Player Breakdowns: May 22nd
Luis Perales & Brandon Sproat
Luis Perales (BOS) - High-A:
Perales had one of the better outings I’ve seen this year at the minor-league level. He threw 81 pitches over 5 innings and 26 resulted in whiffs. That’s an absurd number. It certainly helped that the Greensboro lineup was fairly aggressive all night — swinging often and early in counts. Perales’ fastball was mid-to-upper 90s as he was touching 98-98.5 on multiple occasions. His fastball had late life and Greensboro just couldn’t catch up to it. He allowed one hit and walked two batters and his final line was 5IP 1H 0ER 2BB 12K.
The first inning was solid but didn’t indicate Perales was in for a special night. He then started flashing his Changeup and Slider which looked absolutely filthy for the entirety of the outing. He was getting chases out of the zone, whiffs in the zone, and half-assed swings on the breaking pitches.
He struck out the final 6 batters as he struck out the side in both the 4th and 5th innings. He looked utterly dominant doing so, mixing all his pitches, and executing/locating precisely where he wanted.
There was a sequence against Termarr Johnson in the 4th inning in which he got him to swing at 3 changeups, making Johnson look silly in the process.
The changeup looked like one of the better secondary offerings I’ve seen all year at the minor league level — and it played especially well off the upper 90s fastball that Perales was featuring. If Perales has this much command over his CH going forward, we’re looking at the best arm in the Boston system.
I know all of my declarations for David Sandlin & Yordanny Monegro have led everyone to believe those are the top two arms in the system — at least in my rankings. And while that’s true, things have to remain fluid. While I’m still high on the aforementioned (non-Perales) names, Perales may be the most promising arm of the bunch. I had concerns over Perales which I’ve written about in the past, but the stuff and execution from him in last night’s start have me pushing him up further. I originally ranked him 40th in my Top 100 Pitching Prospect ranks and here is what I wrote:
As a 20-year-old between A and A+ last year, Perales pitched to a 3.91 ERA. If you took his final 13 starts between both levels he pitched to a 3.14 ERA with 80K’s in 63IP. The only problem was he also walked 30. Lowering his BB% will be key for Perales as he’s been prone to losing his command in the middle of starts. He’s a high-variance arm who features a plus fastball and curveball that’s been shown to be plus at times. His fastball has been sitting mid-90s while touching 98-99 early on this season while featuring a low 90s cutter, low-to-mid 80s slider, and a mid-to-high 80s changeup. He’s been dominant and I may have him ranked too low. He’s a name to watch.
This start has convinced me that he’s more than just a name to watch going forward — and more of a potential target, as the stuff and execution were just brilliant yesterday. I’m now leaning in a bit further on Perales, to say the least.
Let’s take a look at the Whiffs and CS from Perales’ start: