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Agent Boras shows up to support Mets' Perez

BY DAVID LENNON | david.lennon@newsday.com

May 7, 2008

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LOS ANGELES - Scott Boras, the agent for Oliver Perez, watched a handful of Mets' regulars take early batting practice yesterday at Dodger Stadium. Showing up in the wake of their 5-1 loss to the Dodgers the previous night, when Perez was raked for three home runs in six innings, you can bet Boras wasn't there to negotiate a contract extension for his client.

Maybe Boras made the drive up from his Newport Beach compound in an effort to protect his investment, which, at the moment, is not performing to expectations. Perez suffered his third straight defeat Monday, dropping him to 2-3, and he remains as puzzling as ever. So far, it's not the kind of start an agent dreams of during a walk year, but Boras, unlike the nervous Mets' faithful, is preaching patience.

"I'm not sure after five starts you'd use the term erratic," Boras said. "You can talk about his last three starts. The first two starts were brilliant. The last two starts - however you want to gauge it. I only look at these things as part of a season. Look at it in the long term. Oliver Perez is not going to evaluated solely on his first two starts. He's not going to be evaluated solely on his last three. He's going to be evaluated on his season."

Spoken like someone who has a lot to gain if Perez can come up with another 15 wins, as he did a year ago, which earned him $6.5 million in arbitration last March. That's certainly not out of the question. It's just that the past couple of weeks have been a rough ride for Perez, and given his inconsistent nature, there's no telling how long it will last.

The Mets were counting on Perez to be a key member of this rotation long before Pedro Martinez and Orlando Hernandez went down with injuries. Now that both are out for an indefinite period, Perez has become even more important. And with that rise in stature, he's come up small in response.

In his last three starts, Perez has allowed 12 earned runs in 13 1/3 innings for an 8.10 ERA, punctuated by that awful outing against the Pirates last Wednesday, when he exited after just five outs. By comparison, Monday's loss to the Dodgers wasn't quite so bad. It's just that serving up three home runs doesn't make a defeat that less painful. It was a little cleaner that's all - regardless of the spin any of the Mets want to put on it.

"Yesterday, Oliver was not bad," manager Willie Randolph said before last night's game. "If we scored five or six runs, we wouldn't be talking about Oliver right now."

At least Perez seems oblivious to the external conflict going on around him. He didn't get upset when teammate Billy Wagner accused him of quitting last week and also appears to be immune from other criticism after his starts.

Perez munched on an ice cream cone as he answered questions after the Dodgers took him apart on Monday. As the Mets prepared yesterday, he played the arcade game, "Street Fighter," with Aaron Heilman only a few feet away from teammates watching video on laptops. That's not to say Perez should have been doing something else. It just seems as if playing video games wasn't doing much to help him for his next start.

Or maybe that's just the method to Perez's particular madness. There's no doubt Perez has the talent to win 15 games again - or more. The challenge for the Mets is getting it out of him, which brought a couple of interesting comparisons from Boras.

"Manny Ramirez has a plan - same thing with Oliver," Boras said.

"[Johan Santana] didn't start to develop until 25, 26, to do what he does," Boras said. "When you talk about the [growth] of Santana, age-wise, this is where Oliver had his first 15-game season at 26 and Johan started to turn the corner on his."

Sounds like a reach. But the sooner Perez can start resembling Santana, the better for the Mets.

Today

Mets at Dodgers

3:10 p.m.

TV: SNY

Radio: WFAN (660)