Martin Perez has progressed exaclty like the Texas Rangers hoped he would in his first season of starting the year in the starting rotation.
Perez became a fixture in late-June of last season and ended up winning 10 games as a rookie, and the lefty has built on that breakout half-season with a strong start to the 2014 season. He'll get another chance to continue his hot start on Friday night against the hot-hitting Chicago White Sox.
So far this year, Perez has made three starts and is 2-0 with a 2.70 ERA in 20 innings of work. In that time, he's given up a hit per inning, which isn't good, but he's also induced a ton of groundball outs by attacking the zone and keeping the ball down, and that's led to nine double plays behind him.
Eventually, Perez is going to have a bad start, and he's probably out of place as a No. 2 starter for a contender, but once reinforcements arrive and he's placed in the No. 3 or even No. 4 spot, you're looking at a really solid rotation.
The Rangers were tasked with treading water in the beginning of the season, and they've done more than that over the past three weeks, and Perez has been a huge part of that by limiting damage and attacking hitters.
