Those of you who watched the Tigers play on Sunday, June 9th were probably wondering, who is this Jose Alverez guy? Well here’s the scoop:
Photo credits to Sean Winters.
According to MLB.com; Jose Alverez is a 24 year old, 5’11″, 180 LBS lefty from Barcelona, Venezuela. He has played the two previous years in AA ball with the Florida Marlins organization. Having an ERA just north of 5.00 in 2011, and just north of 4.00 in 2012. This year (2013) Alverez started in 12 games with the Toledo Mudhens, the Detroit Tigers AAA affiliate. His ERA was under 3.00 and he racked up 76 strikeouts in just 74.1 innings pitched! With those numbers what made the call up so surprising? Well, The tigers already have a great starting pitching staff this year, with 3 of their starters in the top 10 for strikeouts. What the Tigers need is help in the ladder end of the bullpen. The continuing struggles of José Valverde, Joaquín Benoit, and Phil Coke are only part of the problem. Jose Alverez’s showcase start on Sunday was excellent, heres the pitching box score for Sundays game:
Photo credits to ESPN.com
His 7 strikeouts in 6 innings pitched was right on par with his 1.03 strikeout per innings average in the minors. Keep a close eye on this kid when the tigers look to make some roster moves later in the season.
Shane T. Lanzon