Dichotomy n. 1. Division into two usually contradictory parts or opinions; 2. Oliver Perez; see example below.

On Friday, March 20th, Oliver Perez looked like the Oliver Perez the Mets are paying twelve million dollars for this year. Perez pitched three scoreless innings to lead New York to a 4-0 win over the Orioles. On Wednesday, March 25th Oliver Perez looked like the Oliver Perez that couldn’t earn a spot in the rotation for your local junior college. The lefty was gone after 3 2/3 innings, having allowed six runs on six walks and six hits.

The New York Mets want to contend not just for the National League East title, but for the World Series Championship in 2009. They have the talent at some of the most important day to day positions … shortstop, third base, center field … and a revamped, billion-dollar-bullpen to easily contend, and even win, the National League East. However, if Oliver Perez can not find some consistency, the Mets will not have the starting pitching necessary to compete for a World Series Championship.

Number one starter Johan Santana is an absolute ace, anybody who knows anything about baseball recognizes that. In his debut season with the Mets, the flame-throwing Santana piled up over 200 strikeouts, lead the majors with a 2.53 ERA, and recorded sixteen wins. John Maine has shown that he can be an incredibly solid third man in the rotation. Despite shutting down last season as a result of a shoulder apparently made out of cotton candy, Maine can still reach the low to mid-nineties with his fastball and comes into this season not just with a revamped slider, but with years of experience watching Tom Glavine, Pedro Martinez, and now Santana. Mike Pelfrey is still a season or two away from being a team’s second option, leaving him as a more than capable fourth starter for the Mets. His “breakout season” included eleven losses, but like Maine he can reach the mid-nineties with his fastball, and, like every other Met in the rotation, will see his win total increase with J.J. Putz there to setup the ninth for Franciso Rodriguez. With the fifth starter’s spot expected to be filled by either Livian “five winning seasons in thirteen years” Hernandez or a daily raffle amongst fans, it is now or never for Oliver Perez to step into a second spot in the rotation.

Now while the erratic lefty can certainly pile up the K’s, 180 in 194 innings last year, he absolutely can not lead the National League in walks with another 100 or more base-on-balls issued to opposing hitters if he is to become the starter the Mets sorely need. Word out of camp is that pitching coach Dan Warthen has taken some time this spring to help Perez with his delivery, most notably his follow-through leg-kick. Apparently, this leg-kick was not that much of an issue considering his best performance of the spring came against a Baltimore Oriole’s squad that, up until a few weeks ago, was rumored to be interested in signing yours truly to manage, play first base, pitch the middle innings, and sell hot dogs to fat people in the stands. Simply put, a good pitcher had a good outing against a dreadful team.

If good outings against bottom-of-the-barrel likes such as the O’s are all the Mets faithful have to look forward to from Oliver Perez this year, he might as well go into hiding now as that is just not the town to do that in. If … HUGE if … Ollie Ollie Walks-Are-Free can turn some of last seasons troubles around, he may end up being more welcome in New York than mayors who promise too much and middle-finger giving cabbies. As a (semi-)proud member of said faithful, I know I will be keeping my middles crossed that Oliver Perez comes to form on the mound and gives us that second starter needed to contend for a 2009 World Series Championship.