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July 8, 2009 Shea What? Joe Janish

Six Million Dollar Man Sequel

thirty-sixFor those as old as me, you may remember Steve Austin, astronaut, who after a terrible accident was rebuilt to become the “Bionic Man”.

Tonight at 7:10 PM the sequel to that great 1970s TV series arrives. Due to inflation, it is now “The 36-Million-Dollar Man”. But the plot is essentially the same. Except, instead of an astronaut, it’s a baseball pitcher. And instead of a terrible accident, it was a minor knee injury. And instead of bionics, the man was given Warthenisms. And instead of Lee Majors playing the lead role, it’s Oliver Perez.

I can’t wait until the action figure comes out!

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Joe Janish began MetsToday in 2005 to provide the unique perspective of a high-level player and coach -- he earned NCAA D-1 All-American honors as a catcher and coached several players who went on to play pro ball. As a result his posts often include mechanical evaluations, scout-like analysis, and opinions that go beyond the numbers. Follow Joe's baseball tips on Twitter at @onbaseball and at the On Baseball Google Plus page.
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  1. Stephen Greene July 8, 2009 at 1:27 pm
    Carl Pavano 4 years with the yanks has to be
    badder than Perez? I think Perez will win more games with the mets than Carl did with the yanks
    Let us not forgot that Perez gave us achane in game 7 2006 before Beltran stuck out looking with the basses full!
  2. Walnutz15 July 8, 2009 at 1:36 pm
    Perez also made me go to the potty in my drawers, that very same game — when Endy Chavez took Steve Austin’s rocket-ship over the left field wall to save him from (yet another) implosion.

    Good luck to you tonight, Ollie — you have no choice but to show up this evening. Citi’s lookin’ for a reason to spew some venom.

    Wonder if he’ll get lost on his way to the park tonight….or if he remembers how to get there?

  3. Stephen Greene July 8, 2009 at 2:30 pm
    Perez still did his job that game 7.
    Beltran did not!
  4. Walnutz15 July 8, 2009 at 2:36 pm
    “Meh”…..

    The one constant in all of this, is: 2006 is fading further and further off into the rear-view mirror — while this team is trying to live off the laurels of what was accomplished during that very same season.

    It’s now July, 2009….and Oliver Perez is a mega-millionaire, who’s faked a leg injury to get himself more work at lower-levels of baseball.

    He’d better “do his job” tonight. And for a majority of the next 2 and a half seasons.

    Maybe he should go back to Pittsburgh: he’s already raped and pillaged the Met front office with the contract he was handed. A true Pirate, indeed.

  5. gary s July 8, 2009 at 2:41 pm
    i’ll watch perez tonite for the same reason u slow down to see a car wreck..morbid curiosity..OH THE PAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  6. Link Dump: July 8th, 2009 July 8, 2009 at 4:37 pm
    […] Today – Six Million Dollar Man Sequal For those as old as me, you may remember Steve Austin, astronaut, who after a terrible accident was […]
  7. Taylor July 8, 2009 at 5:57 pm
    You people are crazy. Ollie may be good tonight or he may stink or he may be somewhere in between but he didn’t fake any injury and he and the whole Mets team have always played hard. You watch the games and hope to enjoy a win. The team is struggling mightily so if you have some commonsense you don’t get your hopes up too high. Yeah, coming in to the season there was reason for optimism as they strengthened their biggest weakness from last year, but things haven’t gone well. Its just the way sports are. You all have to be nuts to think that there is some deep ‘rot’ or some deep systemic problem or psychological weakness at the root of the problems. There’s no such thing. It’s baseball. Sometimes you have bad luck with injuries and sometimes players don’t perform up to expectations (Brian Giles, Jimmy Rollins, Alfonso Soriano). It happens all the time and some years your team gets more than their share of it. You just keep watching and rooting and adjust your expectations. All this pointing fingers to find blame for bad luck is just crazy.
  8. isuzudude July 8, 2009 at 6:49 pm
    Um, Taylor…have you watched even 1 inning of this season? Because if you have, you will have undoubtedly noticed “systemic problems” and “psychological weaknesses” all over this team. Like the incredible amount of defensive blunders. Like the horrible baserunning decisions. Like the inexcusable times a ball gets away and no one chases after it. Like the countless amount of times a cut-off man has been missed. Like the unbelievable volume of occurences when our pitcher has walked the opposing pitcher. I could go on. But these issues are not due to injury, they are due to an incompetent, lazy, fundamentally-unsound team whose flaws seem only more glaring now because of the lack of talent on the roster. But, by and large, these are the same issues that have dogged this team ever since the collapse of 2007. Have you simply not noticed, or have you been watching Met games with your eyes blindfolded and the TV on mute?
  9. Walnutz15 July 8, 2009 at 6:57 pm
    “When I was down there he wasn’t really having any trouble with the knee,” Schneider said. “He was getting treatment and doing stuff with the knee, but they were mostly working on mechanics. … He didn’t have a knee problem.”

