The dark clouds began to form for Perez on this a sunny Sunday afternoon, in Disney World no less. That's because on a day when Terry Collins specifically expressed to him the importance of throwing strikes during warmups, Perez went on to give up four runs, walking three batters in a couple of innings including one with the bases loaded. In total, he only threw 19 of his 45 pitches for strikes.
To make matters worse, Perez' velocity was once again problematic as he floated around 81-83mph, topping out at 85mph. Despite the fact that he was reportedly throwing all two-seamers, Collins said he was expecting a few more ticks based on reports he'd read from Ollie's stint in winter ball.
Collins also indicated that he'd like to start 'making decisions' about the battle for the last two spots of the rotation on or around March 10th, two days after Ollie's next scheduled start in an intra-squad game. But after Collins lauded fellow contender Chris Young's Sunday performance on top of good reports from lefty Chris Capuano's start back in PSL, the writing may already be on the wall for Oliver Perez.