Olliver Perez Collection Update

Since Ollie has been doing his best Victor Zambrano impression so far this year, I have had the opportunity to pick up a bunch of additions to my collection on the relative cheap! Actually REAL cheap. It will either bring down the average cost per card I have and help me dollar cost average the investment for maximum profit, or it will just be a few more dollars I have thrown into worthless cardboard.

Lets hope the renewed confidence and wind-up help as much as I think it will!

Here are some cards I have added recently:

2002 Leaf Rookies and Stars AU (NNO/175)
2002 Donruss Fan Club Credits (036/100)
2002 Bowman Chrome Draft Picks BGS 9
2002 Bowman Chrome Draft Picks Refractor (X2) (163/300 and 286/300)
2002 Bowman Chrome Draft Picks XFractor (046/150)
2002 Bowman Chrome Draft Picks Gold Refractor BGS 8.5 (29/50)
2002 SPX AU (690/825)
2002 Donruss Elite Extra Edition Turn of the Century (X2)(XX/75)(0027/1000 and PSA9 0078/1000)

I have also purchased a 2002 UD Victory card which I haven't yet received and was paid for almost 3 weeks ago, another 2002 Upper Deck Ultimate Collection that was paid for about 4-5 days ago but have not yet received, and the ones that has upset me the most:

another 2002 Bowman Chrome Gold Refractor. The seller claims his son bent the card and I should decide what I want to do. I got the card for cheap enough where I might still want it, but still it is upsetting. I may just ask for a refund. That has to bode well for his other gold refractors though. If one was destroyed - then only 49 reamin in good condition.

I have a pretty high percentage of the total of all of Olivers Rookie cards. This brings me back to thr though of what would happen to the percieved value of his cards if my house burned down. I mean if I own about 5% of all of his cards in existance and they all suddenly were destroyed wouldn't that be similar to say the Honus wagner card that is worth so much because of the recall?

Metsblog and their mid-season grades ...

Metsblog.com is currently doing a great piece asking the fans to give each of the players on the team a mid-season grade. The results are sometimes comical as many of the outspoken metsfans have pretty much lost all faith in their team. Seeing Johan Santana get a vote for an F for instance his comical as even after a low first half he is still one of the best pitchers in the game ...

Here is the link to their current piece on Ollie:

http://www.metsblog.com/2008/07/01/poll-mid-season-grade-for-oliver-perez/#comment-236958

As of this moment, Ollie has received a C with 51% of the votes and a smattering of other choices. I too voted a C. In the comment section I voiced my reasoning:

Comment by gutterkizmet
2008-07-01 14:39:23
I am still probably the biggest Ollie Fan out there - I have the olliverperezfan site to prove it - that being said:
I gave him a C - probably higher than he deserved, but even in school your are graded on the final exam more heavily than the breadth of the entire work - what have you done for me lately.

If you look back through the posts you will see I predicted the great start against the Yankees - mostly because of their lefty centric line-up. The Yanks sat most of their lefty’s and he still pitched lights out - being the reason I gave him a C instead of a D. (I predicted he would do great and the Mets would immediately offer him to the Yankees for some MLB ready talent as they Steinbrenners use the “if you can’t beat em, buy em philosophy”

The change in his wind-up with the back and forth instead of right to left, combined with the hitch at his belt, and the center of the rubber thing might end up being the fix he needs. The confidence he displayed on the mound with the K of ARod and others made me a believer again.

Isn’t a VORP around 0 basically saying he is league average? Isn’t average a C?

Anyway his stuff and his latest outing give him a C. His next outing against the Phillies will determine his final grade though:

Great outing with 0 or 1 walk and 0-1 ER will push him up to a B.
Outing with 0-2 walks and 2-3 ER will keep him at a C (Hitter friendly park)
Any more than 2-3 walks will push him to a D
If his fastball goes back to 89-91 will probably make him a D too
A Shelling will make him an F and probable tradebait or minor leaguer.

Then I also added this:

Comment by gutterkizmet
2008-07-01 14:57:03
BTW - I still say C average considering what I just looked at:

National League Average:
ERA: 4.24 (Ollie: 4.96)
W/L%: .500 (Ollie .545)
K/9: 6.8 (Ollie 7.6)
BB/9: 3.5 (Ollie 5.1)
WHIP: 1.40 (Ollie 1.47)
BAA .262 (Ollie .243)

He is a little worse than avg in ERA
He is a little better in Win%
He is much better in K/9
He is MUCH worse in BB/9
His WHIP is withing a standard deviation of AVG.
His BAA is better than AVG.

All in all - if his new motion can give him better control than he will be much better than AVG - but for the first half I would say he looks like the average pitcher. Perfect for a 3-4 slot guy, great for a #5 - with the potential to be much much better.

What do you think?

Great Outing Against the Yankees and Collection Update

Yes, I am still the worst blogger of all-time.

Great outing against the Yanks with the new windup. A little crazy still from the stretch.

A bunh more cards including another gold refractor. I will post scans soon ...