As we bid our final farewell to Oliver Perez -- I have this on constant repeat right now -- let us recall what led to the big contract that contributed mightily to Perez’s massive disdain among the Mets’ faithful.
You’ll remember that Perez is a Scott Boras client and you’ll remember that Boras makes big glossy sales pitch binders for all of his free agents. None got more notice than Perez’s binder, which was easily the most absurd example of the genre. From the contemporaneous New York Times account:The Perez book is divided into eight chapters that include such headings as: “Perez Turns Corner in 2006,” “Perez Is One of Baseball’s Top 5 Left-Handed Starting Pitchers,” “A Rare Young Left-Handed Starting Pitcher Available on the Free-Agent Market,” “Big-Game Ollie,” and “Durable Ollie.”
In the chapter “Perez Turns Corner in 2006,” charts are used to argue that the pitching statistics for Perez, who is now 27, are similar to those of Randy Johnson and the Hall-of-Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax at the same age. What’s more, the charts argue that Perez’s control problems will improve, just like they did for Koufax and Johnson as they got older.
Missed it by thaaaaat much!
But really: scoff all you want, but Boras got his guy paid with that rebop.