASON and then reverted to mental patient form exiling him all the way back to the minors. The Mets were able to have some success with him and now he’s gone off the deep end again.
It’s too much. Too much to take. And all the while I’ve been sticking with this nut job. Ladies and gentlemen, the allure of having Oliver Perez pitch well and his ability to stick it up my ying-yang with no Vaseline when I activate him has probably been the single biggest reason that I annually end up in last place.
God, help me. Please don’t let me activate him this coming week. - Peter Costa
Pete is a serious Rotisserie participant playing the same league with the same guys for 17 years. Not only has Peter never finished in the money; he’s finished last 13 times and no higher than 10th (in a league with 14 guys). Join us in following Peter’s trials, tribulations and frustrations, as he attempts to navigate his way out of the basement in 2009.
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