    (Courtesy of an Adam Rubin NY Daily News article, which I can’t link – for some reason)

    The only “problem” Ollie had, was keeping his limp straight…….and his mechanics, which desperately needed to be worked out, away from the Major League level.

  10. Taylor July 8, 2009 at 10:49 pm
    Walnutz, maybe he was only there to work on mechanics but that’s not the same thing as him faking an injury. It was probably management’s idea to try to get him straightened out.

    Isuzudude, yes they’ve made errors, and I’ll grant that they’ve made more than the average team, but there are 2 things working here. Expectations were so high, and the season has been so disappointing, that every error gets blown way out of proportion. Gary Cohen’s never ending negative attitude doesn’t help that perception any. The other thing is that pressure causes errors. This team is under a lot of pressure. After 2 disappointing seasons and now with injuries and a disappointing first half, they are under pressure and pressure causes mistakes and errors.

    Yes I’ve watched probaby 35 games so far. All teams make errors but Gary Cohen creates the impression that they are some kind of inexcusable failure. Other teams announcers don’t react like that. I don’t think people realize how much of the negativity surrounding the Mets starts with the way Gary Cohen calls the games.

  11. gary s July 8, 2009 at 11:14 pm
    thanks taylor, all season i couldn’t quite figure out what the problem was..IT WAS GARY COHEN!!!did u ever hear the expression ‘don’t blame the messenger”??
  12. Walnutz15 July 9, 2009 at 8:19 am
    Apparently, the Mets play to the temperature of Gary Cohen’s broadcasts….

    Classic.

  13. isuzudude July 9, 2009 at 10:17 am
    Taylor, please send me an invitation to whatever fantasy island you’re residing on. I could use the vacation.
  14. John Fitzgerald July 9, 2009 at 12:46 pm
    Taylor –

    Gary Cohen is negative? He practically reads talking points off of David Howard’s laptop.

    Granted, when David Wright drops a popup, he may occasionally say something like, “David Wright dropped the ball!”… But you have to forgive him. It’s not easy to obfuscate the obvious – your post is proof of that.

  15. Taylor July 9, 2009 at 2:30 pm
    Please, spare me. Gary Cohen is extremely negative. What fantasy island are you on where you don’t hear that? He does more than say ‘he dropped the ball’. He yells it ‘HE DROPPED THE BALL!!!’. He does it every time.

    Walnutz, please don’t be so intentionally obtuse. I never said anything resembling that the team’s play is influenced by Gary Cohen’s broadcasting. I said that the fan’s perception of the team’s play is heavily influenced by the overwhelming negativity of Gary Cohen’s broadcasting. Most fans watch most games on TV. That’s a fact. Cohen plays a large part in creating the impression that people have of the way things are going. No fantasy over here. I see things the way they are. If you all think that the team would play better if management ‘got tough’ and ‘stopped tolerating mediocrity’ etc.. you’re free to go on living in your dream world. The simple reality is that they are human beings doing the best job they can. Sometimes they win and sometimes they lose. When they feel pressure they make more mistakes, like all humans. That’s just the way the world works.

