http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/recap?gid=240909223Oliver Perez struck out 13 as Pittsburgh beat Houston on Thursday. This wasn't like striking out 13 Brewers...the Astros had won 12 in a row and are surging towards the NL wild card slot. Houston wasn't playing their September call-ups. Double check the story: against a playoff team, he went 8 innings, striking out 13, while surrendering 1 run, 1 walk and 3 hits.
Perez has become only the second Pirate to strike out 200+ in a season. The other? Bob Veale did it twice in the 60's. (Look up Bob Veale.. he had some surprising numbers and wore spiffy glasses, too) . Perez has become the Pirates' "stopper". A starter who goes out every five days and pitches a quality start. Sometimes a dominating start, as Perez is averaging around 11 K's a start. The Pirates haven't had a strikeout artist like this in my lifetime...and haven't had a "stopper" since Doug Drabek left after 1992. Zane Smith flirted with the roll in 1994, as did Denny Neagle in 1996. Both of those guys never derived an "aww shit" from the opposing team. When the other team shows up at the park and sees Perez pencilled as the starter, they think "aww shit".
Oh by the way, Perez and ROY candidate Jason Bay were the compensation Pittsburgh received for Brian Giles. I was upset when Giles left, but his trade could turn out to be one of the best in Buc history. Perez is only 21, and the hope is that the Bucs can keep him around for the next five years at least. He'll have high K numbers, but his wins will hover around 10-14. The low win totals might be enough to keep the other teams away. Hopefully, when Perez DOES hit 17-20 wins, it'll be in a year when the Bucs are contending.
Now if Craig Wilson can just learn to play defense out in right...and Jack Wilson can stick around.... and Jon Van Benschotten, Kip Wells, Josh Fogg and Sean Burnett get their shit together... and Daryle Ward gets a full season... and the Pirates stop signing guys like Raul Mondesi, Randall Simon, Chris Stynes, Derek Bell and Pat Meares every spring....