Josh Beckett or Ollie Perez---which would you rather??

[Mercer Boy]

I would not get too concerned about Perez, but I would rather own Beckett. His team will actually give him run support and get wins.

Definitely the positive with Beckett...If he didn't have injury/blister concerns he would be a tip-top pitcher. I would take him over Oliver by a mile.

Perez really needs to solve his control/walking problems. The more people he lets on base, the more chance the Pirates defense has of screwing up and letting the runs score. We are really good at giving teams "extra outs." He can strike out a ton of guys, but the walks he gives up come in to score too often. Combine this with the Pirates completely inept offensive ability, and you don't get a whole lot of wins.

[Q]

Before the year I would have said Perez but after their first few starts Im going to have to say Beckett. Josh has seemed to have found his control while Oliver has lost the control that he had last year. This could be Beckett's breakout year while Perez will probably regress from last year.

[warrick95]

I had Beckett way above him before his hot start, anyway. To me, Ollie's as big an injury risk as Beckett. Look at his throwing motion. It puts an extreme amount of stress on his arm. He's going to go under the knife sometime this years. I hate saying something like this (talking about/predicting a player getting hurt), but it's true.

As said, Ollie's still learning how to pitch with control. Beckett's much more polished and I believe has more potential, too.

[asumikey222]

I had Beckett way above him before his hot start, anyway. To me, Ollie's as big an injury risk as Beckett. Look at his throwing motion. It puts an extreme amount of stress on his arm. He's going to go under the knife sometime this years. I hate saying something like this (talking about/predicting a player getting hurt), but it's true.

As said, Ollie's still learning how to pitch with control. Beckett's much more polished and I believe has more potential, too.

Well don't feel too bad, it's just a question of how many weeks/months Beckett will miss rather than just "will he be hurt?" Typically, Beckett's value is inflated right now as people conveniently forget his injuries; I own him and may try trade him soon, although he's such a great pitcher too so that's why it's always tempting to risk it.

[biju]

I read somewhere that this is the first year Perez did not play winter ball, and then he also didn't get much time during ST, so that could explain his shaky start.

I'm a little concerned about him being an owner, but I do believe at the end of the year he will have had more value than Beckett did. Beckett is just too much of an injury risk for me to ever feel comfortable anyway.

Give Ollie a few more starts to warm up. In the meantime, it might be a good idea to hold off keeping him in the lineup.

[GameOver]

I am a minority but Perez will settle in and throw good again, while Beckett will have to get some bandaids for his blisters..

[thehat]

I'd like to own them both, but if have to take one, its got to be Beckett. Agree with Warrick's comments about Perez, in that there's just so much violence in his delivery, he's a conch to develop some issues at some point. Maybe this year, maybe not. But the report in ST that he had a little tightness in his shoulder (admittedly, this was attributed to not having pitched winter ball, and that makes some sense) concerned me mildly.

Beckett has the talent to win a Cy Young, and has a far better team behind him. Good bet to win 15-17 this season, IMO, while Perez is more likely to be around 12-14 assuming a return to form.

Beckett therefore gets my vote, though if I owned Perez, I would still be optimistic he'll perform just fine.

[bd3521]

Should i give up Halladay for Ollie?

[The Jury]

I read somewhere that this is the first year Perez did not play winter ball, and then he also didn't get much time during ST, so that could explain his shaky start.

I'm a little concerned about him being an owner, but I do believe at the end of the year he will have had more value than Beckett did. Beckett is just too much of an injury risk for me to ever feel comfortable anyway.

Give Ollie a few more starts to warm up. In the meantime, it might be a good idea to hold off keeping him in the lineup.

I'm with you. I, along with majority, had Ollie ranked better than Beckett before the season started, so I'm gonna stick with that. This hot start by Beckett doesn't change anything - we just have to wait until the end of the year to see if we were right with our projections.

[Cooner]

wow, time to find me an ollie owner to start trade-baiting...

A healthy Beckett and a comfortable Ollie are about equal methinks, so the real question is who is more likely to be healthy/comfortable. Both are young guys with a ton of talent, both can be incredibly dominating, but both have obvious concerns and are high risk.

I'm not sure who I'd rather have, for now or for the long run. But if everyone here is that down on Ollie, it's time to go offer the Ollie owners of my league some low-ball trades...