The role of the Long Man in the bullpen is to fill in for a starter who falters. At that point the Long Man has to come into the game, limit the damage, and save the bullpen. Our first long man in the pen (this season, and not necessarily intended) was Takahashi, then it was Valdes, and we know in an emergency it can be Dickey or Nieve.
However there is another pitcher making his home there and not being used, his name, of course, is Oliver Perez. A struggling starting pitcher, that happens to be in the pen, makes the most sense to be the Long Man. But why is not being used? Well the entire team has no confidence in him any more. He clearly needed to go back to the minors and work on his stuff, but he refused. The result was an 8 day period when he wasn't used, and he came into a game and was a mess.
He has been asked several times apparently to take a rehab assignment, and he has refused several times. This is getting to the point that he is about to cross over into the worst possible athlete scenario.
There are four different combination's that an athlete can be. He or she could be a good athlete and a good teammate, a good athlete and a bad teammate, a bad teammate and a good athlete and finally, a bad athlete and a bad teammate. Now in terms of good and bad athlete, I'm talking about the ability to play the specific game at that specific moment in time (thus the word athlete might be wrong, but it's much easier to write).
Perez currently is in the “bad athlete” area right now. His stuff is a mess, he's not locating pitches, etc etc etc. But he also has a chance to get out of this, but he'll need to make a sacrifice for the team, by going to the minors. By refusing this, he is now also a bad teammate. When a player falls into this category, there is no reason to keep that player. If this is the attitude that Perez is going to have, then it might really be time to eat up the contract and let him free, because being on the roster is hurting the team and now hurting the clubhouse.
In the end, this is just another distraction that needs to be taken care of. I hope Perez comes to his senses and takes the assignment so he can find himself.
