Ollie Time

Randolph said both Brian Bannister (eight shutout innings Tuesday for the Tides) and Mike Pelfrey, who's expected to come off the Triple-A disabled list this weekend, are "not in the mix" to replace Martinez.

It boils down to two lefties who both have had success in the bigs. Dave Williams is the likely starter, but I do not think there is one person that is not intrigued with Oliver Perez and that would include everyone in the Mets organization. While publicly everyone says next year is the time to watch Oliver Perez, it is undeniable the flame throwing left-hander is secretly on everyone's mind for this season. He is not a rookie and has had big league success. Could he be effective this season with some minor tweaking or does he need a complete overhaul?

In 2004, Perez was seventh in the majors in ERA, fifth in strikeouts, fourth in batting average against, first in K/9, ninth in WHIP, and ninth in SLG% against. If not for Randy Johnson and Perez being on a shitty team, he could of won the CY Young Award. I have seen pitchers toss up years that are clearly an anomaly, but Perez's year was just beyond sick and I have not seen anomaly years that dominant before. His K/9 was always strong and he always had 'stuff', but he put it together in 2004 at a very young age.

John Sickels points out the obvious and says there is hope for him. Sickels also said that Perez was hitting 95 mph and consistently hitting the 92-95 mph range in at least one start prior to the trade. If that is the case and he can keep his velocity up, that is a big boon. However, the problem is that he just hasn't been consistent as Emad has pointed out.

I believe John. But how can he get lit up by AAA hitters sitting 93 with a devastating slider? I understand his command might not be there, but AAA hitters shouldn't be able to carpet bomb stuff like that, even with poor command. Unless, of course, he's just lobbing it in there.

In the first two games at Norfolk, people I trust told me he was at 82-83. I don't know what to believe. All I can say is that the kid is an enigma wrapped in a mystery.

Ollie clearly isn't hurt, but the position of his arm and leg aren't as pronounced as they used to be. That is, his arm isn't extended as far back as it used to during windup. The position of his leg is also closer to his body and less extended. Don't know what this means, but call it an amateur observation.

Another poster had said he was hitting the low to mid 90's in his last start which was very solid with Norfolk. If Perez's fastball is up consistently in the mid to low 90's, I think he should get the nod. I know I wanted to shut him down and have him sent to St. Lucie for rehab and a shrink, but Pedro's injury kind of changes things. Why not let Guy Conti and Rick Peterson get a first hand look at him? Dave Williams may be the safe bet, but with a double digit lead, the Mets should go with the riskier bet with higher upside. Give Oliver a start on Saturday and see if he responds enough to warrent giving him another start or two until Pedro is back. How the Mets play today and Friday might impact who they do actually bring up, but I hope Omar takes a chance on Perez.

Special mention:



You have to love the Microsoft Paint question mark that Sickels put on the baseball card. Classic.

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The chunky one is back.

Heath Bell got the call-up Wednesday to fill Martinez's roster spot. But he knows he could be gone Saturday to open a spot for a starter. He's been shuttled five times between Norfolk and the majors this season – four officially and once when he wasn't eligible and had to head right back to the minors.

How about he stays? Just maybe, he can add something to this bullpen and the Mets sorely need to add another reliable set up man. He can easily replicate at the very least Roberto Hernandez's 1.60+ whip. Just give the guy a shot and regular work. Please....

Darryl is back in the 1986 World Series celebration and it just wouldn't have been right without him.

The guy who admitted to killing JonBenet Ramsey just looks creepy.



Not only does he look creepy, he is creepy.

Asked what happened when JonBenet died, he said: "It would take several hours to describe that. It's a very involved series of events that would involve a lot of time. It's very painful for me to talk about it."

"He said it was second-degree murder. He said it was unintentional," Suwat said. "He said he loved this child, that he was in love with her. He said she was very pretty, a pageant queen. She was the school star, she was very cute and sweet."

Hopefully he gets death by broomsticks shoved up his ass.

John Maine has been pretty impressive so far.

Right-handed hitters have 14 hits and 24 strikeouts in 85 at-bats against Maine. That's a .165 average. But five of the 14 hits have been home runs.

Righties are hitting .165/.193/.388 off of him and lefites are not doing much better with a .222/.325/.319 line with sixteen hits and thirteen strikeouts in 72 at-bats.

From BA:

The Double-A Binghamton Mets lost four pitchers to Olympic qualifying teams, including closer Henry Owens, who will pitch for Team USA. Starter Miguel Pinango may be selected for the Venezuela team, while Puerto Rican lefthander Willie Collazo and righthander Ivan Maldonado will represent their homeland. The Americas Olympic Qualifying Tournament begins Aug. 25 in Cuba, and the pitchers will leave the Mets Sunday.

"To put on the Puerto Rico jersey at the World Baseball Classic was so special," Collazo told the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin. "I have no doubt that it will still be special to put on the Puerto Rico jersey and try to qualify for the Olympics. As much as I want to be here and try to qualify for the (Eastern League) playoffs, at the same time I’ve got an opportunity to play for Puerto Rico."

Quote of the year....

It wasn't. On Tuesday, the Post found another 19-year-old, Christina Alisio, who works in a Philadelphia betting parlor and said she had hooked up with Lo Duca last summer. That qualified as front-page news. "He's all right," Alisio said about Lo Duca's off-the-diamond skills, "but below what I expected."

Paulie Ballgame? Under the bus.

Really, really good reporting by the New York Post hitting the hard issues. It's not like World War III was about to break out or anything at the time of their award winning coverage on the LoDuca non-story.

Phil Humber had a solid outing in Binghamton's loss to Bowie. Humber went 5.2 innings and gave up three hits, two earned runs, one homer, and two walks while striking out nine.

Fernando Martinez, Mike Carp, and Caleb Stewart all went deep in St. Lucie's 7-2 win over Clearwater. Martinez went 1 for 4 with his third homer of the year and his eighth overall, Carp went 2 for 4 with two runs scored and his thirteenth homer of the year to bring his average up to .297, and Stewart went 3 for 4 with two runs scored, a triple, four RBIs, and his thirteenth homerun of the year. Jose Sanchez picked up his tenth win of the year with seven innings of one earned run ball.

Jon Neise threw three scoreless innings with one hit allowed, two walks allowed, and four strikeouts in Hagerstown's loss to Lakewood. He was held to three innings as he was on a pitch count to keep watch on his arm which has thrown 120 innings this year.

Eric Brown and John Ruckle each threw a scoreless inning for the NL All-Stars as Dustin Martin went 2 for 5 with a double and Jason Jacobs went 0 for 1 in NL's loss to the AL-Starts in the NY-Penn All Star Game.