Under full journalistic disclosure, I should announce that Ryan Perry and I are Facebook friends. I have never met Ryan in my life or know of anybody personally who has – I decided to ask for his “friendship” recently following an outing where he went from a 3-0 count to a strikeout.
So much this March in Lakeland has been made for Rick Porcello and his prowess on the mound. With Dontrelle Willis and Nate Robertson in a contest of who can be a worse pitcher apparently, Tigers fans are longing for another stud arm to hang their hopes on. These hopes may rest with a pitcher who has a few years on young Rick – bullpen candidate Ryan Perry.
Spring training for a pitcher is an intense month of avoiding bad starts. While ERA means very little to a reliever pitching roughly a dozen innings, the pressure on these unestablished major league pitchers can be overwhelming. Perry has showed incredible poise on the mound for being a kid barely out of Arizona. His command of that 97-plus m.p.h. arm has been nothing short of amazing. If he can stay healthy and remain consistent on the mound, there is no reason that he won’t be another fireballer wearing the famed ‘D’ this summer. He may also have Tigers fans forgetting that other flame thrower that, for one season, became the most popular Tiger around.
