Ryan Perry TRACKER

For Perry, confidence will follow consistency
By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 09/24/11 8:26 PM ET

DETROIT -- Manager Jim Leyland talks about Ryan Perry with some of the same keywords he uses to describe Ryan Raburn. Consistency is one word. Confidence is another.

Perry is starting to gain the consistency. Leyland is hoping the confidence follows.

"He's a lot like a position player who doesn't have the confidence in himself that he should have," Leyland said. "Ryan Perry should be a real good pitcher up here, and he needs to get more confidence in himself, a little more swagger, because he's got the equipment to do it.

"If you look, the last two nights, he's been pretty good. Those should be confidence things for him."

For Perry, confidence will come when the consistency is there. Consistency, he believes, will follow from his mechanics.

"I've never been able to hit my spots as well as I have now," Perry said on Saturday. "I have better control now than I really ever have. I just really, really pushed to learn my mechanics and learn my body."

Perry has had a turbulent season, alternating dominant stretches in which he didn't look hittable with plodding stretches of control woes. His last couple of outings have fallen into the first category.

He nearly had an 11th-inning meltdown on his hands on Friday, having allowed a leadoff double on an 0-2 pitch to Nick Markakis and a four-pitch walk to Vladimir Guerrero. After a visit from pitching coach Jeff Jones, he fell behind on a 2-0 count. Two pitches later he was out of the inning.

The first pitch, he said, was a straight fastball that Matt Wieters grounded to first hard enough to start a double play. The next was a sinker that Adam Jones grounded to short.

Just like that, Perry had gone from what looked like a loss in the works to scoreless inning. Once the Tigers rallied in the bottom of the frame, Perry had his first Major League win since last September.

"I really feel like I've been throwing well over the last few weeks," Perry said. "The outing in Oakland [last Saturday], I really got more frustrated handling the situation. Instead of bearing down, I just got mad and tried to throw harder. It's something I've been able to prevent over the last few weeks since I was recalled. That was the one time.

"But I'm really feeling good. I feel like I'm repeating my mechanics, my delivery, on a much more consistent basis than I ever have. So I'm really happy with where I'm at right now."

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. Chris Vannini is an associate reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

What's next for these Tigers?

Ryan Perry,
right-handed reliever

2011: One of the more mysterious seasons by any Tigers reliever. The big arm remains. But results haven’t come close to being consistent.

Contract: Made $430,000 and is not arbitration-eligible

2012: Perry needs to flash that hard-to-hit stuff he featured in 2009. And he needs to find an out-pitch. Could be trade bait, although he probably is worth more now to Detroit than to another club.

John T. Greilick/The Detroit News

Tigers swing deal for right-hander Balester
Former first-round pick Perry sent to Washington
By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 12/09/11 9:04 PM EST

DETROIT -- Hours after the Tigers' signing of Octavio Dotel left Ryan Perry as a pitcher without a role, he became a pitcher on a new team. The Tigers sent the former first-round pick to the Nationals on Friday night in exchange for Collin Balester in a swap of talented but inconsistent relievers who could use a change of scenery.

"Acquiring Collin Balester from the Nationals today adds another good arm to our organization," team president/general manager Dave Dombrowski said in a statement. "He has shown the ability to pitch multiple innings out of the bullpen in the past, a role we are looking for him to fill for our club in 2012."

The 25-year-old Balester has a big frame at 6-foot-5, and a power arm for a longer reliever. What he didn't have in Washington was a steady role. He went 1-4 with a 4.54 ERA for the Nationals this past season, striking out 34 batters over 35 2/3 innings. He went 2-1 with a 4.35 ERA at Triple-A Syracuse, with 46 strikeouts over 39 1/3 innings.

Balester was out of Minor League options, so he would've had to make Washington's bullpen out of camp or go onto waivers. He stands a better chance of making the roster in Detroit, where the Tigers have gone through a few different arms in long relief over the last few years.

"We look at him more for multi-inning relief," Dombrowski told MLB.com in a phone interview. "We look at him more as a guy pitching multiple innings. ... That was really more the difference between him and Ryan Perry at this time."

As for Balester's options situation, Dombrowski said, "We look at him as somebody that should be on our club."

Perry was a multi-inning reliever for a short stretch, but he best fit as a setup type of arm. Eventually, however, the Tigers ran out of time to wait for him to settle into the job.

Perry was the centerpiece of a reliever-heavy Tigers Draft in 2008, a hard-throwing right-hander who was the setup man of the future, if not a potential closer. But after he made the team out of camp the next spring, he never really found the consistency to hold down a role.

Perry pitched in 149 games for the Tigers over the last three seasons, but never quite showed the benefits of the experience. He went 2-0 with a 5.35 ERA for Detroit this past season, allowing 39 hits over 37 innings with 21 walks and 24 strikeouts. His career stats in three seasons as a Tiger include a 5-6 record, 4.07 ERA, 82 walks and 129 strikeouts over 161 1/3 innings.

Dombrowski and manager Jim Leyland talked about Perry's pitching earlier this week during baseball's Winter Meetings. At that point, they were talking about what Perry needs to do to stick in the big leagues.

"He has to be consistent," Dombrowski said. "He has to command his fastball on a consistent basis. He has to get more consistent in his slider. And he has to, once in a while, change speeds, particularly versus left-handed hitters."

Leyland brought up the inconsistency of Perry's slider.

"There's too much differential between his good one and his bad one for me," he said. "He throws one of the best sliders you've ever seen, and then the next one's not a good one. It's not good at all. It's left in the middle and it spins. There hasn't been much in between. It's almost an exaggeration, and it's a little bit the same with his [fastball]."

The 24-year-old Perry pitched in 20 games over the summer for Triple-A Toledo, racking up seven saves while allowing 24 hits over 32 2/3 innings with nine walks and 30 strikeouts. Leyland said the reports from Toledo suggested that he threw his changeup with confidence in Toledo under less pressure.

Dotel's signing took away any chance Perry had for the seventh-inning role. Dombrowski, however, suggested Perry "could benefit" from a change of scenery. Before the trade, he talked optimistically about Perry reaching his potential.

"Again, he's still young," Dombrowski said Tuesday. "He got to the big leagues quickly. He just hasn't really gotten over the hump as much as we think he can. But he could be a very good pitcher, very valuable this year. We're hopeful that he will be."

If he takes that step, it'll come in a different uniform.

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.