Q&A with Cleveland closer Chris Perez

Cleveland Indians closer Chris Perez has posted 22 saves and a 3.11 ERA this season so far.

He is one of the more entertaining players in Major League Baseball.

Check out the video of him a few posts down.

Here are some other questions I asked him:

Smitty: Do you know whether a pitch will be a strike or not immediately after you release the baseball?
Perez: On most days, I do know whether it’s going to be a strike or not when I release the ball. But sometimes, you release the ball and you just hope it’s going to go in there. I’m sure every pitcher has gotten into one of those stretches, where your location — you just kind of lose it for a little bit. And you’re just feeling your way through and hoping the ball gets into the strike zone. But for the most part,when it leaves the hand, you kind of know. It feels like it’s going to be a strike.

Smitty: If you could talk pitching with anybody, who would it be?
Perez: Talk pitching or hitting?

Smitty: Either.
Perez: Hitting-wise I’d probably want to talk to somebody like a Tony Gwynn or a Wade Boggs or somebody like that who hit for a high average because obviously that’s more difficult to do. Power hitters are special … but to hit for a high average — maybe like Pete Rose who’s the all-time hits king — you have to be a pretty smart hitter, have a good idea, have a good approach and kind of know how the pitchers are going to try to attack you. Somebody like that, I’d like to try to pick their brain and see what kind of approach they took, especially late in the game because that’s when I pitch. I know hitters switch up their approach with a starter compared to a reliever.

Smitty: Any pitcher you’d like to chat with?
Perez: I actually got to talk with Bob Gibson quite a bit when I was with the St. Louis Cardinals and he’ a pretty special guy to talk about pitch with. Just about intimidation and having a presence on the mound. He’s one of the all-time greats of that. I picked up some stuff from him. And It was just cool listening to him and his stories.


(eagletribune.com)