What Would Billy Wagner Do?

First impressions of post-bullocking Oliver Perez is that in an effort to maintain control over the strikezone he decided to lob them in to be hammered out of the park. What else would explain the prodigious gopher ball Johan Santana impersonation in Los Angeles on Monday?


D'OH!

What we call it is an Economy of Pitches In Allowing Runs (EPIAR) meaning whilst he gave up runs he did so on less pitches because he walked fewer batters. Last outing he gave up 7 runs on just 55 pitches. Last night, 5 runs on a whopping 95 pitches. That's what we can call efficiency. But then again, just look at his first inning against Rafael Furcal.

Here he's got the poor bastid in the hole, working the advantage, here, it's OK to throw a ball, maybe just outside the strikezone and get Furcal to chase a bad outside pitch for strike three, but no, the man whose version of the strikezone is often inches, sometimes feet out of touch with that of the umpire's, decides to throw his crappy off speed pitch for a strike and BOOM, outtadapark.


Oh please, Mr Wagner, do not call me out again for pitching like I'm betting
against my team...

Perhaps in his defence he did have a streak wherein he retired 12 of 14 Dodgers he faced. To the credit of his teammates, rather than berate him for another loss they appeared to be trying to brainwash him into thinking he was alright. One by one, David Wright, Willie Randolph and even Billy Wagner gave their grudging acknowledgement that this was an improvement over his last start. Of course, that's not saying much but another fat "L" in the column that matters most where there is no credit for moral victories which, bearing in mind Perez's past is simply a matter of slight improvement before another wearying unravelling.


Perhaps the new nickname to replace Mr Wild Pitch?

Maybe we could also blame the bats which were feeble against a rag doll like Chad Billingsley, the likes of whom they should have been hitting all over the park like a pinball. Instead, they were limpid, eeking out 5 silly little hits, two of which came from Carlos Beltran who you sometimes might think was spending time on the DL given his production to date this season which thus far accounts for a Delgadoesque .221 batting average

In fact, yes. Why give them a pass. Five runs is certainly not insurmountable given the opposition. But perhaps they are when you look at the numbers for Delgado, Castillo (Mr Oh for his last 17), Alou, Beltran and even Jose Reyes. Hell, even David Wright is only hitting .208 over the last 7 days.

Not sure what kind of fun is in store for the Mets other than replays of Vin Sculley voice-overs for every blast over the fence.

Nelson Figueroa is never going to be mistaken for an ace and frankly, I think those two outings in Shea were pretty much him shooting his wad for the season. Start scanning the minor league rosters and free agent waivers for replacements. I reckon our only hope to avoid a sweep is John Maine outdueling Brad Penny on Wednesday afternoon. Unless of course,
the next hitters Pedro faces are
Dodgers