Cards prospect Perdomo impresses at Futures Game - STLtoday.com
CINCINNATI • Before a scout for the San Francisco Giants suggested he drop the bat and try the mound, Luis Perdomo was a rangy teenage outfielder who didn’t need a big-league evaluator to know what skills he lacked. He had a personal scouting report he could recite years later. “I had a good arm,” Perdomo said Sunday. Perdomo, an agile 22-year-old righthander, was the Cardinals’ lone representative in Sunday’s Futures Game, the annual opener for Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game festivities. He was on the World roster, as the replacement for the Cardinals’ top righthanded pitching prospect, Alex Reyes — who thought he could be a third baseman before a coach suggested he move to the mound. Perdomo’s appearance at Great American Ball Park in the showcase of baseball’s leading young talent came a day before Carlos Martinez arrived at the same stadium for his first coronation as an All-Star. Martinez was a shortstop before becoming a pitcher, and in many ways he’s the lithe, strong-armed model for what the Cardinals seek in the amateur market. Especially a market such as Latin America — where statistics can be scarce, scouting essential, production relative, and millions of dollars invested in the kindling promise 16- and 17-year old boys. Perdomo “fits the mold,” said Joe Kruzel, his manager at Class A Peoria. One of the more impressive arms on the World’s team Sunday, Perdomo pitched a scoreless two-thirds of an inning, with a strikeout on a firm changeup to end the inning. He was the last of the World pitchers into a game dominated, 10-1, by Team USA. Source: www.stltoday.com
