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 John Heller, Post-Gazette "Velocity? For sure, I'm not worried about that. I know it's coming." -- Oliver Perez, Pirates pitcher on the speed of his fastball |
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Today, he and the Pirates open the season against the Milwaukee Brewers and his brain should be cluttered by the batting charts for Carlos Lee and Geoff Jenkins. His song will remain the same.
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BASEBALL 2006 |
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It will take more than cool for Perez to succeed, though, today and the rest of the way.
It will take heat.
Or, as he used to growl in those television commercials last year, "Lots of heat."
But does he still have it?
Vanishing velocity
Perez's fastball was among the most discussed issues of the spring training that just ended, and that is unlikely to abate soon. Not so long as radar guns show him registering 88 mph rather than the 98 mph he often achieved during his superb 2004 season.
But the Pirates' front office and coaching staff, to a man, downplay the matter.
"I'm not worried about it," general manager Dave Littlefield said.
"Not a concern," manager Jim Tracy said.
"I don't really pay attention to velocity with anyone," pitching coach Jim Colborn said.
Perez shrugs it off, too.
"I feel good," he said. "I don't know why everybody's talking like that."
It might be because of this:
Two seasons ago, Perez was a rising star. He was 12-10 on a losing team with a 2.98 ERA, and he fanned 10.97 batters per nine innings, most in Major League Baseball. Some of that was because of a devastating slider he often employed as his out pitch, but it was mostly because, quite simply, he threw exceptionally hard.
According to the Bill James Handbook, Perez's average fastball that year was 93 mph, sixth highest in the majors, and 458 of his fastballs were 95 mph or harder. Moreover, he threw his fastball 65 percent of the time, the 10th-highest such ratio.
By contrast, when Perez went 7-5 with a 5.85 ERA last season, his velocity usually was in the 88-92 mph range, though no firm figure is available because he fell out of Bill James' top 10 in the category. His strikeout average dipped to 8.47.
There can be no questioning the importance of the fastball to Perez, as he acknowledges.
"It's true for everybody," he said. "Your fastball is your best pitch."
So, how did it diminish?
Littlefield's theory, one widely supported within the organization, is that an unrelated string of circumstances has prevented Perez from rediscovering his groove:
"You go all the way back to last winter, and he's never had a chance to really get going," Littlefield said.
It started last offseason, when Perez was instructed to skip winter ball in Mexico to rest. He took the order too literally, though, and did virtually nothing to keep his arm in shape. That essentially wiped out his minicamp.
Just before spring training, he slept awkwardly on his left shoulder and fell so far behind it took him until late June to begin rounding into form. That was when he kicked that laundry cart in St. Louis and broke his toe. There went two more months.
Perez returned in September and showed a steady incline over his five starts. Perhaps just as important, his fastball topped out at 95 mph in his final game Oct. 1, when he -- probably by no coincidence -- no-hit the Brewers through five innings.
"He was strong," recalled Humberto Cota, the catcher that day. "He was almost like the old Oliver."
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Heat Misers |
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Oliver Perez had an average fastball of 93 mph in 2004, ranking sixth in Major League Baseball. But he fell off the top-10 list for 2005: |
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Pitcher, Team |
MPH |
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1. A.J. Burnett, Marlins |
95.6 |
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2. Josh Beckett, Marlins |
93.5 |
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3. Brett Tomko, Giants |
93.3 |
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4. Roy Oswalt, Astros |
93.1 |
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5. Carlos Zambrano, Cubs |
92.8 |
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6. Brad Penny, Dodgers |
92.7 |
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7. John Smoltz, Braves |
92.3 |
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8. Mark Prior, Cubs |
92.2 |
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9. Roger Clemens, Astros |
91.9 |
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10. Jason Schmidt, Giants |
91.8 |
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Source: Bill James Handbook |
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"I saw a good fastball," Littlefield said.
It was not evident early in this spring training, though, and Perez's velocity quickly became a topic of quiet concern at Pirate City.
Perez's explanation? He was focused on his work with Colborn.
"I just didn't want to come in here and throw my hardest," Perez said. "I'm trying to find good mechanics."
Then, once again, his regimen was interrupted. He left camp to represent Mexico in the World Baseball Classic and was used sparingly.
Upon rejoining the Pirates, some zip returned to Perez's fastball, especially in his strong final start against the Boston Red Sox last week, when he fanned seven in 5 2/3 innings. He ended up with 13 strikeouts in 11 2/3 innings.
The doubts will linger, of course, until the radar gun shows the more familiar readings. But Perez's bosses and peers are optimistic the velocity will return.
"I definitely think it will be the case," Littlefield said.
"I really have confidence it will come back," Cota said. "I've been very encouraged by how he came along this spring once he got some innings."
Perez is, too.
"Velocity?" he said. "For sure, I'm not worried about that. I know it's coming."
He vehemently denies having any arm trouble.
"My arm has been feeling good this whole year. It's not a problem. Not at all."
Sacrificing strikeouts
Whether or not the Pirates are merely tiptoeing around Perez's lost velocity, it is clear management wants to see less Randy Johnson in his repertoire and more Tom Glavine. Even if the heat returns.
A week ago, Tracy conspicuously omitted Perez from his list of strikeout-type pitchers in his rotation, saying of Perez and fellow left-handers Zach Duke and Paul Maholm, "That's not the kind of pitchers they are."
Colborn evaluates Perez that way, too.
"Oliver seems to have a knack for the finesse part of pitching," he said Saturday. "I've seen him pitch only three games, and that's my impression."
Tracy and Colborn have made impressions on Perez, as well, relentlessly prioritizing going deep into games over strikeout totals.
"That's what they want from me," Perez said. "I want that, too, for the team."
To that end, Colborn has worked with Perez since minicamp on developing more consistency by addressing nearly every facet of his delivery, from leg kick to foot plant to release point.
Colborn has gotten inside Perez's head, too. Not so much about game situations, but mostly about achieving a sort of mental cleansing of some of his anxious tendencies on the mound.
"Athletes can often undermine themselves with too much thinking," Colborn said. "That might be one thing that happened to Oliver last year."
Perez concurred.
"This year, I'm not going to think too much," he said. "Just play baseball and enjoy the game."
The benefits of this approach were most visible in that dominant outing against the Red Sox.
When Perez had two-strike counts, rather than simply let her rip, he recorded five of his seven strikeouts with off-speed material.
When he faced Manny Ramirez, he twice used his new split-fingered changeup to induce popups.
When he wanted to keep batters off kilter by dropping his arm slot, he did so only after getting ahead in the count rather than doing so inexplicably.
"He's a lot more than I expected him to be," Colborn said. "He's not as refined as he might be -- or is going to be -- but that's my impression."
Although the Pirates are pushing Perez to relax in some ways, they clearly are putting pressure on him in other ways. Tracy acknowledged sending a message by naming Perez the opening-day starter, and he reiterated that after the Boston exhibition: "I saw a guy interested in being the ace of the staff."
"We all feel that way," Cota said. "It's such a young rotation. Oliver really has to step it up and be the anchor, the go-to guy. We need him all the way back."
It could be that Perez challenged himself in that regard before anyone else did.
As part of his winter's preparation, he added 8 pounds of muscle -- "I had some tacos in Mexico" -- and did more working out than in any offseason. And he did so, as he made clear, with the intent of regaining not only his pitching form of 2004 but also his stature as one of the game's elite left-handers.
"All I can say is I feel really good," Perez said, thumping his heart. "I have a lot of energy. I feel stronger. I'm ready to go."
