Baseball - Oliver Perez

The Pittsburgh Pirates went into the 2006 season confident that they had a solid number one starter in Oliver Perez. Even though he did not have the best 2005 season, he was hampered by injury much of the year. In addition, he had a break out year in 2004 where he was among the league leaders in strike outs.

But the 2006 has been a nightmare so far for Oliver Perez as well as the Pirates. Perez got off to a very slow start, and collected a 2 and 10 record before the Pirates finally decided to send him down to the minor leagues. He is now with Indianapolis trying to regain his stuff. Perez went from throwing the ball in the mid 90's during the 2004 season, to barely being able to hit 90 on a consistent basis. With this lack of velocity opposing teams were teeing off on Perez and making him look like nothing more than a AAA player.

If Perez ever wants to pitch for the Pirates again he is going to need to regain some velocity on his fast ball, or at the least learn how to locate his pitches better. If he does not, he is going to end up spending the rest of his career bouncing around the minor league system.

One thing is for sure, the Pirates are counting on Perez to fix things. They currently have the worst record in the league, and starting pitching is at a premium at it is. Hopefully Perez can get straightened out and be ready to go at the start of 2007.