Perez injury
Sometimes wild speculation pays off, though this isn't the type of pay-off for which I was hoping.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05131/502355.stmHere's the biggest bunch of BS I've heard all season:
He (Perez) said he first felt the stiffness about two hours after his most recent outing.
Uh, ok. My guess (why not pile wild speculation on top of wild speculation) is that he's been hiding it all season because he was injured during spring training as a result of his lack of off-season training.
In the meantime, Dr. Andrews is sharpening his scalpels.
Michael Restovich
The Pirates have completed their biggest deal of the season to date (whoopee), sending a PTBNL to the Rockies for 26 year old outfielder Michael Restovich. It's pretty hard to judge a deal on the day it is made, and it's even harder to judge it without knowing what you are giving up....but something in my intuition tells me this is a nice move.
Restovich is not going to be a superstar. But he is exactly the type of player the Pirates should be picking up on the cheap. I don't know a whole lot about Restovich, but my first impression is that he's a lumbering slugger type. Let's say, a Craig Wilson Jr. Maybe he's more athletic than I think. If he can handle LF at PNC, the Pirates should stick him there, put Bay in center, and leave them alone until Craig Wilson comes back. That should give Restovich a solid 100 at bats, which is a good start towards finding out what kind of major league player he might become.
Of course if the PTBNL has the initials ZD, then forget everything I just said.
Santiago
It's a bit late, but I wanted my chance to weigh in on the Santiago fiasco.
My take? Waiving Santiago was the right decision. At least Littlefield demonstrates an understanding of sunk costs. Was Santiago worth Leo Nunez? (Nunez made his major league debut with the Royals last week in case you didn't notice.) No. Did everyone besides Littlefield know that at the time? Yes.
But that mistake can't be undone, so Littlefield showed some smarts and guts by making the right move in releasing Santiago.
Lost Pirate of the Week...
...will be back next week.
Back in town
So I'm back in town and trying to settle into my routine. Haven't had a chance to catch any baseball yet, but as soon as I can stay awake past 8-9 I plan on doing so.
In the meantime, it seems that "What's wrong with Oliver Perez?" has become everyone's favorite game. I speculated (pure speculation) after his first 2 starts that he was hiding an injury. Something just didn't look right. Then he turned in that one masterful performance and convinced me otherwise. Now I'm not so sure again.
In any event, if he struggles in his next start, he should probably be skipped in his next turn or 2. It wouldn't even be such a bad thing to let him get in 2-3 starts in Indianapolis or Altoona. Wouldn't be such a bad idea to give him 5-6 innings out of the pen.
All I do know is that the more he struggles, the more he will press, the farther out of sorts he will get, increasing the risk of injury.
