St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Chris Perez knows he's under microscope

JUPITER, Fla. — Just a few short strides from the doors of the Cardinals' spring training clubhouse, there is important work being done. Behind the giant, green chain-link fence windscreen, you can hear the work long before you see it.

Shhhhhhhhhh thuuuuuump!

It is the distinctive sound of a baseball whistling through the air at warp speed, then pounding to an abrupt stop into the firm leather pocket of a catcher's mitt. The baseball sounds different, almost violent as it cuts through the air. If string music is basketball's sweetest sound and the ball rattling into the cup is golf's beautiful music, then this is one of baseball's finest melodies:

This is the sound of frightening velocity, 94-miles plus.

Shhhhhhhhhh thuuuuuump!

This is why 23-year-old Chris Perez is attracting a crowd. The big kid with the baby face, stringy long hair and rocket arm is trying to earn his way onto the Cardinals' regular-season roster as the team's closer. No matter where he is throwing — here on the practice mound, over on the far field throwing live batting practice — people tend to gather.

A few days ago, the kid was cranking it up behind the windscreen, and in a few minutes he had no fewer than 15 people staring at him. Coaches, front-office types, media folks and more than a few teammates, carefully scrutinizing every pitch he threw.

"Yeah, I notice," Perez said Monday as he stood near the clubhouse door. "But you have to kind of block that out. You can't allow that to affect how you go about your business every day. But that is something that is real. Every time I throw there seems to be more people watching me than the last time. I guess that is part of them evaluating me and the other (closer candidates) to see who will win the job."

The process has just begun, but the ever-expanding crowd is an indication of just how unique Perez's talent is and just how important he figures to be to this 2009 season. The coaches and personnel folks are evaluating the simple pitching functions. They're looking for arm slots and velocity. They're scrutinizing just how much Perez can make that change-up dance and that fastball zing.

At 6 feet 4, 225 pounds, the righthanded reliever showed promise in his brief major-league stint last season — enough promise that the organization coaxed manager Tony La Russa to consider doing something he absolutely abhors: handing the closer's job over to an untested rookie.

The former first-round draft pick (2006) out of the University of Miami has to convince pitching coach Dave Duncan and all those other organizational eyes that he has mastered a second pitch (a slider) to go along with that explosive 94-95 mph fastball that brings total smoke toward the plate. "It wasn't that I needed to get a second pitch," said Perez. "I just have to throw it better. I had (the slider) all through the minors, I just have to get better at it. But I got away from using it last year and I sort of lost the feel for it, and up in the big leagues it's kind of tough to get it back because the hitters are so good. It's not when I was in the minors where you can get away with things because the hitters aren't nearly as good.

"That's sort of what happened to me last year when I got in a rut and tried to find it in the games and it just wasn't happening," Perez said. "But when I came into spring training, I just went back to throwing it like I did in the minors, and it's worked so far pretty good."

But there is something else he has to work on, and that is why he's drawing the discerning stares from Cardinals veterans, too. When they gather along the fringes of Perez's vision, they're looking to see something a bit more intangible than what the personnel people are searching for.

Confirmation that they can trust the kid in one of the most significant roles on this team. A reliable closer could be the difference between the Cards being middle-of-the-pack pretenders and serious NL Central contenders. So when you see Albert Pujols stroll over from the batting cage to sneak a peek from behind the fence, you understand how much weight is on Perez's shoulders.

"Right now I'm just trying to win a job on the team," said the kid. "That's one of my goals is to just win a spot on the roster coming out of spring training. Now a secondary goal is to pitch good in spring training and hopefully have them pick me as the closer. That's something I worked hard for in the offseason, and that would be nice."

Barely a week into spring training, it's way too early to make any definitive judgments on Perez. Live batting practice and side sessions are like going to the practice range and pounding a bucket of golf balls. They're all about technique, not competition.

He has spent the entire offseason working on perfecting that second pitch, making it nearly impossible to detect a difference in his arm slot between his slider and his fastball.

The crowds gathering around Perez are growing by the day, and everyone is waiting to be pleased. Chris Perez pretends he doesn't notice, but he feels all those eyes and all that pressure on him. If it turns out that all that pressure feels like a scalding hot lamp in an interrogation room, this could be a difficult season for the Redbirds. But if Perez can treat all those glaring eyes like the soothing rays of the sun, the Cardinals are sure to prosper.

(stltoday.com)