  16. isuzudude July 9, 2009 at 3:21 pm
    Taylor, to say you are in the extreme minority with your ‘Gary Choen is negative’ statement would be an understatement. When every commenter on the blog disagrees with you, I would think it’s time that you reconsider your opinion.
  17. Taylor July 9, 2009 at 4:54 pm
    Many agree with me. My opinion was formed by watching hundreds of Mets games. I like Gary Cohen ok, but if you don’t think he’s negative you really aren’t paying attention.
  18. joejanish July 9, 2009 at 5:22 pm
    Enough already. Trying to change anyone’s mind on the subject of Gary Cohen’s negativity or cheerleading is like trying to turn a bleeding heart liberal democrat into a right-minded republican.

    Let’s drop the gloves on more interesting and relevant arguments. Someone please shoot me if we’re still bantering about Gary Cohen this time tomorrow.

  19. Taylor July 9, 2009 at 5:27 pm
    So sorry the topic is not to your liking. How about this. This team is not performing any worse than would be expected if you were told that they would be missing most of the their core offense and 2/5 of their starting rotation for a large chunk of the season. What’s all the bellyaching about? Yes the Mets have had bad luck with injuries, but taking the injuries into account they are doing about as would be expected.
  20. taylorsucknuts July 9, 2009 at 5:37 pm
    given the ownership, GM and manager of this team, i would agree with taylor. this team is performing exactly as expected:

    -no WS rings in 22 years

    -sub-.500 record

    -no division titles or wildcard berths in the foreseeable future

    but guess what? we can all go to the shake shack and drown our sorrows! think positive!

  21. Taylor July 9, 2009 at 5:45 pm
    How many teams can suffer the loss of 3 of their best 4 bats and 2/5 of their starting rotation and still be an elite team? None. You think injuries are predictable and preventable? Then get yourself a job with an MLB team forecasting and preventing injuries. You’ll be worth millions. But to acknwoledge the Mets bad luck would mean you wouldn’t have anyone to blame and rail against for the Mets failures and if you can’t spew venom at the players for some imaginary character flaw, or the manager for failing to inspire players to play way above their heads, then you get frustrated.
  22. taylorsucknuts July 9, 2009 at 5:49 pm
    thanks taylor. could you explain last season for me? and while you’re at it, explain 2007.

    thanks, buh-bye!

  23. Taylor July 9, 2009 at 6:03 pm
    Hey, whoever you are that isn’t posting with your regular tag, if you want to bash the players and the manager go ahead, its a free country. To me injuries explain the problems better than any of that but to each his own.
  24. wally July 9, 2009 at 6:23 pm
    Taylor, you want to see how other teams deal with “bad luck”? Take a ride down I-95.

    Last year, the Phillies lost Pedro Feliz, Jimmy Rollins, Shane Victorino, Jayson Werth, Brad Lidge, Brett Myers, and Tom Gordon, among others, at different points and during overlapping times.

    In 2007, Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Cole Hamels, Myers, Victorino, Werth, Gordon, Ryan Madson, Chris Coste, Michael Bourn, Jon Lieber, Adam Eaton, and Freddy Garcia (Garcia was penciled in as their #1 or #2 starter that year) all missed significant time.

    And who finished in first in the NL East in those two years — when the league was much stronger than it is now?

    Right.

  25. Taylor July 9, 2009 at 6:34 pm
    Wally, I guess the Mets just don’t have the intestinal fortitude of the ’08 Phillies. Either that or Jerry Manuel just doesn’t know how to inspire the team the way Charlie Manuel inspired the Phils. I don’t know. I wonder, how do you explain it? What do you really think is wrong with the Mets? Do you think they have a losing attitude? Do you think they have the wrong type of players, personality-wise? Do you think they don’t like playing or Manuel? What do you think the problem is? I’m not being argumentative here. I’m really wondering. What do you think is wrong with the team? I’m asking for a serious answer. Personally I think it has mostly to do with injuries and bad luck but I want to hear what you think.