21
2011
Was Ollie Guaranteed a Spot on the Roster?
An article by 
During the offseason, Sandy Alderson said that if Luis Castillo, and Oliver Perez didn’t earn a spot on the roster, that both of them would be cut. Unfortunately Mets fans, Sandy Alderson is apparently changing his stance on him.
As Terry Collins talked to reporters on Friday, Collins revealed that both him and Sandy Alderson promised Oliver Perez that he will get a chance to win a spot in the rotation or be in the bullpen if he does not win a job as as a starting pitcher.
Rich Couthino of MetsBlog reported,
Meanwhile, Oliver Perez has been promised a shot at being in the rotation by Collins and Sandy Alderson, and, if he doesn’t make it, Perez agreed he will go to the bullpen.
Your joking right?!
I feel that Sandy Alderson and Terry Collins are making a big mistake. Really, this is absolutely disappointing. I don’t ever remember a team promising a player a guaranteed spot on the roster when he finds himself in the tenuous situation that Oliver Perez is in.
I believe that If Ollie wants to stay on this team, he needs to first prove that he can still compete, and out-pitch the rest of the competition. Don’t just give him the spot. Whats that going to prove?
The way I see this is, that the Mets must have some renewed confidence in Oliver Perez. They must feel that he can return to the pitcher that he once was. I can understand that, but why give him the satisfaction that his job is secured?
We’ll have to see if the Oliver Perez of old (the dominant one) returns, or if he will once again be the really bad Oliver Perez of the last two seasons. That is the big question.
If keeping Oliver Perez backfires on the Mets, then it looks like Terry Collins and Sandy Alderson could be in for a quick end to the honeymoon period and a rude awakening for both of them.
About the Author: Brandon Butler
Brandon is currently a MMO Minor League Staff Writer. He is also the co-host of the Mets Madness Podcast on Talkshoe Radio. Brandon lives in Hornell, NY.
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Promised is a strong word.
This sounds like it may be being read into a little too much.
Ollie will start camp with a chance to prove he can start if he fails to impress he will no longer be allowed to audition for the role of a starter.
He then will be asked to pitch in the role of a reliever. He would still have to pitch better than others to make the team as a reliever i would think. In my opinion the only thing agreed to is if he fails to impress as a starter he will then be sent to the pen to try and impress as a reliever.
does ollie have some incriminating evidence against the wilpons or something.it is beyond me why they bend over backwards for that selfish pr***, so much.get that P.O.S. off the damn team.he not even that good, why so much compassion for that douchebag.i just don’t get it.so even if he sucks he will still get a spot in the bullpen.i’ve been a fan for 26 years, they are making it really hard to continue being one.the whole mets organization is utterly clueless.they are in love with OP and i don’t get it.we’ll see how many fans show up to watch OP walk the ballpark every time he pitches.what a joke.Alderson is as big a liar as the rest of them., he fits in perfect with all of them.crooks.
NJ,
Why are you okay with Perez getting a chance to make the team, but you’re not okay with giving Mejia a chance to make it?
did I say I am ok? I don’t believe i did.
Hoe do you know???? You twist words around to fit your warped sense of Aldersonbeing anything different that any other lousy Met GM. FACT: The guy in Florida knows more than a warped mind in New Jersey who can’t accept the fact that Alderson is nothing more than another Wilpon tool. OP on the METS!!!!! PURE UNADULTERATED crap. Spit in every fans face. And you twist words to deny it.
Is everything OK Harry?
I believe I used the words “may be” and “In my opinion”.
Not sure what is it you think I am twisting? I simply said I think he may have read too much into it.
Of course he is guaranteed a roster spot…the Mets are not going to eat his $12 million this year like they have, for the most part, his $24 million the past 2 years…since signing the $36 million contract, Perez has appeared in 31 games (21 starts). They are going to bend over backwards to try to get something out of that contract. Right now, Perez has a better shot at being in the rotation than does Capuano and Gee, and possibly Niese if he has a rough spring training.
