Ollie, It Was Always You...Really

Do you count yourself amongst the Mets fans who always thought re-signing Ollie Perez was priority #1 for Omar?

Here's a virtual hand slap from one brother to another.

Yes, I am happy...very happy. Oliver Perez has 15-18 win upside, is lefthanded, a power pitcher, and he demonstrated a ton of big game moxie in 2008.

I recently wrote a piece that details my thinking, and I want to repeat just a bit of it here:

Yes, there is the old "good Ollie/bad Ollie" stuff to trot out like a worn shoe and debate over until the cows come home.

So why should he stay? The answer is innings.

At the prime age of 27, Ollie Perez is an innings eater, and he has now entered the "pitching prime" zone of 27-32.

In 2008 Ollie Perez had the following innings by month stats:

Months

Direct Link

 I Split         G   GS GF  W  L  S CG SHO   IP
+-+------------+---+---+--+--+--+--+--+---+-----+-
  April/March     6   6  0  2  2  0  0   0  29.0
   May            5   5  0  2  1  0  0   0  30.2
   June           6   6  0  2  2  0  0   0  30.2
   July           5   5  0  1  1  0  0   0  32.2
   August         6   6  0  2  1  0  0   0  38.1
   Sept/Oct       6   6  0  1  0  0  0   0  32.2

For a #3/#4 starter, those are outstanding numbers, and he figures to reliably stay at or near the 200 IP range for the foreseeable future.

Still not convinced? OK, let me throw another stat at you--3.95 road ERA. That figure was 16th best in the NL, and 2nd best among Mets starters, trailing only Johan Santana. Ollie, for all his faults, is a road warrior.

We could go on about how well he pitched in big games, how he fared against our rivals, etc, but the bottom line is the Mets need to make a strong pitch for Ollie and match whatever offer he gets.

Now the good part about all this is that by practicing patience, the Mets are on the verge of signing Perez to what can best be described as a "fair deal". The current numbers being bandied about are 3 years and $30M.

After the season ended most folks thought Ollie was likely to sign for $12M-$13M per season, so $10M a year seems like a reasonable price to pay for a guy with Ollie's stuff and NY pedigree.

There are more questions to be answered in the rotation (I'm still not convinced on Tim Redding, though he is saying all the right things right now and seems like a great guy), but with Ollie back in the fold, the 2009 staff suddenly looks a whole lot better.