I am really fascinated by this Oliver Perez situation.
According to multiple sources, if New York Mets’ LHP Oliver Perez didn’t show improvement from his first spring training outing on Thursday, the Mets were ready to eat the remaining $12 million on his contract and cut him.
Perez, in his first outing of the spring against the Atlanta Braves, walked three batters and gave up four runs in just two innings of work.
What I find fascinating about the situation is the Mets would need to see anything more from Perez to cut him; as if the last two years of garbage hasn’t been enough indication that this turkey is totally brain dead as one Gordon Gecko once said.
Of course, in classic Mets fashion, Perez wasn’t awful on Thursday. He allowed two hits, no walks and no runs in two innings of work against the St. Louis Cardinals. Despite his marginal success on Thursday, for the second outing in a row, Perez’s velocity on his fastball was in the low-80′s.
To put Perez’s low-80′s fastball in perspective, the Major League average fastball last season for starting pitchers was 90.9 mph. Ironically and, perhaps even more sadly for Perez, follow Met and knuckleball pitcher R.A. Dickey had the lowest average fastball at 83.9 mph.
It’s probably not a good sign when a knuckleball pitcher throws harder than you do. Right now, there are about 500 kids in high school that even throw harder than Perez.
Based on this performance, the Mets will most likely give Perez another shot. I personally think the Mets should cut him and cut their losses.
He is the poster boy (slighted edging out Luis Castillo) for the futility and circus that has surrounded the Mets the past couple of years. The faster they move on from Perez, the faster the Mets can move on from their past.
Perez’s next appearance will likely be March 8, when the Mets have split-squad games against the Houston Astros and Washington Nationals.
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