Cardinals officials imPerezed by reliever

After being drafted in the first supplemental round last June, Chris Perez more or less dominated Midwest League hitters in 25 appearances.

And according to Kary Booher of the Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader, Perez this spring has picked up where he left off:

Initially and conservatively penciled in to close for High-A Palm Beach this season, Perez is blowtorching his way through spring training at such a dizzying pace, St. Louis’ minor league personnel are beginning to question whether the original plan ought to be scrapped.

Now it appears he could break camp as the anchor of the Springfield Cardinals bullpen…

Taking a page out of Erik’s book, Perez’s cheese sits in the low to mid-90s, while his slider, rated by Baseball America as the organization’s best, is death to right-handers. Portsiders, though, were less impressed by it, as evidenced by Perez’s generous walk rate to lefties.

If he does start the season in Double-A and can figure out a way to solve lefties, we could see Perez enjoying a delicious cup of fair-trade coffee with the big club in September. He then could be setting up for Jason Isringhausen in 2008, unless the club declines Izzy’s $8 million option…

While I do find it implausible that the club would give Perez the keys to the ninth inning in 2008 (that’ll happen in 2009), it does highlight what I think is a better, cheaper way to construct a bullpen.

Instead of paying retail for an “established closer,” it would be much more cost-effective to grow your own power arms to put in that role. Take Isringhausen’s contracts, for example. His first, signed in 2002 was for four years at an average yearly value of $6.75M. The extension he signed before 2005 to replace the final two years of the first deal was for three years with an $8.583 AYV.

But a player such as Perez would earn about $1.5M his first three seasons combined. For a guy who’s going to pitch about 70-75 innings per season, the choice seems obvious, in theory.

Of course, the real world can blow such theories to hell. The Cardinals basically had to sign an “established closer” back in 2002 because Dave Veres wasn’t getting the job done and because there were no internal options (where have you gone, Jimmy Journell and Scotty Layfield?). Before that, the ninth inning was given to the likes of Ricky F. Bottalico, Juan Acevedo and Jeff Brantley. Getting Isringhausen was like getting a used BMW after years of driving a busted-ass 1987 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera.

But now, having a guy like Chris Perez potentially gives you the flexibility to allocate precious payroll space away from the bullpen and into higher-value areas.