Awful Oliver

Wow. In his last start, there were some positives to take out of Oliver's start. This game? Not so much. He was not missing by much last start, but he was all over the place to say the least in this start. On paper, his command was better with a higher strike to ball ratio, but his command was horrible. Much worse than his last start. When he was missing, he was missing badly. His problem of too many three ball counts to pitchers continued and he allowed fourteen baserunners in three innings and only struck out one.

"The problem was the location," Perez said.

You don't say....

As for Paulie Ballgame, this game was probably the eqivalent of two games catching. When you catch a guy like Pedro or Glavine, you put up the mitt and the ball hits the mitt. Good stuff all around. When you catch a guy like Ollie with the command he had last night, you are continually setting up and moving around for the baseball expending a lot of energy on every pitch. I'm sure at the end of the game Ballgame felt like he went a few rounds with Mike Tyson.

In the end, we knew this about Oliver Perez. I do not think anyone particularly thought he would figure into this year's pitching picture, but we were all enamored with the enigma and the lively left arm hanging from his body and wanted to see him. We saw him in two starts and he needs work. All of the real progress should be coming in the off season when Rick Peterson will earn his paycheck and try and solve Perez's problems. I still truly believe Oliver Perez will be in the rotation from opening day next season because I do think he is the type of player that excels under Rick Peterson. Of course this is contingent upon what is in Oliver's head and whether he is a good learner or a stubborn hot head. He's shown flashes of being the latter but we will not know until next year.

* * *

Just like when mommies cannot tell when their kids are ugly, it is hard for fans to be fair when evaluating their players. The other day I wrote about Carlos Beltran as the MVP, but it is nice to see a third party get involved. A fan of team from the American League and not in New York. There is no hatred from fans of rival team in town and no skewed sense of reality because they have a guy on their team that they believe should in fact be the MVP. Jason Churchill, who is a Mariner fan, wrote a piece on ProspectInsider.com in regards to the topic and did a fantastic job.

He hit his 38th home run of the year Sunday, has 108 RBI and has scored 103 runs. Okay, sure, he’s hitting .286. But Shea Stadium is a pretty severe pitcher’s park, as are the road parks Beltran visits in Florida, Washington and to a lesser extent, Atlanta.

Better yet, Beltran gets it done when it matters most.

He sports a 1.210 OPS with runners in scoring position. That number actually goes UP to 1.267 with RISP and two outs.

Yikes.

He has three grand slams in eight official ABs with the bases loaded this season and has a 1.335 OPS with a man on third and two outs.

He has a 1.647 OPS versus division-rival Atlanta, including eight homers and 18 RBI in eight contests. Against Philly, he’s slugging .671 with six homers… against Florida? Beltran has a 1.023 OPS and versus Washington, yeah, again… a 1.171 OPS.

Yikes is right. As if all that wasn't enough, there are more drool inducing stats.

Beltran’s park-adjusted numbers are sickening - try these on for size.

.303/.419/.689, 46 HR, 123 RBI. That’s through 129 games.

Like I said, the discussion for MVP should start with Beltran and end with Beltran. He has shown to be more consistent than anyone and every facet of his game is scarily refined that I cannot think of one player more well rounded.

Studes goes over ten great pickups by Omar Minaya and really, every move he has made has worked out with the exception of Jose Lima and Jeremi Gonzalez.

Endy Chavez's career high in extra base hits was thirty five in 2003. It took him 141 games and 483 at-bats to get there. In 2004, he hit 31 extra base hits and it took him 132 games and 502 at-bats to get there. This year? 28 extra base hits in 108 games and 277 at-bats. In 2003, he was average one XBH every 15 plate appearances, in 2004 he averaged one every 18 plate appearances, and this year he is averaging one every 11 plate appearances. Endy has been impressive this year to say the least.

Nanny nanny poo poo...

In talking about the playoffs earlier this week, Beltran suddenly brought up that the Astros never sent him the video from the 2004 postseason, which is when he almost carried them to the World Series. Beltran said that he had contacted the team, but didn't get a response -- or the DVDs.

"I don't even have the videos," Beltran said. "I called Houston to send me the copies and they never sent anything. They were so mad that I left."

Very grown up. I wonder if Carlos thinks he made the wrong choice?

Did anyone catch the MVP chants Beltran was getting on the road? At times it seemed like the Mets were the home team in Denver. Really, really crazy stuff.

Those pro-basketball players just cannot figure out this international basketball thing.

"To lose any game is a shock to us," U.S. star Carmelo Anthony said. "We came in with the mentality to win the game and the gold medal."

Michel Abreu is the B-Mets MVP.

Michel Abreu was named the Binghamton Mets' most valuable player for the 2006 season on Thursday night.

Abreu, a member of the Eastern League's season-ending all-star team, is hitting an Eastern League-best .334. Abreu, a Cuban defector who has played first base for the B-Mets, was leading the team with 70 RBI and was tied with Jay Caligiuri for the team lead in home runs with 17 going into Thursday's game.

Baseball Prospectus named their top twenty minor league pitching prospects and the Mets have three of them.

7. Mike Pelfrey, Mets
Age: 22.6 H/9: 7.57 BB/9: 3.08 K/9: 10.18

The most well-paid pitcher in the 2005 draft, Pelfrey signed too late to make his debut last year, but he reached the big leagues this season after just 88 pro innings. At 6-foot-7, Pelfrey gets a strong downward plane on a sinking 92-95 mph fastball that has touched 98, and he commands the pitch well when many young and tall pitching prospects struggle to find a consistent release point. For anyone who saw his four big league starts, in which he had a 5.48 ERA and a sub-standard 13/12 K/BB ratio in 21.1 innings, Pelfrey's issues were clear. While the fastball is plus-plus, both his curveball and changeup are no more than average, and he lost confidence in the pitches, learning a difficult lesson about the need for a three-pitch arsenal. He's expected to get another look in September as the Mets put things into cruise control, so we'll see if he's made any adjustments. The secondary pitches don't have to be great, but he will need them to keep hitters on their toes.

14. Philip Humber, Mets
Age: 23.7 H/9: 6.99 BB/9: 2.52 K/9: 9.65

Another one of those pitchers who had Tommy John surgery, returned quicker than expected and has looked as good as he ever did, if not better. Pitching very well in Double-A, both he and Pelfrey will compete for Opening Day rotation slots in 2007.

19. Deolis Guerra, Mets
Age: 17.4 H/9: 6.75 BB/9: 4.39 K/9: 7.18

His ratios aren't great, but this is a guy born in 1989 (feel old yet?) who is already in the Florida State League and holding his own. Sitting at 89-91 mph with plenty of projection thanks to a 6-foot-5, 200 pound frame, Guerra's changeup is already a solid offering and his curveball has made great strides. The Mets need to slow down his development, but his ceiling is sky high.

Not bad for a team that traded two that traded many of their top pitching prospects away over the past few years. Eleven teams had one prospect on the list, three teams had two, and the Mets were the only team with three. Fucking swell.

There were minor league baseball games played yesterday, but no one cared.