Odalis Pérez

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**Odalis Pérez**
Major League Baseball debut
Kansas City Royals — No. 45
Pitcher
Bats: Left	Throws: Left
September 1, 1998 for the Atlanta Braves
Selected MLB statistics (through 2006)
Wins	58
Strikeouts	737
Earned run average	4.33
Former teams
Atlanta Braves (1998-2001) Los Angeles Dodgers (2002-2006)

Odalis Amadol Pérez (born June 7, 1977 in Las Matas de Farfán, Dominican Republic) is a Major League Baseball starting pitcher who plays for the Kansas City Royals. Previously, he played with the Atlanta Braves (1998-2001) and the Los Angeles Dodgers (2001-2006). On January 15, 2002, he was traded by the Braves with Andrew Brown (minors) and Brian Jordan to the Dodgers for Gary Sheffield.

Pérez is a 1995 graduate of Damian Davis Ortiz High School in his homeland. He is currently single but has a son, Odalis, Jr. Pérez has participated in community baseball clinics for the Dodgers and the Manny Mota International Foundation and has also visited schools in Los Angeles area as part of the Dodger Jams program. On May 2, 1999, Pérez got his first victory pitching 5.2 innings and allowing two earned runs with seven strike outs, as Atlanta rolled to a 5-3 victory over the Cincinnati Reds.

Pérez enters his seventh season in the majors and his third with the Dodgers. In the last two years he has won 27 games (15 in 2002, 12 in 2003), which is tied for the third most wins by a left-handed pitcher in the National League, joining Tom Glavine behind Randy Johnson and Al Leiter, and 10th most in the majors. Beside this, he is the first Dodger lefthander to register at least 12 wins in consecutive seasons since Fernando Valenzuela accomplished the feat between 1986 (21) and 1987 (14). During the same period, Pérez also has the sixth-most strikeouts mark (296) among all majors lefties, ranking fourth in the National League behind Johnson, Randy Wolf and Leiter.

Over the last two seasons, Pérez has allowed two earned runs or less in 33 of his 62 starts, being selected to the All-Star game in 2002 — a season in which he pitched a pair of one-hitter games.

On July 25, 2006, Perez and two minor league pitchers (Blake Johnson and Julio Pimentel) were traded to the Kansas City Royals in exchange for Elmer Dessens. Cash considerations were also sent to the Royals in the deal.