Like I said all offseason long to the dismay of many in the shoutbox, there is no way in hell that Alderson will cut Oliver Perez. He is all about getting value and will not accept getting ZERO for the $12 million Perez is owed. IMPOSSIBLE! THAT’S WHAT MONEYBALL IS ABOUT!!!! They will squeeze whatever value they can get out of the 12 million!!!!
You wouldn’t know moneyball if it hit you over the head………..
In one sentence discuss the what a moneyball philosophy is. I say it’s about getting the most value for your money so that you can contend against other larger market teams. What do you say?
Moneyball is a book written by Michael Lewis.
How do you explain Omar not bringing in an established starting pitcher to bump Ollie (or Maine) from the rotation last year?
How do you explain Omar not cutting Ollie when he refused to go down last year?
Omar wasn’t under any financial restraints.
Omar didn’t practice any “moneyball” traits.
agee at some point you will have to cut your love affair with Omar. Get off his stick already. We are discussing Alderson and Oliver Perez.
Maniac, Alderson didn’t sign Perez. Minaya dumped the whole Perez issue on the new regime.
It was a stupid signing. Your saying that because a so called “moneyball” practioner is running the team Perez will remain on it, yet the person who signed him didn’t subscribe to any “moneyball” concepts (obviously) and had TWO legitimate opportunities to get rid of Perez and didn’t.
How can Moneyball be the reason for Alderson keeping Perez when it wasn’t moneyball that made Minaya keep him?
FSCT agee Younhave kissed up to Alderson since day one. Now you are twisting things to ignore the fasct that he is nothing better than POmar. another stool. Paid more to do less than Omar did. Teist the subject to Omar when you can’t defend your false god and master Sandy the fraud Alderson. The guy couldn’t hack it anymore, cwas sent to check birth records and Bud Selig dumped him on Wilpon. Don’t twist today on Omar agee. Omar ain’t here no more. And things are getting worse in a hurry.
I’m not jumping all over a guy who got hired to clean up a mess because he hasn’t continued to do the things that got us into this mess.
He would have been at best my 4th choice but that doesn’t mean I’m going to scream like a lunitic about everything he does or says because I like one stat more than he does and vice versa.
I’m going to root for him to be successful just like I rooted for Omar to be successful. Despite having some serious reservations I didn’t speak out against any od Omar’s decisions until 2008. I figured he knew what he was doing. I was a big supporter of him. I thought we were finally going to get some of our own Vladimir Guerero’s and Omar Vizquels, BEFORE they were on their last legs. That wasn’t the case. Not by a long shot. He spent us into 4th place
You cannot refute any of my criticisms about our short sighted approach year after year so you try to make up lies about me and change things around.
I don’t give a fiddlers f**k what you have to say or think Harry. Your rooting against the Mets because they haven’t spent enough money to make you happy despite having the highest payroll in the entire NL over the last two decades and having three post season appearances to show for it.
Your a spoiled little rich boy admiring the business model of the wealthy, afraid to get their hands dirty by developing their own players instead of hanging around the table looking for scraps from people unafraid to roll up their sleeves, spend some money 4 or 5 years before it pays off and having the balls to prepare ahead of time for teams one, two, three, four and five years into the future.
Your a Yankee lover. Go worship your God Steinbrenner.
Actually last year Omar probably was under a financial constraint
66 M your wrong.
Obviously I knew about the Bay signing…c’mon man..use your common sense.
I should’ve clarifed after the Bay signing, by the time the drama with Ollie occurred – he was probably under financial constraint by that time. sighs.
Considering how you dislike being misinterpreted you really should be more specific.
Big difference being financially restrained in your last couple of months as opposed to your first or all of your months wouldn’t you agree?
Bay was signed last year Bayonne. You know that. Omar has never been restrained financially at any point in his tenure. I think by mid July he was no longer going to be making decisions that affected the team beyond say Francouer for Arias salary dump deals for instance.
He didn’t sign any IFA’s in July this year and that is very telling both for him and for the Wilpon’s.
There is no denying he was able to add 66-80 M in financial commitments for opening day.
What we got out of Bay as a 32 year old wasn’t more than we could have gotten out of a career minor leaguer.
