Darren Oliver

competitive every season with Minaya on board.  Other useful acquisitions include Paul LoDuca, Darren Oliver, Jose Valentin, Duaner Sanchez, John Maine, Oliver Perez, Endy Chavez, Ryan Church, Damion Easley and Fernando Tatis.

Continue reading "In The Aftermath Of The Collapse ..."

ded the time type of long relief outing New York's bullpen has sorely missed since the departure of Darren Oliver after the 2006 season.  The offense scored 12 runs to complement the stellar pitching, and Daniel Murphy and Fernando Tatis each homered to lead the onslaught.  Jose and Argenis Reyes had two hits apiece, and Carlos Beltran drove in two, as New York scored eight runs in the third inning to put it away early.  Things are looking pretty good for the time being, but the real test will come the next time the Mets have a slim lead late in a game.

Continue reading "Perfect Game Moves Mets Back Into First"

That doesn’t sound like much until you realize that in 2004, it was only Sabathia, Willis and Darren Oliver. Thompson would bring the count to six, double what it was four years ago.

Small surprise that it doesn’t take much to double the number of African-American starters. Overall, they represent only 3% of all pitchers, even lower than the 8% of all MLB players who are black, which is half of their percentage from 1997. The reasons for this are manifold, from the high price of entry for kids into baseball (which requires not only bat, ball and glove, but a reasonably open, green space to play it in, none of which are easy to come by in inner-city America) to the long, narrow road baseball players must travel to the professional level.

Continue reading "Daryl Thompson: One of an Endangered Species"