"Wow," is all Missouri State grad Sam Perez could say after the Miami Marlins picked him in the fifth round of the draft Friday with the 143rd overall pick.
“I kind of feel like a baby deer,” Perez said. “My legs are jiggly, a little shaken up.”
Perez, who wasn’t drafted out of Branson High School, built his reputation over his four years at Missouri State on reliability and consistency. Still, he knew seniors didn’t go early in the draft. Why should he be an exception?
“[Saturday] is when I was expecting to go,” he said. “I get a call in the fifth round and all the sudden I start shaking a little bit and ask, 'did he really just call my name?'”
That hope is why, despite his expectations, Perez hooked his laptop up to his living room TV Friday to watch the picks go by.
“As a senior my expectations were the last pick in the last round of the draft,” Perez said. “Anything above that was extremely exciting for me. To know that [the Marlins] have that kind of aspirations for me, to take me in the fifth round like that, I can't even begin to express how grateful I am for that.”
The Marlins kept tabs on him all spring. They marveled at how Perez could gobble up innings and still get high leverage outs. It was a weakness one scout admitted they had in certain parts of their organization.
He finished with a vengeance. He didn’t allow a run in his final 22.2 innings as a Bear. He racked up 112 strikeouts in 36 appearances (a school record).
Perez’s ability to stay consistent despite high use came in the summer of his sophomore year at Missouri State. He pitched for the Sedalia Bombers over the summer, and they would trot him out there day after day – a lot more than he was used to. Perez was concerned. What about his velocity? His arm strength? Would this burn him out?
He talked to longtime Missouri State pitching coach Paul Evans, who asked him if he thought he could do what they wanted him to do.
“I don’t think I can do it,” Perez told him. “I know I can do it.”
So he did. Reliability would be his trademark and consistency his calling card.
As he adopted this mindset his velocity – which sat at about 91 miles per hour – jumped to an easy 95 by his senior year. That, combined with the best start in team history, got him the attention he needed to appear on radars that he’d eluded coming out of Branson High School.
“My biggest thing that I got at Missouri State was just to compete no matter the adversity,” he said. “That carries a lot of weight in professional baseball. You don't know where you'll be picked or what they'll want you to do.”
Now he knows the Marlins picked him, and they want him to do what he’s been doing as a Bear.
“They call and say, 'hey, we grabbed you, are you wanting to play?' And I said, 'yeah, of course I am!'”