Pinero 2/16 and Chapman 6/30 were two unijured pitchers who would have made much more of an impact than Bay and at half the price and no loss of a draft choice as well.
The honeymoon ended for me about a week after he was hired so I’m ahead of you.
What a genius you are…………
It ended when he didn’t hire a manager with NO MLB experience that you wanted…..that is how a 12 year old reacts.
Yep,
I hate Alderson only for that. That’s it.
A week after Sandy was hired he signed Depo and that was about it… You really hated that move that much?
You must have a really short fuse.
When I figured out that this guy Alderson was 100% hardcore saber/mb and not the moderate he portrayed himself to be at the press conference I knew i wasn’t going to like this guy. And it’s gotten worse.
Yes, he’s so SABR (which is a whole other level of sillieness), that he has hired a whole new scouting deopartment to keep closer watch on the National League.
Even though guys like you would continualy claim he’d only use Google to do his scouting.
Oh, Donal…who sent yu that pathetic line. I want you Sandy lovers to say how great it will be having OP on the team. Afterall lord sandy can do no wrong!!!!!!! You will be hating on him faster than all you two timers turned on Omar and Jerry and willie.
Willie did a good job here, a real good job. He had a team that acted and played professionally, utilized his bench and bullpen very well and until Bernazard exploited a crack between Willie and ownership for his own reasons, things were going well. So well in fact that had Bernazard not done what he did the poorly made over bull pen never would have mattered until the post season. Wagner might even have been available by then.
Jerry did a real good job in 2008 too helped in part by Delgado rediscovering his ability to punish an inside belt high fastball. With the kind of bench Manuel had to work with in 2009 and 2010 his options included hopeing no one got hurt and hopeing no one got hurt. That’s it. That’s not a good plan and it becomes a truly impossible plan when people do get hurt.
When theses guys had something to work with and were injury free things went well. Willie had a bullpen that under him had three relievers qualify as Type A free agents in 2006. If that doesn’t indicate expert utilization of the pen I don’t know what does.
When you lose one of the three to injury, 2 of them to free agency, lose your closer to injury, lose Oliver, sign Schowenweiss and resign Moto despite knowing his only success to date was under PED’s, well I don’t know what Willie was supposed to do. For that matter I don’t know what Connie Mack, John McGraw, Sparky Anderson or anyone else could have done either.
Every other day a different reliever would blow the game, he tried everyone. His aged rotation led to too many starts by guys named Sosa, Lawrence, Williams, Park and Vargas. His LFer played 2/3 rds of the season his 2nd basemen 1/3rd, at 40 and 37 years of age that couldn’t have come as a surprise.
Seriously, what are you talking about?
Bayonne has used the Bill Palscke gem of referring to guys like Depodesta as “Google boy”, as if it is an insult. He’s also echoed the claim of Yankee mouthpiece Mike Francesa that “moneyball guys” don’t want to use traditional scouting.
I don’t see how Francesa could get this one as ludicrously wrong as he does so many other things.
The number of scouts employed under the Minaya regime went down every year. Last year they had one scout for the entire NL.
Alderson has 1 scout for 3 organizations (top to bottom)
Scouting is making a return to this organization, not the other way around and not a minute too soon.
I never said Moneyball guys don’t want to use traditional scouting so that’s wrong right there.
I can’t speak for Francesa although I doubt it very much he would say something like that unless it was in the context of an off-the-cuff comment.
I would like to hear the transcript that says this…………all heresay at this point and open to interpretation and if there anyway to twist it so it looks bad for the team that’s what the “experts’ on this board will do.
HAS A CHANCE………..
it seems like to me they would rather lose with ollie, then pay him not ot play.doesn’t matter that he costs us games,we owe him 12 mil. so he will play regardless.that’s why this team loses more than it wins. all about the money not WINNING.
I have to disagree it’s all about the money. If that were true, OP wouldn’t have been signed for 36 MIL to begin with.
why do they keep giving him a chance time after time.why keep a player on the team that is detrimentle to the teams success.OP is bad for the team. he had one decent year with us. why do they keep hanging on to the pipe dream that is OP’s career.i just don’t understand why they would keep a player like that around.where i come from, if u don’t benefit the business ur gone.
