Michael Friere - Insanity

By - Michael Friere

The title of this article is a single word that most folks know and use in their vocabularies on a regular basis. If you asked someone to define the word, you would probably get a wide variety of responses.

One person may conjure up images of their “crazy” nephew who used to eat paste and go to the bathroom in the corner of the living room when they visited from Ohio (maybe that is a bit too specific). Other folks may use the term to describe the current state of gasoline prices, or the general mental state of anyone who watches the television show “Jersey Shore”.

Still other people would use the word to describe most sports fans. The "dyed in the wool" fans who paint their faces, attend all of the games and let the fate of their beloved teams dictate how they feel on a daily basis. Hell, the term “fan” is a shortened version of the word “fanatic”, which has roots in the general concept we are currently discussing.

In past years, I have been guilty of going “a little overboard” in my efforts to follow my favorite team(s), across a lot of different sporting events. While I enjoy most sports, my first true love (after my wife, in case she is reading this) has always been baseball. I love the slower pace and the endless strategies involved in literally every moment of every game. Plus, I am a statistical junkie and baseball generates a “few” of them. Ever heard of Sabermetrics? Oh, never mind.

I had the good fortune of growing up in both northern New Jersey and upstate New York in the 70’s and early 80’s. At that time, you were either a Mets fan or a Yankees fan. As luck would have it, while playing Little League baseball at age seven, the team I was assigned to was our league’s version of the Mets. Well, you get the picture.

Trying to steer this article back onto the rails, the point I am trying to make is that being a Mets fan has been a trying experience, more often then not. By the time I was old enough to truly root for the Mets, it was in the late 70’s. Not exactly a high point in the history of the franchise. The middle of the 80’s were pretty good, as well as the late 90’s and into the early 00’s. We were competitive towards the end of the 00’s, but the nasty “collapse” doesn’t make that era a nice memory. Overall, there has been more negative years and stories, then positive ones. It would be a fair assessment to say that continuing to root for “our team” is an exercise in futility, or even an example of insanity.

With that said, I am still a Mets fan and I will always be a Mets fan, regardless of what happens (even if I am still pissed off that Doc couldn’t throw one damn curve ball to Mike Scioscia in the ninth inning of Game Four during the 1988 NLCS). Does that make me insane?

Actually, my definition of insanity is pretty simple. Insanity is nothing more then doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting a different result each time. For example, you touch a hot stove and it burns your finger. Most of us would make the connection and leave the hot stove alone, or at least not touch it again. Undeterred, an insane person would stand in place and repeatedly touch the hot stove, expecting not to get burned each time.

This brings me to my main point and the seed for this article. There are a lot of things in life that “get under your skin” and if they happen regularly, it is enough to “drive you over the edge”, metaphorically speaking.

Watching Oliver Perez pitch would qualify as “one of those events”, for me. Despite all of his supposed talent, he simply could not throw strikes and he never came close to “reaching his potential” (although in hindsight, I don’t think he was that talented). But, every time he "toed the rubber", there I was, hoping that he would finally put it together and be a modern day version of Sandy Koufax (see, maybe I am insane).

At some point, reality kicked in (sort of like a good shot to the crotch) and I realized that he would NEVER be more then what he was. The fact that he was overpaid was only salt in the wound. Finally, the Mets decided to “cut bait” and move on from the endless cycle of futility (thanks Sandy).

But, just as I started to relax, here comes Oliver Perez, version 2! Only this time, his name is Mike Pelfrey!

Look, I am sure Mike is a nice guy and on first blush, he seems to have everything you would want in a young pitcher. Plus, he was drafted in the first round and he made a fairly quick debut in the major leagues (see my previous article about Mike for a better statistical breakdown).

But, watching him pitch makes me INSANE! His repertoire is different then Ollie’s, but I will be damned if they don’t put up similar results. By results, let’s start with extremely high pitch counts and an overall lack of control, which results in a “small village” of base runners every inning. Eventually, some of those folks come around to score, which ends up placing a huge burden on the offense and the bullpen, EVERY time he pitches. None of those things are conducive to winning baseball games.

Oh, and stop with the “innings eater” and “rotation horse” descriptions. How is more of that type of pitching a good thing?

What makes things more exasperating are the constant updates about how his mechanics are better, or how he is going to focus on his sinker more (sinkers break downward, not side to side, Mike), or how he is going to be more efficient, or how he is FINALLY going to blossom into a true ace, etc. Hold on one second, I was laughing too hard to type.

How much longer does this need to go on, before someone realizes that he is just not that good? Quoting a sports icon, Bill Parcells said it best when he stated that “you are what you are” or better still “people don’t change”. Mike is and will always be a "back end of the rotation", or a below average starting pitcher! Let’s just stop with all of the other theatrics. Expecting anything more is insane.

In closing, my only hope is that Sandy is smart enough NOT to extend Mike’s stay in New York. I would prefer that we let him go now and allow one of our younger pitchers in AAA (25 year old Chris Schwinden, for example) to use 2012 as a learning experience and to see if he is a future piece of the puzzle.

At the very least, please do NOT sign him to a new contract after 2012. Didn’t everyone learn from the “train wreck” that resulted the last time we ventured down that road, with Ollie?