The Manny Parra thread

[Boy Jeenius]

We have people on this site with the MLB game experience, and with access to the scouting reports that they feel they can criticize Kendall's pitch calling? I knew this site was good, but wow, that is really good.

[Ennder]

I saw an article on the 'throw away' pitch when ahead in the count and it didn't seem to be a bad idea from the data they came up with. I think the reason they do it is to set up the next pitch though, not so much that they expect people to swing at it. I'm not saying anything is wrong with what Kendall does, just saying that he does the same thing with all the pitchers, it isn't just a Parra thing.

[MJLiverock]

I ran across this article about Manny Parra from last May.

 

 

http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/sports/brewers/286160

 

But of course we all know that any mention of Manny's mental approach needing work is all just made up message board talk and doesn't matter.

 

or this quote from last September after a disastorous outing vs. the Phillies

 

"Before this season, Parra had maxed out at 138 2/3 regular-season innings while with Class A Beloit in 2003. Before Saturday, Parra was at 158 2/3 and had shown signs this month of hitting the wall. In his three September starts, Parra has totaled 11 1/3 innings, 19 hits, 16 runs, 10 earned, eight walks and 14 strikeouts.

 

But neither Parra nor Yost would say the left-hander is tired.

 

"Tired?" Yost said. "Look, we're in a pennant race in September. No. Its' a nice excuse.

 

"He hasn't pitched well. His stuff is fine, his location is off. He pitches in spurts. He pitches a couple of good innings and then a bad inning. He doesn't contain the damage."

 

That is similar to the way Parra began the season, when he had a string of starts in which one bad inning would negate the handful he pitched well. Yost agreed the situations were nearly identical, but Parra sees a major difference.

 

"There's a big difference," Parra said. "In the beginning of the season I felt like it was a mental thing. The past few outings I've had the right mental approach, being very aggressive."

 

Or this quick comment from Parra

 

Houston made it a one-run game and knocked Parra out of the game in the sixth inning. Parra exited with a 7-5 lead, and the Astros greeted Brewers relievers Carlos Villanueva with a pair of doubles to make it 7-6. After that, Villanueva and Guillermo Mota combined to allow one hit and no runs over the final 3 2/3 innings.

 

 

 

"My thought process and my mental approach was on target, I just didn't make some pitches," Parra said. "There were other times earlier in the year where I would be thinking the wrong thing and was mentally off, which is more unacceptable to me."

 

 

 

 

These are just quick comments from Parra about is mental approach but questioning his mental make up isn't just some made up message board thing, he has mentioned it many times, Yost has talked about it the past, team mates have talked about it and the media covers it. Just because there isn't a Excel function that fits a regression line for mental focus (well the error term that fudges a lot of stats could cover it but I digress) doesn't mean it isn't valid or at the very least something that is talked about and thought about by Manny.

[Ennder]

That pretty much says it all, he made some comments about not being mentally prepared early in one season and now every single time he has a bad game he is mentally weak and will be for the next 600 innings or so I'm sure.

[Never Outhustled]

All of Minnesta's hitters were slumping together , now their all hot together. Nobody is going to get them out right now. Parra didn't throw that bad, they hit good pitches. It would have been better to play them a week ago, but no big deal, our record is still awesome.

[SoCal Brew Crew Fan]

The defense behind Parra was pretty bad the other night which did not help but to be fair, that pitch to Cuddyer was right down the heart of the plate. He made some very bad pitches in that game.

[lcbj68c]

Insert your favorite Parra excuse here

Let's hear it? 4 more earned runs early. Why shouldn't he be removed from the rotation yet?

[DougJones43]

Good grief. I'm not sure the Brewers can afford to let Parra start any more games after today. It's really too bad, because he would have been a huge asset to this team if he could have even performed like a #3/4 type starter this year. Playoff spots are decided by too small a margin to continue with this kind of performance any longer though.

[SeriesFinale]

Yeah, it's time for him to get out of the rotation for a while and get whatever his issues are--mechanics, mental, whatever--worked out

[JohnBriggs12]

The decision not to demote Parra two starts ago might come back to haunt them. He's been terrible since the AS break last year.

[JohnBriggs12]

Yeah, it's time for him to get out of the rotation for a while and get whatever his issues are--mechanics, mental, whatever--worked out

For a while? I think you just saw the last of Manny Parra in a Brewer uniform. If he does start putting up numbers against AAA hitters, they'll unload him on another unsuspecting team.

[BrewCrewForever]

Maybe Jack Z would want him as a piece in a trade for Bedard?

[SeriesFinale]

Yeah, it's time for him to get out of the rotation for a while and get whatever his issues are--mechanics, mental, whatever--worked out

For a while? I think you just saw the last of Manny Parra in a Brewer uniform. If he does start putting up numbers against AAA hitters, they'll unload him on another unsuspecting team.