Sandy keeps on giving signals that Ollie will make the team yet Sandy also keeps giving signals that good young talent that is hungry and that may be ready to help the team now is going down to AAA before one single Spring Training game has started.
Go figure. What a genius.
If you’re referring to Mejia, I don’t think those are signals. I think that is pretty much set in stone. He’ll be starting in AAA, as they’ve already made that decision. Same with Tejada, if reports over the winter can be believed. I can only assume the FO doesn’t expect either one is ready.
I don’t have any problem with either of those decisions. I’m not expecting to see Mejia pitch lights out this spring anymore than I’m expecting Tejada to suddenly turn into an offensive threat at the plate. I’m also assuming that what they saw rest of the season last year and any winter ball played didn’t lead them to believe either one had made enough strides yet.
mejia is an entirely different situation. They want him to build up strength (innings) in the minors, as most young SPs do. Very abnormal, no matter how he looks in ST, to take a guy coming off 82 IPs last year (and a late season injury) and pencil him into the rotation and expect to get 180 innings out of him.
A better example might be Gee. If they told him he was going to AAA, no chance to win a job, then it would make no sense.
ollie is a guaranteed MLB contract. Those guys get every possible opportunity to win a job (or show enough to get traded). Even at the expense of a very young prospect that might have to go back to the minors to at least start the year.
that is not sabermetrics or moneyball. it is the way “old fashioned traditional” BB has been run for ages.
Agreed.
Saw an article last week where they discussed the last few spots on the bench and in the BP are usually more about roster considerations than maybe talent. As in who might be a Rule V guy they don’t want to lose, or who is out of options they might not want to take a chance on losing.
I’m not disputing Perez has been a major disappointment and waste of that 36 MIL signing. I think we’re all in agreement there.
My only point was I don’t believe it was all about making money (and winning be damned) in the Wilpon/Minaya era and I don’t believe it is now either.
ST isn’t over yet. I’ll not condemn Alderson for keeping him on the roster until it happens.
Do you realize that you disagree with any published report and even exact quotes that seem to point to a problem with the Mets? Why should anyone take a popcorn stuffing, cotton candy eating, Koolaid drinking Mets fan like you seriously? You’re a Mets pimp Marla Hooch! You dont have an objective bone in you. It’s hard to have a debate with a Mets billboard like you.
OH NO – you mean I disagree with a blog? WOW – that makes me a pimp. There is no debating with people like you, you had your mind made up before a pitch was thrown this year.
You should look up the word objective……..
Yeah Maniac, Minaya dumps this problem in Alderson’s lap and despite Ollie not costing him a single win, or a single roster spot during the season, your all over Alderson.
At least Omar had Duquette clean up Phillips mess before he came on board. Alderson had no such luck.
He’s got no money to work with and he’s got 12.5% of his payroll almost guaranteed to be useless, 23% coming back off injury, 8% in it’s walk year, Another 8% hopefully in it’s walk year AND coming off injury AND criminal charges.
That’s 51.5% of his payroll on something a lot less than a sure thing and a certain percentage of that is considerably less than a sure thing and it’s HIS fault?
Left off Santana. Another 20 M or another 14%. That’s 65.5% of the payroll legitimately questionable (to say the least) almost 2/3rds of his inherited payroll and it’s all his fault. Right.
StevePopper: Ollie looked pretty good throwing BP – got a “Good job, Ollie” from Sandy Alderson.
big deal he looked good in BP,he usually does.then he’ll face live batters and throw the ball all over batters box.
LoL, No I guess another GM would say after the 1st week of camp “you suck and I have to pay you $12M as well?”
lmao
Don’t most of Ollie’s appearances turn into batting practice?
No, he never gets the ball close enough to the plate for anyone to actually hit it!
No surprise at all. I knew sandy wouldn’t cut Perez loose.
That is because you know everything.
Hey Marla,,, al it took was use of your brain to know that Sandy Alderson would do anything and agree to anything to stop checking those birth records in the DR. If he was still such a great GM why was that the only gig he could get until the desperate Wilpons went to small market Bud for help.
