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5/20/13

Bobby Parnell...... Allstar ???

      Once upon a time, Bobby Parnell was a highly touted 'starting' pitcher. Pretty much a minors organizational all star every year up until AAA. Then something seemed to continue to go wrong. Bobby just couldn't seem to put it together. However, in true Mets fashion, they never give up on guy who throws a 95+ fastball. However, also in Mets fashion, the organization continued to apparently put him in positions not best suited for him. So the past few years, There is Parnell, 8th inning guy.......7th inning guy.......closer........8th inning guy......7th inning guy........you get the point.
      But a funny thing happened. Instead of Mets cultivating this LIVE arm, it took a 'never-met-his-own-hype' pitcher named Jason Isringhausen to bring something else out of our boy Bobby. Hello knuckle curve. Hello confidence. Hello closer role......
      Well, not so fast. The Mets of course wanted to keep using another teams castoff 8th inning guy (Frank) to be their closer, up until he go hurt.
      Enter 2013. No silly competition. Just a young man with a great arm being given a chance. And now, what do we have? Quite possibly the 2nd best pitcher on the team.
      Is Bobby Parnell an All-star? I say yes. Thanks to terrible bullpen work and lack of run production, Bobby has managed to already attain 4 wins this year. 6 of 8 in saves...............lets not forgot those 2 blown saves were compliments of 2 outfield blunders leading to runs.
      What's left is a guy with a sub-1.00 ERA, a 6 to 1 strikeout to walk ratio, and ....................wait for it...................a lower WHIP then Matt Harvey.
      Maybe the Mets truly have another arm to rely on and look forward to for years come. Last time I checked, there have been some really good relievers/closers to put up some pretty dominant numbers into their mid-late 30s.
      So what about the stats. Well, If you compare Parnell to the top 3 NL leaders in saves, you will see pretty much identical numbers.

                               W L ERA Saves Innings   Hits ER BA       WHIP

1 Grilli, J PIT 0 1 0.92 17          19.2     9   2 .134      0.66
2 Kimbrel, C ATL 0 1 2.60 14          17.1    13   5 .206      0.98
3 Mujica, E STL 0 0 1.42 13          19.0     9   3 .136      0.53

12 Parnell, B          4 0 0.93 6            19.1    10  2 .154       0.67


Hey, If KIng Felix can win a CY Young with a 13-12 record, then Why can't Parnell get some major consideration for an all star berth with his current numbers?

It seems like we've waited a long time for a real closer to be a part of this team again. We've anointed random castoffs. We've overpaid for over-35-year-old former great closers, and other prospects have been marked for the position. Yet here we are, in 2013, with a shut down closer.
Although, I'll be honest, I don't exactly have complete confidence in Parnell when Terry Collins calls on him to enter a game with somebody already on base. Is it just me, or does Parnell always seem to take at least one batter, and a few pitches, to get his fastball where it needs to be?

1 comment:

  1. Parnell deserves to be an allstar... period.

    And the guy that taught him his secondary stuff a year ago deserves a parade

    ReplyDelete