Welcome Back Ollie!

Whew! Another Met returns from the World Baseball Classic free from injury.

Mexico was eliminated from the WBC by Cuba, allowing Ollie to come home to la familia--his real family.

His "Classic" was anything but. All told he allowed 7 earned runs and 5 homeruns in 6 2/3rds innings of work.

I did a blow by blow scouting report of his final outing here, and Ollie was not impressive at all.

There were three main things I noticed about Ollie while following him in the WBC.

1. His off-speed and breaking pitches were all over the place
2. His motion is more inconsistent than ever, with varying release points and none of the step back rocking motion that he used with success in the second half of 2008
3. He competed hard--for all his faults, Ollie is a battler

My thoughts on Ollie's return are simple--once he is back in the fold, working with the Mets staff, he'll regain the consistency that will enable him to win a good chunk of games in 2009 and beyond.

He had no trouble reaching the low 90s with his fastball--his issues were all about control.