It’s like my promising that Ollie will be a bum again this year. It’s likely but not 100% guaranteed. If Ollie sucks wind again, how CAN they give him a job?
@dave upstate, exactly, if a player doesn’t perform he should not be on the team,regerdless of how much he is making.unless sandy just refuses to eat his contract.
This is the type of nonsense hysteria that is produced when people get their information on quotes based on 8th hand information distributed by twitter!
If you bothered to get your news from the horses mouth and listened to what Terry said you would know that he didn’t guarantee him anything but a CHANCE to pitch his way into the rotation and if not a CHANCE to go to the PEN!
You guys are just pulling for strings to find things to complain about!
Miserable bastards! LOL
No no – this means he is now going to bump Pelfry and be named opening day starter. Didn’t you hear? It was on twitter and my neighbor’s brothers’ cousins’ myspace.
LOL YEP!
I have a friend of a friend who has a cousin who works at Citi Field (Hot dog vendor) who is married to the sister of the cousin of the aunt of a guy who lives near Oliver perez and has a dog who pees on the same fire hydrant as the dog for Perez’ agent and that dog once crapped on the lawn of a guy who got a tweet saying Perez has gotten a lifetime contract just to piss off met fans!
You can BET ON IT!
I heard Dickey was getting released to make room for Ollie on the roster.
Your joking right? R.A. Dickey was one of MLB’s biggest surprises last season. There is no WAY he is getting released after signing a new two-year deal. Plus, if this were to EVER happen, then Sandy Alderson is an complete joke.
Yes. I’m fairly certain he was joking. Call it a hunch…..
I keep overestimating the internet
Did everyone give up Reading comprehension for Lent?
This just in. Mets blog is reporting that Alderson has locked up Perez for another two years with a vesting option.
Details to follow.
Details are slowly emerging from the inner sanctum of Digital Domain Field. Paul DePodesta has been furiously playing with his wireless mouse and has unearthed some sophisticated but little known sabermetric equations that purport to show that Ollie is due for a quantum leap to the top of the NL pitching leaderboards.
XBA X (RS-SPIA) = H+L+O+B X W (XIP) X ^&$#
Well you know you can say a lot of bad things about Perez but he probably does have a VERY high OBP! lol
Sandy Alderson…. NOT HIS OWN MAN. HIRED TO TURN THE METS INTO THE PIRATES…… Hey agee.. enjoy all those perez starts…make sure you go to every one. you deserve to throw your money into this team. Go broke. Afterall that’s what the Wilpons did to Teufel and Koufax. Unlike you, they didn’t deserve it.
Thanks Harry, I will, and the first thing I’ll do is buy everyone a nice cool refreshing mojito and we’ll all toast you inbetween every base on balls.
yeah maybe, i just hate the thought of that douche being on the team.we have enough problems we don’t need any more.
the quotes are not saying what you guys think they are saying.
I read this twice again to make sure (having read it yesterday), but I did not interpet it the same way.
I saw that he is being given a chance to win a rotation spot (as he should), but that if not, Ollie would be willing to pitch out of the pen (not that he actually has a choice int he matter, unless he wants to retire).
Did not take this to mean that the team was saying he would be in the pen.
Agreed
of course!
Folks,
Spring Training JUST started with not a game pitch thrown. We all might be getting ahead of ourselves. If we start the seacon and Ollie is still on the team and NOT pitched well, then we’ll know what ownership has told the GM.
And same thing with Castillo.
Yeah definitely MetsTheroy. I feel that if Ollie remains with the club, and he pitches like he did last season, then i feel Sandy and Terry made a HUGE MISTAKE (that was what i said in the post). That was what really caught me by surprise. I thought that going into spring training that Oliver Perez would have to earn a spot on the team, but then i read on MetsBlog that Perez is being promised a spot either as a starter or reliever.
With all due respect but I think your misinterpreting the quote.
With all due respect I think you’re the one misinterpreting the quote. You are the one that seems unwilling to take a straightforward comment at face value. The burden of proof is on you to prove that what he said was not what he meant. Present your evidence.
