Oliver Perez is Like that Crazy Girl You Dated

from MetsLifer.com
We are watching the demise of Oliver Perez and it's in blazing HD. Perez was a 15 game winner last year folks. That's right, the guy you saw last night won 15 games last year.

Hard to believe.

Oliver Perez is like that girl you dated in college. You know the one I'm talking about. It's the girl who you thought was attractive. She seemed fun. You had a good time when you went out a couple of times. And then WHAM! She turned into psycho chick. You might have seen this coming but you chose to ignore it.

That's Oliver Perez.

We knew this was coming, but like many a Mets Lifer, I chose to believe that the 15 game winner of last year was the real Oliver Perez. Blinded? Sure. Naive? Possibly. Optimistic? Unfortunately.

The kid has something wrong in his head. Ron Darling put it perfectly the other night when he said that Perez can look like the best left handed pitcher in the NL in one inning, and then the worst in the next.

Rick Peterson needs to try some zen voodoo, hypnosis, acupuncture or whatever. Because if Perez becomes unreliable then we really only have 2 starting pitchers you can count on: Santana & Maine.

That's no good in a power packed NL East.

Perez starts

Oliver Perez takes the mound tonight for his second start of the season. Perez's first start of the season was in a hostile environment, facing division rival Atlanta in their house and he had an impressive performance. If tonight's start is along the lines of his last, he will be well on his way to fulfilling the ace potential that he's believed to possess. Jeremy Cothran of the Star ledger reports on the development of Perez.

The Mets have put their stock in Perez, and after one start he hasn't disappointed. The left-hander, who locked down the No. 4 spot in the rotation coming out of spring training, chewed up the Braves for seven innings last week. He allowed just five hits, one run and struck out six. He'll get another chance to impress tonight when he faces the Phillies at Shea Stadium.
Here's another key stat from that Braves game: No walks. That pitching line would have been hard to imagine after watching Perez's first start in spring training -- where during warm-ups he beaned a Sports Illustrated photographer with a pitch Bob Uecker would term "Juuuuust a bit outside."
Spring training, however, was where Peterson and Perez got to bond, and where the pitching coach instilled in the 25-year-old Perez the confidence to not be afraid to fail. That was Perez's problem when he first arrived with the Mets on July 31 of last season, after a trade from Pittsburgh. His delivery needed work, he wasn't throwing strikes and he was trying too hard to get by on his lights-out stuff.
"When he came here his delivery was a mess," Peterson said. "It's solid right now. And he's worked incredibly hard, his bullpens have been solid."

Todays Starters

Today's game will be televised on SNY. Spencer Fordin of MLB.com reported the following pitching match-ups.

The Mets will return home to Port St. Lucie, where southpaw Oliver Perez will be matched up against Cleveland's Jake Westbrook at 1:10 p.m.

I hope Perez looks sharper then he did during his first outing. It's rumored that Westbrook will be on the market come July if the Indians are out of it.