Saturday, November 12, 2011

Do you think Jerry Manuel will drop Oliver Perez from the rotation?

Last week, in St. Louis, he said he'd make changes in the rotation, if he wasn't happy with the results. He said he'd give Pelfrey, Maine, Perez and Livan all one more chance to prove they should be in the rotation. It seemed to work for Pelfrey, but pitch well on Saturday. However, Oliver Perez, like two of his three prior starts, was terrible. The most likely alternative, at least temporarily will be Nelson Figueroa, who was solid (6 IP 3 ER) when he made a spot start for Pelfrey last Sunday. Other options include prospects Jon Niese and Dillon Gee, along with Brandon Knight and Freddy Garcia (I doubt they'll use him yet though because it'd cost them 1.5 million to put him on the roster). I think Jerry will have more patience with Livan if he has a 6 IP 4 ER type start, since 2 of 3 of his starts to this point have been respectable. The only thing the Mets have going for them with Perez's next turn in the rotation is that he owned the Phillies last season, he tends to step up in the spotlight. Plus, the Phillies line-up has lots of lefties. I believe he'd be scheduled to pitch on Saturday, which may be nationally televised. The one thing they could do though is just skip Perez's turn in the rotation, since there's an off day Thursday. They could go with Pelfrey, Maine and Livan against the Phillies in the weekend series. They could use Ollie as a long reliever or mop up man in the mean time.

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