Why on Earth would they sell low on a 26 year old who had 10 wins last year that they control for the next few years based on a string of rotten starts?

 

If they can somehow get a great haul for him, great, but I don't think he's scrap heap yet.

[TheCrew07]

Manny needs to go to Nashville and I don't care if Melvin thinks it will totally destroy his confidence. He's not figuring it out, in fact he's getting progressively worse. I don't like our options in Nashville, I knew we'd be thin with SP this year, but I didn't expect Parra to absolutely suck either, in fact I expected him to post an ERA under 4.0... shows how much I know.

 

Send Parra down, I don't care who comes up, Dillard/Cody/Burns... right now Manny is an automatic L for this team. I'm not ready to permanently give up on him yet, but damn...

[BrewCrewForever]

I thought Parra was at competent enough to post an ERA under 5. Boy was I wrong.

[SeriesFinale]

I thought Parra was at competent enough to post an ERA under 5. Boy was I wrong.

He was a career 4.31 pitcher before this year; not world-beating, and not good enough for a #2 in my opinion, but a young guy with some promise, and certainly not as bad as this.

 

Since he's going backwards, something's obviously wrong. Maybe I'm crazy, but I think it can still be corrected--just not in Milwaukee right now.

[bklynbrewcrew]

I think Manny Parra is quickly becoming Oliver Perez.

[JJHardy7]

For a while? I think you just saw the last of Manny Parra in a Brewer uniform. If he does start putting up numbers against AAA hitters, they'll unload him on another unsuspecting team.

 

Ummmmm...No. Selling low on him is a terrible idea IMO. Even if he puts up decent numbers in AAA I don't see that being a huge difference in trade value now or if he does that. I get the feeling that you just flat out don't like some guys. Some pitchers go through this and hopefully Parra will too. Bush was demoted last year. Parra needs to just go to AAA for two weeks or so. I've never thought he was a #1 or #2 guy, but he's better than this. There's no reason to think 'he sucks...let's trade him'. The Brewers have to develop pitching...Parra is a good project to prove they can develop it and then continue to develop it when they get to the bigs. If they can't figure out Parra, I really do worry about the ability to develop pitching. I do think the Brewers will figure it out so I'm not about to question that.

 

I say the Brewers call up Dillard and give him a few starts. I know his K numbers aren't the best, but it's a decent in-house option. I do wonder if those trade rumors (whatever they were) will heat back up now.

[Ennder]

The decision not to demote Parra two starts ago might come back to haunt them. He's been terrible since the AS break last year.

 

I think he should get sent to AAA or AA but lets be realistic here, his 'poor second half' last year was a couple bad starts at the end of the season. He had 2.76 K/BB in the 2nd half which is fantastic. Don't try to make it sound worse than it is. He has not been able to throw strikes this year and it finally caught up to him over the past few starts.

[Invader3K]

I constantly questioned during the off-season the concept of having two young and relatively inexperienced pitchers basically anchor the rotation this season. Yovani has stepped up and done his part, Parra has become the polar opposite. I don't care who they throw in, whether it's Dillard or some scrap heap pickup. They can't be much worse than Manny Parra at this point.

[JohnBriggs12]

The decision not to demote Parra two starts ago might come back to haunt them. He's been terrible since the AS break last year.

 

I think he should get sent to AAA or AA but lets be realistic here, his 'poor second half' last year was a couple bad starts at the end of the season. He had 2.76 K/BB in the 2nd half which is fantastic. Don't try to make it sound worse than it is. He has not been able to throw strikes this year and it finally caught up to him over the past few starts.

He was 2-6 with a 5.32 ERA in the 2nd half last year. So what that his K/BB ratio was good? Hitters hit .299/.358/.449 off him. He was very hittable then. He's worse this year but overall since midseason last year he's 5-14 with an ERA well over 6. I stand by my statement.

[Ennder]

But again that is stats abuse. If Parra goes 175 innings with 2.20 ERA and then his final 25 innings he gives up 100 ER, you can't see he was 'terrible all year'. He was terrible for 25 innings in that case. He had an .661 OPS against in July last year and an .707 in August, he was not terrible those months.

 

His bad second half was really just a few bad outings in September. If you want to say he has stunk since last September I can give you that much but if you start trying to say he was bad in July and August you are mistaken.

 

I think you send him down for the rest of the year to get things straightened out. Not just a 2 weeks and back up but the rest of the season. Then next year he competes for a job in spring training.

[1992casey]

Feel free to continue discussion in this thread:

 

Parra sent to Nashville; Narveson up