Ollie Day IGT, 3/3/2011

[Guest Edgy DC]

Dickey never had the fastball that Ollie did.

I didn't suggest he did. I did say that the power/finesse dictotomy is a false one. Perez's slider was always his best pitch, not his fastball.

The team has been working with many pitchers for years.

I don't get how the narrative on the persistence of Oliver Perez's presence has gone from his character failures to his physical ones, without pausing to think, hey, now that we see him struggling to find his velocity again, maybe that stuff about him having a million-dollar arm and and a ten-cent head was wrong and unproductively harsh.

He's not costing them anything to keep or let go. The money is spent. And yet the focus is on him every day. Why? He's just another guy on the fringes, trying.

[Guest The Second Spitter]

His 2010 stats are very comparable to his last season-and-a-half in Pittsburgh.

I wonder if Warthen has given up trying to teach him. It has been remarked to me by people who have observed his mannerisms on TV that he suffers from ADD (and I'm dead serious).

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

The Second Spitter wrote: His 2010 stats are very comparable to his last season-and-a-half in Pittsburgh.

... which, oddly enough, followed another steep drop-off in fastball velocity, from 95-97 in his breakthrough 2004 to 90-91 in 2005.

The problem isn't the diminished velocity, really, though. It's that he's never had control. No pitcher possessing a mid-80s fastball-- whether a flameballer riding into the sunset, or a surgical experiment, or a never-was soft-tosser-- has ever succeeded for any stretch of time without an above-average ability to put the ball where he wants (and/or a knuckleball).

[Guest The Second Spitter]

He seemed to have pretty decent control in 04 with a 1.135 WHIP , which was better than the cheat who won the NL Cy Young. (He actually had better numbers in every category except Wins vis-�-vis said cheat)

[Ceetar]

The Second Spitter wrote: His 2010 stats are very comparable to his last season-and-a-half in Pittsburgh. I wonder if Warthen has given up trying to teach him. It has been remarked to me by people who have observed his mannerisms on TV that he suffers from ADD (and I'm dead serious).

Give him some amphetamines then. win-win right?

That wouldn't surprise me though. Would almost make you feel bad for the guy. Yelling at him for issuing a 4-pitch walk would be like yelling at the 10 year old kid who can't sit still in English class.

I think he'll resurface at one point with another team and have a bout of success though, just not here.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

The Second Spitter wrote: He seemed to have pretty decent control in 04 with a 1.135 WHIP , which was better than the cheat who won the NL Cy Young. (He actually had better numbers in every category except Wins vis-�-vis said cheat)

He was still walking batters like they were his well-cared-for pets-- 3.7 BB/9 (a career-best; 2008's second-best, and no full-year/lengthy-partial-year performance comes close). That's manageable, not great. They just didn't hit him at all, mostly because he struck out guys at rates comparable to prime-years Pedro.

Are you referring to that a-hole who raped a teen Mindy McCready? That he stole at least two Cys is yet another reason to begrudge him any happiness.

[Ceetar]

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: The Second Spitter wrote: He seemed to have pretty decent control in 04 with a 1.135 WHIP , which was better than the cheat who won the NL Cy Young. (He actually had better numbers in every category except Wins vis-�-vis said cheat) He was still walking batters like they were his well-cared-for pets-- 3.7 BB/9 (a career-best; 2008's second-best, and no full-year/lengthy-partial-year performance comes close). That's manageable, not great. They just didn't hit him at all, mostly because he struck out guys at rates comparable to prime-years Pedro. Are you referring to that a-hole who raped a teen Mindy McCready? That he stole at least two Cys is yet another reason to begrudge him any happiness.

When Ollie is ..well, whatever he is.. guys just don't hit him. Walks and Ks like crazy. He's a guy you probably could reach the 6th inning of a game without realizing he's throwing a no-hitter.

When we resigned him, he was either first or second (behind Santana) in strikeouts since 2004.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

By a lefty, maybe?

[Guest The Second Spitter]

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Are you referring to that a-hole who raped a teen Mindy McCready? That he stole at least two Cys is yet another reason to begrudge him any happiness.

Yeah, that's him. All the writers were clamouring for him to win it that year, so he could have one from each league. There was an unparalleled homoeroticism about it -- I think, if I ever meet Jeff Pearlman, the first question I'm gonna ask him is who he voted for that year.

[Ceetar]

The Second Spitter wrote: LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Are you referring to that a-hole who raped a teen Mindy McCready? That he stole at least two Cys is yet another reason to begrudge him any happiness. Yeah, that's him. All the writers were clamouring for him to win it that year, so he could have one from each league. There was an unparalleled homoeroticism about it -- I think, if I ever meet Jeff Pearlman, the first question I'm gonna ask him is who he voted for that year.

I hope they all remember that when it's time to vote for Johan in 2012 for his NL Cy Young.