Oliver Perez Meltdown

Tuesday’s nuclear meltdown of Oliver Perez in Shea Stadium has an important potential impact on the NL East as the Mets are counting on Perez to hold down the fort till Pedro’s bionic arm heals. Perez is nursing the uneven balance between an ace’s arm and a George McFly mind that has inspired many in the business to toss in their two cents. Perez’s talent has been the lost pirate treasure for many the gold thirsty pitching coach and columnist, each with their own interpretation of the treasure map. After Tuesday’s multi walk extravaganza, the theories were bountiful even if the reward wasn't.

• David Lennon over at NY Newsday’s Metsbeat blog recaps the performance, as Paul LoDuca feels the Phillies were just patient hitters and Rick Peterson pulls the “Chewbacca defense” out of his back pocket, comparing Perez to the stock market.
• Bill Madden at the Daily News bullets out theories and excuses from numerous personnel.
• Steve Keane at the Kranepool Society asks for patience.
• John Delcos from the Journal News theorizes that Ollie is not mean enough and searches for answers.
• The NY Times focuses on Ollieworld not having his usual thunderstorm after the terrible outing.
• On SNY during the broadcast, Ron Darling and Jerry Koosman gave their two cents:

Koosman: “He was simply trying to aim the ball, instead of throwing it. When you try aiming it, you'll lose velocity. He threw 94 and went down to 87 with his fastball. When I got into trouble like that I just threw harder and it helped.”

Darling noticed his arm was slightly lower in his delivery, like he was almost throwing side arm. It's just a matter of him locking down his mechanics and getting into the habit of pitching the "right" way. They also mentioned Rick Peterson had him pitch over and over in side sessions, literally stopping him if he gets into his old routine.

Other Mets tidbits:

• Toasted Joe’s came up with the greatest nickname ever for Ambiorix Burgos. The fans in Kansas City should appreciate the “Amburglar”.
• If you haven’t read the Jose Valentin Experience you’re missing out. This has helped make “’stache” a cult hero in New York. Employees of the Ground Round salute you Jose!
• The Mets are looking at Todd Williams as a possible salary dump pickup.

By Nik Kolidas

Comments

[bsox21]

As the resident Oliver Perez expert and one who attended the game, a few things:

1) Ollie was getting squeezed in a big way.

Eaton was getting a HUGE strike zone compared to Ollie.

Yes, righties and lefties get a little more room to one side of the plate than the other, but this was an extreme case.

Cuz of Ollie's reputation, along with who knows what, Ollie gets squeezed a lot in the bigs.

2) Ollie was extremely frustrated at the umps interpretation of the zone after the first 2 innings.

He was notably pissed off and u could in his body language that he thot he was getting robbed on calls.

You had to be at the game to pick this up.

3) His arm got flatter as he got more frustrated and stopped pitching altogether after a while.

Due to pouting, he jus started throwing and sort of "gave up".

The tiny Oliver Perez strike zone comes and goes. It seems a group of umps out thre, have simply decided that he will only get 70% of the plate as a strike zone.

It really is this simple.

[JerseyMetFan]

It's not nearly as cut and dry as you think. I saw the game, and Ollie was all over the place. He was squeezed on maybe 4 pitches, but even Johan doesn't get calls sometimes. That's part of the game. Some guys can overcome it and dominate, others fall apart like Ollie.

It really is this simple.

[Ripwa]

Alright, I am no Ollie expert like bsox but i did watch the game on tv. While i agree he was getting squeezed, i really didn't notice a "HUGE" difference between the 2 pitchers strike zones. Eaton did walk 3. I just don't understand you love for this guy. Yes, he can pitch great, but he is never going to be a consistant pitcher.

By the way, wasn't this game on Wednesday?

[nrmax88]

I guess the silver lining here is tht it is still extremely early, and oliver perez' meltdown was not nearly as bad as it could have been. 7 walks and only 3 runs, the mets still had a chance to win the game. Now, not to make excuses, but it was freezing and it was the 1st home start of the season for ollie. I think we give him a mulligan if for no other reason then look at his last 2 starts, the game 7 gem, and his game 1 very good start, where he walked nobody by the way. I still have faith in oliver.

[nrmax88]

I guess the silver lining here is tht it is still extremely early, and oliver perez' meltdown was not nearly as bad as it could have been. 7 walks and only 3 runs, the mets still had a chance to win the game. Now, not to make excuses, but it was freezing and it was the 1st home start of the season for ollie. I think we give him a mulligan if for no other reason then look at his last 2 starts, the game 7 gem, and his game 1 very good start, where he walked nobody by the way. I still have faith in oliver.

[plh903]

Wow. I just read 1,000 words on this and have no idea what happened. That's tough to do.

[jdt58]

I am from pittsburgh and still a big ollie fan; though I do debate whether he was actually getting squeezed at the plate the other night.... I will say this guy has the most amazing stuff when he is on. I am 25 and hands down he threw some of the best pitching performances I ever saw in my life. In 2004 not only did he win games and throw strikes; he left a lot opposing hitters completely baffled. I myself am still puzzled as to what happened to his pure dominance and even with his struggles sad to see him traded away in 05. But I do believe and it has been mentioned that too many people tried to put their two senses into his form and pitching mechanics. If I were the Mets, I would ask Perez to pitch the way he is most comfortable, make minor tweak or two and then let him pitch the rest of the season without any changes. In 2005 the Pirates would no longer let Perez pitch from his Preying Mantis stance when he had 2 strikes on a hitter. The Pirates felt it messed up his pitching mechanics. I believe this decision was a mistake on the part of the Pirates. Becoming a Text Book player does not always equal success. Most managers in baseball were textbook players in ever faucet of the game but a lot were mediocre bench players. I don’t believe textbook techniques always equal success. Look at Julio Franco....he found a way to stick around without exactly textbook techniques at the plate. Well, best of luck with Ollie Ny.

[PeteRose]

"As the resident Oliver Perez expert and one who attended the game, a few things:

1) Ollie was getting squeezed in a big way.

Eaton was getting a HUGE strike zone compared to Ollie.

Yes, righties and lefties get a little more room to one side of the plate than the other, but this was an extreme case.

Cuz of Ollie's reputation, along with who knows what, Ollie gets squeezed a lot in the bigs.

2) Ollie was extremely frustrated at the umps interpretation of the zone after the first 2 innings.

He was notably pissed off and u could in his body language that he thot he was getting robbed on calls.

You had to be at the game to pick this up.

3) His arm got flatter as he got more frustrated and stopped pitching altogether after a while.

Due to pouting, he jus started throwing and sort of "gave up".

The tiny Oliver Perez strike zone comes and goes. It seems a group of umps out thre, have simply decided that he will only get 70% of the plate as a strike zone.

It really is this simple."

^ This is completely insane