Nothing to say..... Start #1 in 2009 4/9 - Loss

Well, I haven't posted on here in a while, and I honestly dont feel like starting now - but since Ollie had his first real start of the year yesterday, I figure I should make some comments....

Before we get to yesterdays debacle:

1. I am glad the Mets chose to resign him. I was rooting for the Mets or Yankees to sign him - mostly because I live in NY, and get to see every game on TV. I would have settled for the Braves as TBS does play a lot of games - but if he went to the West Coast I would never get to see his entertaining brand of baseball. Most people hate him because of the inconsistancy - although I want him to show the Cy Young Award talent that he has, and allow my investment in some of his cardboard to payoff - part of me loves the ups and downs. You never know what you are gonna get and it entertains me.

2. Of all the players in baseball - I think the WBC has hurt Mr. Perez the most. He was in the last 'showcase' of international talent in the Spring of 2005 - right after his brilliant 2004 and it ruined him for all of 05 and 06. He had pretty good years in 07 and 08 and now in 09 he pitches in the WBC again and he falls apart. I say VOTE NO OLLIE IN WBC 2013!!!!!!

As far as yesterdays game goes - I was not able to watch the game as I was traveling for business, but was able to listen in the car. I was driving from Albany to Westchester, listening on 660am, and watching the gamecast on my Blackberry. The gamecast is nice because you can see where the pitches were exactly, the speed, and the type of pitch. The radio guys are great - but they never talk about the things I like to see when I listen/watch Ollie pitch. The first main issue is obvious:

Ollie's velocity is way down right now. Most people would bring up the control and the 5 walks - but that is not concerning to me. Ollie thrives on not letting the hitters hit the ball. If he leads the league in walks while he allows 0.8 or 0.9 hits per inning (or better) - It really isn't all that bad. BUT when his velocity is down - it takes that effect of the movement away and he becomes hittable. The gamecast from mlb.com had several of his pitches hitting 90 and 91, but hovering at 88 and 89. The radio guys said he never hit above 88, and he was hovering around 85-86. Thats a big difference. I think mlb.com might have been a little more accurate because the did mention hearing some pop in the catcher mitt - but hey you never know.

I believe that he will get his arm in shape, and the velocity will be back to hovering at 90-91 with occational bursts of 94-95 like he always has done in the past.

Anyway - the first inning was a 10 pitch inning - with a K - and I thought to myself - this is going to be a good outing. Then in the second inning he struk out the side. I gotta tell you I started to get excited. I started thinking to myself - well there have been 2 non-K outs so he maxes out at 25 for the game.

Then the wheels fell off. He gave up a walk to the number 7 hitter. Its always a mistake when you let the lead-off man on for any pitcher - but for Ollie it can spell major trouble. This made him shift from the nice rocking motion he had going to the stretch - and the next couple of pitches were WAY off. He ended up battling through the AB and got another K. My confidence started to come back. Arroyo made a pretty good bunt, that Ollie fielded and almost threw into RF but was saved by a long stretch from Cora who was covering first. This play amped Ollie up, and again his control suffered. When McDonald came up with runners on first and second Ollie battled the account to 2-2. He threw a slider that the gamecast showed in the strikezone, and the radio guys thought was a strike ... but the unp didn't see it that way. With a full count the batter hit a RBI single, bringing up Votto. I really think that this was the end for Ollie. He should have been out of the jam giving up no runs - but now he had given up a run, had almost thrown one into CF and was bleeding pitch count. Enter Joey Votto and with the 0-1 Ollie hung a slider that from the way the radio announced it, might still be rising and on its way out of the solor system.

I pretty much wanted to turn of the radio right then and forget that he was pitching, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I listened for every pitch he threw and turned the game off when he was yanked in the 5th.

Ollie - if for some reason you ever read this - work with Johan. Work with Warthen. Get you motion down pat - if you can do that the world is your oyster. If not you will be sentanced to many more days of listening to the NY Media then you will get an all-expense paid trip to Kansas City in the off-season for some young minor leaguer. And I can't deal with that because I am so entertained watching you pitch!

Season stats after game#1



.......... IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA
Perez (L, 0-1) 4.1 5 8 8 5 7 1 16.62