Posted on May 8th, 2008 by Mr. Fleece
Well, we’re one month into the 2008 season, and super-agent Scott Boras is already prepping clubs for a fleece of monumental proportions. This time, it involves New York Mets starting pitcher Oliver Perez. Perez, 27, is rumored to be seeking a 5 year deal worth roughly $60 million or above. Yes folks, that works out $12 million per season. Perez is young, he’s a lefty, and he comes off a 2007 season where he had much success. In 2007, Perez went 15-10 while posting an ERA of 3.56 (coming off a 2005 season where he finished up 3-13 between the Pittsburgh Pirates and New York Mets). Solid numbers in 2007, without a doubt. But Perez has the reputation of taking games, plays, and innings off mentally. He tends to be erratic, and seldom can
get himself out of trouble. When things go bad behind him, he gets worse, instead of better. Of course, Boras disagrees with all of this. According to Boras, Oliver Perez was “brilliant” in his first two starts, and the last three starts were only blips on a radar. Boras has said Perez “compares favorably” to Johan Santana at the same age. He fails to factor in that mental edge that Oliver seems to lack.
Either way you slice it, Oliver Perez no doubt will be attractive commodity next off-season. $12 million or more annually? I’m not too sure about that, as that seems like quite a bit much for someone who can be so dominant one start, and fail to get out of his own way the next. Is this a case of Boras getting the most for one of his clients, or Boras pulling a “Kyle Lohse” on Oliver Perez? I suspect he’ll fleece someone. In my opinion, I would not go beyond 3 guaranteed years for him (at a max of $8 million annually, per say), with some built in options based on performance.
Filed under: New York Mets, Pittsburgh Pirates
“Boras has said Perez “compares favorably” to Johan Santana at the same age.”
That’s like saying a Renault Le Car compares favorably to a fully-loaded Bentley. Let’s see, both Johan and Ollie throw lefthanded, both are Latinos, both pitch for the Mets and both are coached by Rick Peterson. If you take that into account, I guess that qualifies for “favorable comparison” (like the Renault and Bently are both cars, run on gas, have 4 wheels, an engine, an exhaust system, seats and steering wheels). IMHO, Boras has been hitting the Kool-aid a little hard lately.
Boras is always hitting the Kool Aid….but more often than not, he gets his deal.
The point I think he was “trying” to make was that Johan did not develop into a big-time pitcher until he was 25/26 years old. Perez is 27, so he’s trying to illustrate that at age 26, last season, Perez started coming into his own and will only get better over the next few seasons.
He’s still smoking something.
Boras’s strong arm tactics have been weakened a tad ever since the Red Sox called his bluff on Matsuzaka and forced him to take the “take it or leave it” offer and both he and several of his clients have not gotten the absurd deals he was setting sights on, Fogg, Lohse, Jones, A-Rod him being kicked out of negotions even etc… He has lost some of his luster now and other GM’s have finally taken notice maybe that he can be pushed around more.
Perez is a hit and miss pitcher that would do much better in the NL, do not beleive he would fare well at all in the AL.