Isn’t this changeup, by definition, not a changeup?
And that seems to be the crux of the problem with Oliver Perez. How is gameday classifying that pitch as a changeup? I understand Oliver Perez mostly sucks this year. It seems like pitch selections like this is the main reason, and I don’t see how they didn’t have him working on this while he was in rehab, or how they promoted him again without fixing it.
I’m no Pitch F/X expert, but I know that Perez should be throwing this pitch slower. He throws his fastball around 88-89, which you hope would build up over time, but regardless, you have to throw the changeup no higher than 80mph if this is the case. He does have a slider that’s in the 70s for the offspeed part of his game, but he’s stopped throwing the curve entirely this year.
Oliver’s biggest problem does not seem to be his velocity, although you would like that to be higher. His mechanics have never been good, which accounts for a lot of fluctuation at times in his pitches and may be the cause of that missing 2mph on his fastball. Still, the biggest issue here seems to be pitch selection and game plan. We know he’s billed as a head case, but I’m sure those accounts are exaggerated. What he should’ve been working on is selecting his pitches better and setting up hitters. If he’s capable of throwing so many pitches, slider, curveball, fastball, 4-seam fastball, changeup, and cutter, he’s capable of setting up hitters to look foolish. He’s got enough command of those pitches that he can keep batters from sitting on the 88mph fastball.
It’s not enough to just say he’s a lost cause and dismiss him. You can’t excuse Dan Warthen or Rod Barajas because Ollie’s a head case. He’s had success before, and coaching/selection is their job. How is Oliver Perez still doing things like throwing a fastball and changeup at the same speed to the same batter? Am I missing something? If you’ve got some advanced knowledge of pitching/pitches that you can share, please pass it along. I find it hard to believe that gameday/fangraphs is just guessing at what pitches he’s throwing or that he’s throwing them by accident.
It’s not just Jerry Manuel and Omar Minaya that have to worry about fast starts to the season or their jobs being in jeopardy. The same case could be made for Jeff Francoeur,
Daniel Murphy, and Rod Barajas. The way Ike Davis, Fernando Martinez, and Josh Thole have been playing in a way this spring that makes you suspect they’ll be knocking at the door to Citi Field sooner rather than later.