This excerpt comes from the New York Times
Brazilian Baseball Confederation officials say one of their main goals is to make the game popular — or at least known — among other Brazilians. As a result, programs to encourage youngsters to play baseball have been organized in recent years on the hardscrabble outskirts of some major cities, and new leagues and tournaments have begun.
That effort has already yielded a promising player who will be competing in Rio. Gilmar Pereira is a strapping 19-year-old right-handed pitcher with a 95-mile-an-hour fastball who was recruited from a poor neighborhood eight years ago, sent to Japan at 14 for three years of nurturing, and is now a Phillies farmhand.
“My dad thought at first that this was a sport with no future, but thanks to baseball, I’ve received a good education and gotten to know other cultures,” Pereira said. “I don’t know where I’d be today without baseball, because there is a lot of crime and drugs in my old neighborhood, and baseball has calmed me down and given me a focus in life.”
That’s all I know, but everyone likes a 95 mph fastball.
Phuture Phillies 
http://philadelphia.phillies.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20051005&content_id=1239154&vkey=news_phi&fext=.jsp&c_id=phi
I don’t think that’s new news. Phillies signed him when he was 17. He pitched last year for the GCL Phillies but doesn’t appear on any roster (even the VSL or DSL rosters) this year so who knows where he is or if he is still with the Phillies.
LikeLike
They also signed Savory heres a blurb about it. Its at the bottom of the page.
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/sports/20070715_Phils_keep_fighting.html
LikeLike
Here he is:
http://pan.uol.com.br/pan/2007/modalidades/beisebol/brasileiros/gilmarpereira.jhtm
I presume where he is now is at the Panamerican games. If I understand the article right, he’s in the last year of his Phils contract at the moment, and he might go to back to Japan when it runs out.
LikeLike
“If I understand the article right, he’s in the last year of his Phils contract at the moment, and he might go to back to Japan when it runs out.”
Baseball has a system that gives the phillies rights to him – he really won’t have the ability to go whereever he wants until he’s a six year minor league free agent- assuming he’s not on the 40 man roster before that time.
LikeLike
Ha. Someone had sent me the link, I’d never heard of him, thought it was news. My bad
LikeLike
Question for the Phillies is probably whether he is good enough. He was not as highly regarded as Correa last year and I am doubting he throws mid-90s consistently. Let’s see what happens in the Pan Am games. The Phillies might have figured that being a top starter on that team was better for him than being in the GCL bullpen another year. He was pretty bad last year, and probably would not have been in the rotation this year.
LikeLike