"By the time he left Cuba, he was mostly throwing 88 to 93 (mph), touching 94. Some starts he would sit in the lower end of that range," said Baseball America's Ben Badler, who watched Perez pitch extensively in Cuba but has not seen him since the pitcher defected. "The question mark I had was, 'Yeah, he did have a quick arm from the left side and he's very athletic, but I didn't really see a true out-pitch from him.' " Badler said Perez while in Cuba threw a "kind of slurvy, three-quarters breaking ball that sometimes looked more like a curveball, sometimes looked more like a slider, but it wasn't a true swing-and-miss pitch for him." But Badler added that the reports from those who have seen Perez more recently paint a positive picture of the pitcher's continued development. "It sounded like his fastball is up a tick. He's added a two-seam fastball. He started to learn how to throw a changeup and while his secondary pitches aren't consistent yet you're at least seeing an average breaking ball out of him," Badler said. "There are a lot of positive indicators between the athleticism, the arm speed that he has, and some of the developmental steps that he's taken forward since he left Cuba that I think have encouraged a lot of the scouts who have seen him since he left Cuba."
He looks like a winner and very marketable, that is for sure. Let's hope he can deliver on the field too.
Wow, so the article from MacT says that because the Astros voided his previous deal, he will be eligible for the Rule 5 draft if he is not placed on the 40 man roster. That explains the timing of the signing (after this year's Rule 5 to at least buy them a year), and Perez's agent indicated that it is the reason he still signed with Houston despite being offered more money from San Diego and Baltimore (knowing he will have to move quickly and be on the 40 man next year). This tells me a couple things: Houston must feel pretty good about his maturity if they signed him knowing he will command a 40 man spot in 11 months at age 22 with only 1 minor league season under his belt, and I bet he is pushed quickly through the system (possibly starting in High A and moving to AA midseason).
Well, if you didn't read the rest of my comment, then you should, as that is where I explained the "so what". If you did read the rest of my comment, you either suck at reading comprehension or are just being a dick.
You make a good point and it's worth consideration but does losing a Chapman/Aplin/Tolliver level player really have any negative ramifications? Maybe that's just being short sighted since it seems the team isn't currently in as much of a roster crunch situation as it had been after loading up on prospects for 3+ seasons.
