Hard Throwing Reliever Jose Veras Inked By Pirates

Pittsburgh Pirates GM Neal Huntington likes swing and miss arms in the bullpen.  He went out last year and acquired such skill set and it proved effective.  Huntington is at it again after the announcement that the Pirates and Jose Veras have agreed to a minor league deal.    Veras will make $1 million dollars plus incentives if he  can make the Pirates big league club, and he will deposit $15,000 a month into his bank account if he doesn’t.  

He is a 30-year old hard throwing right handed reliever with control problems.  In his career, Veras has a 4.24 ERA, 1.35 WHIP, 8.7 K/9, and 5.0 BB/9.   Yeh, five walks per nine.  He was with the Florida Marlins last season where he actually increased that high walk rate to 5.4 walks per nine.  He also struckout 10.1 batters per nine as well thanks to a strong finish with the Fish.

Nobody in Florida will miss him.   Within the Pirates organization, it seems easy to see that there is nobody ready to jump into a bullpen role that has the potential of a strikeout an inning.  Marlins fans like Michael at Marlin Maniac weren’t thrilled when a previously DFA’d Veras who threw 6 1/3 IP, 8 K, 6 BB, 1 HR to begin the season, was recalled on June 28 after pitching well in the minors.   

Veras was part of  a 2010 Marlins bullpen that won an award at Marlin Maniac:

"Worst Performance: The BullpenLook, you cannot blame Leo Nunez and Clay Hensley for the disaster the bullpen has turned in this season. While both players have played extremely well this season (both rWAR and fWAR have them worth around 3 – 3.5 WAR this season combined), the rest of the pen has been a disaster. In the early going, the Marlins could not find anyone to bridge the gap from the starters, some of whom were not lasting into the sixth consistently, to the excellent relief work in the eighth and ninth innings. The Fish sent out guys like Jose Veras (who ended the season fairly well actually), Jorge Sosa, Renyel Pinto, and Tim Wood, all of whom struggled to prevent runs."

Some videos of Veras.  Up first bee hive soccer/baseball drama with Veras right in the center of the action after a beanball.

This is my favorite part of the entire video, are you surprised to give up a lead……”no.”

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