Quotes: Oliver Perez on Arizona, his knee & 2010
Last weekend, Mets LHP Oliver Perez talked to Noroesta, an online Mexican newspaper.
…thanks, as always, to Andres M for the link and translation…
According to Perez, he did not feel any pressure last season, after signing a three-year, $36 million contract with the Mets last off season.
Instead, he said, “My knee started to bother me. I tried to follow my routine, but it got worse with time. Sometimes I pitched with pain, and definitely things didn’t work out for me.”
As such, this off-season, Perez has been training in Arizona at the Athletes Performance Institute, which is a high-tech fitness boot camp for professional athletes, with a focus on nutrition, metabolic testing, cardiovascular work, drills and media training.
In regards to API and 2010, he said:
“The Mets recommended this place. I wake up at 6 everyday. Right now. I’m making bullpens and following the program that they gave me, running a little and throwing. I have to follow my routine, because the team is coming to check me out soon, and I want to report to Spring Training in February… I want to be healthy, because it’s not easy coming from surgery, and having been trough that was very difficult; but it is what it is, I have to think positive for 2010.”
…like i said a few weeks ago, from what i can gather, Carlos Beltran played a hand in encouraging perez to go to Arizona… i like when i hear stories about players like ollie making this type of additional effort in the off-season… of course, i’m always skeptical… but, last off season, i read and heard a lot about how hard Luis Castillo had been working, at the team’s facility in the Dominican Republic, and, sure enough, he played in 142 games and hit .302… i would love to see a similar turn-around for perez, who obviously has the talent to be a tremendous pitcher… he just has no idea how to harness it… whether that is because of physical or mental instability, i have no idea, but hopefully the Athletes Performance Institute can figure it out… i would love to see him get it together and have a dominant season… he and the team could use it…
Perez was just 3–4 with a 6.82 ERA in 14 sporadic starts in 2009.
