Oliver Perez Remains a Puzzle

Will Mets ever figure out code to unlock good Oliver Perez?

Toward the end of today's 8-6 Mets loss, SNY Ron Darling remarked that Oliver Perez and pitching coach Dan Warthen were going to have to go back to the drawing board. In normal circumstances, that would a hyperbolic reaction to one bad start, but Perez's baffling inconsistency goes well beyond normal circumstances.

Perez's start today was his entire Mets career in easy to digest form. The lefty struck out five of the first eight Reds he faced, flashing the unhittable stuff that earned him a three-year, $36 million contract in the offseason. Then he walked two batters, gave up a single and got taken deep by Joey Votto to start the Mets down the road to their first loss of the season. Three more hits, three more walks and three more runs later Perez was in the showers and no closer to the consistent starter that the Mets need to solidify the center of their rotation.

In an insightful post at Mets Geek, Tino Evangelou outlines the choice that the Mets made when they chose to sign Perez instead of Derek Lowe as a free agent this winter. Lowe is seven years older and signed for one more year than Perez, but, ultimately, the Mets chose to gamble on Perez's occasional brilliance over Lowe's consistent competence. There's no arguing that they didn't know what they were going to get, but there was and will continue to be an argument about the wisdom of the choice.

On Saturday, we reported how Perez was at a loss to explain why he fluctuates so wildly from one start to the next. Thursday saw him fluctuate wildly from one inning to the next, which would seem to indicate that the problem is getting worse and not better. Darling's analysis was right on the money, which is a bit of cold water on an otherwise good opening week for the Mets.

Josh Alper is a writer living in New York City and is a contributor to FanHouse.com and ProFootballTalk.com in addition to his duties for NBCNewYork.com.

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