LoL, Now that was funny.
“burden of proof”??? lmao.
“Meanwhile, Oliver Perez has been promised a shot at being in the rotation by Collins and Sandy Alderson, and, if he doesn’t make it, Perez agreed he will go to the bullpen.”
The word “guarantee” doesn’t appear in the quote anywhere.
Xtreem, it pretty much means its guaranteed. If he doesn’t get the rotation spot, he goes to the bullpen as a reliever. So pretty much it means its guaranteed.
You see that even in that statement there is a discrepancy though right between “pretty much” and “guarnteed”?
I don’t see that at all? How do you see that? Perez said he’d go to the pen. Where do you see the Mets said he’d go to the pen?
Just so there is no confusion Xtreem is refering to this exactly if I am not mistaken.
“Perez agreed he will go to the bullpen.”
“Perez agreed” not the Mets agreed.
Right. I don’t see the Mets acknowledging anything except that Perez will get a fair shake. That’s all.
Breaking News Bulletin!!!
2+2=5
It’s true! It was posted on Twitter! a very reliable source!
Oh and look it says it on a blog as well now! How much more evidence do you need to believe 2+2=5?
ollie looking good in his BP sessions is actually a positive. There are still teams deseprate for SP. We just need ollie to look respectable, and one of those teams to drop a couple more guys to injury, and maybe they can finally unload him.
there are also 6 weeks left to go. Plenty of game action for Ollie to show that he is still Ollie.
but frankly, as much as many fans hate his guts, the best thing that can happen to the mets is that Ollie gets back to his 07/08 form, and has a good year in the rotation (as in, it could make the overall team better, for more wins).
look at it this way. pretty much everyone on the board considered him gone already. And some, like Bayonne, are adament that the FO needed to add more/better SP.
well, the 2007/2008 version of ollie is better than any of the other affordable SP FAs from thsi past year (harang, Penny, etc.) And comparable to garland, De la Rosa, etc (guys that got Ollie level contracts).
so if by some miracle he spent the winter working on getting his stuff under contral, and can translate it to the mound, it would help. Low probability, but no lower than say Webb actually pitching effectively this year!
Pump and dump. Minimal salary relief, a grade C prospect to be named latter with the chance for something better if he actually does something is all you can hope for.
Personally the later Duncan gets his hands on him the better chance for a wild card we have. You never know. Randolph/Peterson got something out of him La Russa/Duncan might too.
Ollie for Albert straight up?
In what universe?
We’ll just get the Cards FO drunk…really drunk.
Larusa is in!
I think we are a bit past the point of getting something for him…
At best he does well and manages to contribute something albeit hardly 12 million worth.
He would have to be Cy Young for anyone to change their mind about him now…
Cmon not even a bag of balls?
Would you give up your bag of balls for him? lol
I wouldn’t give up my ball bag for any ballplayer.
LOL
For those interested in what was REALLY said…
“Collins said the lefty made clear that he would do whatever the team asked of him, but said he preferred starting. The manager and GM decided to grant Perez an opportunity to compete for a rotation spot, rather than begin spring training ATTEMPTING to make the team as a lefthanded specialist or long reliever.
“He said he feels great and is determined to put the last couple of years away,” Collins said. “He said, ‘I want a chance to make this club as a starting pitcher.’ I said, ‘You’ll get that opportunity. If it’s not working we’ll talk about it as we get into camp and we can always make the switch.’”
By “the switch,” Collins meant moving Perez to the bullpen, but the team can also decide to release the lefty, rather than retain him for the final season of a three-year, $36 million contract. Last season, Perez seemed unable to continue in professional baseball, losing six games and winning none, and posting a 6.80 ERA.
”
And in case you can’t read here it is in Video for the rest of you!
http://web.sny.tv/media/video.jsp?content_id=13112881
he should not be given any more opps. he’s had the last two years to get his act together, he’s getting worse.he used to throw mid nineties now mid to upper 80′s,with no control.we don’t need that in capacity.
The only direct quote in here is from Metsblog. Really, hanging on the words and speculations of a blog? Give me a break people.