Nationals Sign Oliver Perez To Minor-League Contract

Tim Brown reports that the Nationals just signed Oliver Perez to a minor league deal. I'd be very surprised if Perez makes the team or accepts a minor league assignment. However, if he does make the Nats then their series at the Pirates one month from today might be a bit more entertaining for Pirates fans.

(h/t mlbtraderumors.com)

about 1 year ago gonfalon 19 comments 0 recs |

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If I was Ollie I would go down to AAA and prove myself all over again, and then have a team sign me to a way overvalued contract.

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by WVPiratesfan on Mar 23, 2011 3:47 PM EDT reply actions

I don't think he has that option

I mean, the speed just isn’t there anymore, and neither is the (good) movement.

Presumably he still wants to play baseball, and that’s the only available route, but I don’t think it’s lack of effort on his part. The Pirates (most likely) wrecked his arm with too many innings, he was able to be sporadically productive thereafter, but he hasn’t pitched even a pair of back-to-back good starts since… ’08?

by JRoth95 on Mar 23, 2011 4:11 PM EDT up reply actions

Really? Why?

I’d be very surprised if Perez makes the team or accepts a minor league assignment

From mlbtr / twitter / etc.:

The Nationals signed Perez on the recommendation of Spin Williams, a pitching coordinator who knows Perez, according to ESPN.com’s Buster Olney (on Twitter). Perez will report to minor league camp and work with Williams, according to Mark Zuckerman of CSNWashington.com (on Twitter).

Free your ass and your mind will follow.

by cocktailsfor2 on Mar 23, 2011 4:41 PM EDT reply actions

I saw the note about Spin Williams' recommendation...

(and wondered why he’d stake his professional reputation on this move), but didn’t see the part where Perez said he’d work with Williams. Maybe Williams sees something “fix”-able in Perez’s delivery; if so, best of luck to both of them.

But I woulda thought that Perez would just take his $12M and find out how many ice cream cones he could buy, instead of working his way back to MLB.

by gonfalon on Mar 23, 2011 5:05 PM EDT up reply actions

That's what I would do.

Except where you write “ice cream cones” I would write “shots of whiskey.”

by bucdaddy on Mar 24, 2011 12:50 AM EDT up reply actions 1 recs

Ah, good old Spin

I believe he was our pitching coach for an extended period of time, much of which coincided with a large part of our losing streak. As I recall in his bio, he was named MiLB Pitching Coach of the Year in ‘06 or ’05 – that’s 1906 and 1905 – and was signed as our coach in perpetuity. I was glad to see him replaced by (damned old age – who was our PCBK – Pitching Coach Before Kerrigan?).

But logically, if we believe that the Pirates blew out Ollie’s arm, then Spin Williams was the Pitching Coach at the time – can anything good come out of this?

"Who is John Galt?"

by Trogluddite on Mar 23, 2011 9:17 PM EDT up reply actions

Was just checking out Spin Williams stats....

and was wondering, why did Spin Williams pitch 4 games for the Pirates high-A team in Prince William in 1984, after he had already been a pitching coach for 3 years?? Did they just need a warm body or something, does somebody know the story or are the stats a misprint.

I saw he pitched in 1979-1981 in the Pirates Rookie & A-ball leagues, before becoming Greenwood’s pitching coach in 1981 at the ripe old age of 24.

Just checking out the rosters, it had to be really weird for future Pirate Mike Bielecki. He was Spin Williams teammate with the GCL Pirates in 1979 and the Shelby Pirates in 1980. Suddenly in 1981, both move to the Greenwood Pirates, but 24-year-old Williams becomes 21-year-old Bielecki’s pitching coach!

Looking at that 1981 Greenwood Pirates team, it had a few future major leaguers on it:

20-year-old Trench Davis, who would get a cup of coffee with the Pirates & Braves in 1986-87.

19-year-old Rich Renteria, who had a decent MLB career, and will probably be a major league manager (currently the Padres bench coach) pretty soon was also there.

19-year-old Joe Orsulak was also there. He was one of my favorite Pirates in the mid-80’s until he went on to the Orioles and played 14 years in the league.

20-year-old Joel Skinner, who the Pirates lost in that strange Free Agent Compensation Draft (or whatever it was called) to the White Sox, going on to a good MLB career, and also may be a future MLB manager (having been the 3rd base coach with the Indians for most of the last decade and is going to be the A’s bench coach this year.)

