Oliver Perez took the mound today against the National League’s best starter, Tim Lincecum. Sometimes in a matchup like this, you’ll see some mediocre pitchers unfortunate enough to be in this matchup, at least elevate their performance somewhat. That wouldn’t be the case for Ollie as he delivered one of his worst performances of the season, lasting just 3 1/3 innings and allowing four runs while walking seven batters, throwing a wild pitch, and hitting one batter. It was awful.
Of the 20 batters Perez faced, fourteen of them had worked a three-ball count, including nine straight batters between the second and fourth innings. Perez walked the leadoff batter in the second, third and fourth innings and had absolutely no control of the ball. His pitch count was insane and was all the way up to 98 pitches when Jerry Manuel finally pulled the plug on him.
How do his teammates keep their heads in the game when Ollie is the starting pitcher is beyond me, and when Bobby Ojeda was asked that same question he simply said, “they don’t”.
At this point, can anyone say with any degree of certainty that Oliver Perez deserves to be in the Major Leagues?
Is their any justification for keeping Oliver Perez in the rotation aside from his fat contract?
We keep hearing Jerry Manuel preach how every game is important, and I would counter that if every game is important why is Oliver Perez still allowed to go out on the mound and consistently put this team in a position to lose?
Today’s excuse was the wind, which in case you hadn’t noticed didn’t seem to effect Tim Lincecum’s control one bit, walking two and striking out eight in his six innings of work. Even Bobby Ojeda laughed at that excuse afterward, chiding his co-host and saying “the time for excuses is over and the time for results is now.”
Jerry Manuel said at his post game, that for the time being there will be no changes made and everything will remain as it is.. But he did add that he might feel differently after “chewing on it and marinating on it” overnight. (His words, not mine.)
Oliver Perez prevented the Mets from winning their tenth straight game at home. He as become the “Anti-Stopper” for this team since signing that contract.
In 30 innings pitched he has allowed 27 hits, 25 walks, 6 wild pitches and 4 hit batters. Is there a worse starting pitcher in the league right now than Oliver Perez?
The Mets battled hard and did end up making a game out of it this afternoon despite losing 6-5, so give them some credit.
But as for Oliver Perez, there really is no place for him on this team if the Mets truly want a shot at the post season. Ollie has got to go. I’ve said my piece, now let me hear yours.
