Martin Perez' first start was pretty successful.
5 + innings giving up just 2 runs on 1 walk, 5 strike outs, a HR and 7 ground balls. That effort translate into an expected runs allowed of 4.92 per 9 innings.
Martin has a history of walking a lot of batters in the minors (3.8 BB/9 in 2010 and 2011), so it was good (for those affiliated with the Rangers) to see him avoiding the walks. He did give up a lot of line drives (the reason for the high expected runs allowed) which may have been the result of throwing some meatballs.
We can see a lot of pitches over the center of the plate, and not a lot on the corners. Martin will probably have to locate his pitches better in the future to continue getting this type of favorable result.
For the game Martin threw 103 pitches, 59 for strikes. League average strike% is about 63% so Martin was a bit below that.
According to Brooksbaseball, Martin threw 25 4-seam fastballs at about 93 MPH, 36 2-seam fastballs at 92 MPH, 28 changeups at 82 MPH, 13 curve balls at 75 MPH and 1 82 MPH pitch was labelled a slider.
His most impressive pitch looks to be his changeup. Martin induced 5 swinging strikes on his changeups, that's an 18% swinging strike rate. League average swinging strike rate is around 9%, so his changeup looks like a good pitch. Unfortunately, Martin didn't get a swinging strike on any of his other pitches.
The Rangers indicated before the start that they were undecided if Perez would stay in the rotation. While his results make him look like a major league pitcher, his process leads one to believe a bit more time in the minors might be necessary.
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