The team also had 18-year-old Dick Scott, who played in 3 MLB games with the A’s and, in addition to Bielecki, the pitching staff had 20-year-old Chris Green who made 4 appearances with the Pirates in 1984.

And 2 very bizarre listings (assuming the Baseball Cube stats are accurate). If my eyes are seeing things right, 31-year-old Fernando Gonzalez who had already played in 404 games as an infielder with the Pirates, Yankees, Royals and Padres, was apparently trying to extend his career by becoming a pitcher in A ball at the age of 31.

And, the site says that 10-year-old Jeff Horn made 23 appearances on that team, going 4-4 with a 3.56 ERA. And they show he had a rough time as a 9-year-old the previous year in Rookie League ball, struggling with a 1-7 record in 11 starts. Lucky for him, he got drafted by the Twins (as a catcher) 12 years later, but he never made it past AAA ball.

by impliedi on Mar 24, 2011 2:23 AM EDT up reply actions

Of course, I know that those last 2 are misprints, but it was fun to read anyway.

Baseball-reference shows that the Fernando Gonzalez that pitched for those 1981 Greenwood Pirates was actually 18-years-old and not the former infielder.

No explanation for the 1st Jeff Horn though!!!!

by impliedi on Mar 24, 2011 2:33 AM EDT up reply actions

And Baseball-Reference also lists a different Donald Williams (a 22-year-old)

being the one who pitched for Prince William in 1984 while his pitching coach was Donald “Spin” Williams. Now, it’s starting to make more sense!!!

by impliedi on Mar 24, 2011 2:37 AM EDT up reply actions

Mike Bielecki... now there's a blast from the past

I had forgotten he had that one good season in 1989, though it was for the Cubs.

And I’m 99% sure I still have a few Spin Williams minor league baseball cards, albeit as a coach….

by gonfalon on Mar 24, 2011 10:31 AM EDT up reply actions

I can't seem to recall why the Pirates practically gave away Bielecki to the Cubs after the 1987 season....

Perhaps it was the Drabek trade that did it. With Drabek & Brian Fisher now in the rotation to join Rookie Pitcher of the Year Mike Dunne, and Bob Kipper, perhaps Bielecki was deemed expendable. Though the Pirates also traded Big Daddy that year and Bob Walk was playing the middle reliever /spot starter role then.

I can’t recall if the Pirates had given up on Bielecki or if he had been injured or what.

by impliedi on Mar 24, 2011 11:53 AM EDT up reply actions

Spin

I believe that when Lloyd McClendon got the manager gig, he hired Spin Williams as his pitching coach. When Lloyd was gone…so was Spin.

by insane_sanity on Mar 24, 2011 8:37 AM EDT up reply actions

Hey insane....

It’s true that Lloyd promoted Spin to the pitching coach when he got the managing job in 2001, but Spin had been serving as bullpen coach on the Pirates since 1994 when Jim Leyland promoted him to replace Terry Collins (who had just been hired as the Astros manager, and he’s of course, going to manage the Mets this year).

So, Spin was the bullpen coach under Leyland and Lamont, and you’re right, he was promoted when McClendon was hired, though, if you want to get technical, Spin did stay on as the pitching coach with the Pirates for that last month of the season while Pete Mackanin was the manager, when McClendon was fired. He was let go after that season and, of course, Jim Tracy brought Jim Colburn with him.

And, to further GTrain’s Pirates-Indians-Nationals conspiracy circle, Spin became a Nationals player development advisor the next spring!!!!

by impliedi on Mar 24, 2011 11:41 AM EDT up reply actions

He should take his 36mil+

and find another hobby.

by oldfrothingslosh on Mar 23, 2011 4:43 PM EDT reply actions

Ollie joins the crappy players-crappy three team carousel

I am a huge believer that we are on the right track, but we have admittedly been a crappy team and I cant help but notice how many players move between some combination of the Pirates, Indians and Nationals. I know Neil came from CLE and the three teams that had the most holes to fill were always prime candidates for these guys but it’s kind of ridiculous. Off the top of my head

Bixler (more than once)
Milledge
Hanrahan
Nyjer
Burnett (obviously all one trade)
Marte
Austin Kearns
Matt Capps
Olsen
Ollie
(Jenson Lewis next?)

RIP NATE. RIP TONY PLUSH.

"I'D BE A CHEF"

-TONY PLUSH

by GTrain on Mar 23, 2011 5:05 PM EDT reply actions