I watch more Rangers stuff than everything. One thing I did some research on:
Over the WBC, Rangers SP Martin Perez was told to throw his sinker more by Felix. There was a whole segment on him talking about it during their game today. Here is the Brooks Baseball blurb on his pitching profile:
Quote:
His sinker generates an extremely high number of swings & misses compared to other pitchers' sinkers, is blazing fast and results in many more groundballs compared to other pitchers' sinkers. His fourseam fastball generates more whiffs/swing compared to other pitchers' fourseamers, has well above average velo and results in somewhat more groundballs compared to other pitchers' fourseamers. His change generates an extremely high number of swings & misses compared to other pitchers' changeups, is much firmer than usual, results in many more groundballs compared to other pitchers' changeups and has some natural sink to it. His curve (take this with a grain of salt because he's only thrown 16 of them in 2017) is basically never swung at and missed compared to other pitchers' curves, is an extreme flyball pitch compared to other pitchers' curves, is much harder than usual and has little depth. His slider (take this with a grain of salt because he's only thrown 12 of them in 2017) generates an extremely high number of swings & misses compared to other pitchers' sliders, results in more flyballs compared to other pitchers' sliders, is much harder than usual and has less than expected depth.
Perez was at one point a very highly rated prospect, but his major league results have been rather mediocre. A large part of this is due to a k/9 at that level of 5.46 and 4.67 over the past two seasons. However, during some stretches in the minors, his k/9 rate was much higher. It was 9.12 over 99 innings in double A, 10.09 over 93 innings in single A, and 8.46 over 88 more innings in double A again.
He struck out 4 in 6 innings in start #1 and then 6 in 5.1 in #2.
This doesn't mean go pick him up. It means keep an eye on him and see how it progresses over the next few weeks. Today he threw 48 sinkers out of 92 pitches and 15 changeups (with a 26.7 whiff % on them). If the next couple of weeks progress with him throwing half his pitches as sinkers and the K-rate stays up, he can potentially provide some value.
Note also: The defense behind him should improve when Beltre returns.