Manny Parra Up, Chris Narveson DFA

[razzzorsharp]

According to FSN postgame.

[sargennm]

Three at the same time! Is that a record? I'm glad to see this. Narveson was terrible.

[crewcrazy]

I think when the DeRosa-to-St. Louis deal was announced we had about 3 or 4 threads pop up at around the same time...these postgame announcements tend to do that. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

 

Hopefully Manny has his confidence back and won't have any comeback jitters. Returning with a quality start tomorrow would be huge for both himself and the Brewers. Narveson did his job well enough (racking up innings in blowouts), but with Parra returning McClung can take on that multi-inning role now.

[The Truth]

Good luck to Manny. I much prefer this solution that giving up the farm in a trade...

[Ennder]

I hope they fixed whatever his problem was with runners on 1st, not very confident though.

[TooLiveBrew]

If you can fix the "throw strikes" aspect of pitching... here's hoping. Good luck Manny, the Brewers need you.

[Brawndo the Thirst Mutilat]

Narveson did his job well enough (racking up innings in blowouts)

This shouldn't be a job. I eagerly await a time when I can cheer for a team that doesn't believe it should be. I think the team would have given Swindle an extended look, rather than calling up Narveson in the first place, if they didn't believe they needed somebody to perform this totally inane function. That would have been a very good thing. Swindle is a much more effective pitcher than Narveson, and there's every reason to believe he's somewhere around as good as Stetter, who has already made everybody forget all about Brian Shouse.

 

That said, we shouldn't pretend we learned anything about Narveson's ability level from the 10+ IP he racked up as a Brewer. The big jump in his K rate moving from SP to RP this year (while still much too small a sample to get terribly excited about) is at least a reason to think he might be a useful pitcher. The chances he could be really good are vanishingly slim, but he's probably not as sub-replacement level as it's tempting to think given the lousy MLB results (after all, a .381 BABIP will tend to torpedo your chances of keeping your ERA down).

 

I will say that I think they made the right choice if it was Narveson vs. Chris Smith, which it probably was.

[trwi7]

I will say that I think they made the right choice if it was Narveson vs. Chris Smith, which it probably was.

I'm not so sure about that. They both have almost the exact same FIP (5.48 and 5.49) but like you said, Narveson had a .381 BABIP, Smith's is only .162 right now. Even if he is a guy who can keep his BABIP low, it's not going to be that low. His LOB% is also 100% compared to about 60% for Narveson and while Smith is giving up 1.8 HR/9, he has a 12.9 HR/FB% which is right around where it is for most pitchers.

 

I don't really think it's going to matter much though. Smith is likely gone when Bush comes back anyways.

[BrewCrewForever]

I'm not overly confident he is going to be any different, but boy I hope I'm wrong. Would love to see Parra pitch 6+ innings today with minimal walks. That would great.

[naivin]

Boy, not much has changed since April has it? Going into the year, Manny Parra was a major key to this teams success. He has since struggled mightily, been sent to AAA, and now here he is, and once again, he is the key. The difference between him pitching well and pitching poorly could not be more pronounced for this team.

 

Until he can demonstrate some ability to at least keep them in the game when he doesn't have his best stuff, I'm not terribly optimistic.

[joepepsi]

Getting Parra to pitch well and Bush back and healthy may all the pitching moves necessary.

[Invader3K]

Getting Parra to pitch well and Bush back and healthy may all the pitching moves necessary.

 

I don't know. It's still banking a lot on two younger guys, neither of whom have pitched a full season as a starter in MLB, and three very average-mediocre guys. Team that make the post-season usually have a bit more to boast out of their rotation than that.

[joepepsi]

Well, I'd love to see them get Halladay, but I doubt it will happen.

[SoCalBrewfan]

So it seems to me they will have two free spots on the 40-man roster. Isn't that interesting? That would seem to clear the way for a signing (Byrd or another starter would be a guess) or an addition of a minor leaguer not currently on the 40, or just give flexibility for the team in July.

[davego]

I thought Manny's issue was being able to throw out of the stretch? Wasn't the battle that he didn't like the slide-step? While I know he can't wind up with guys on...at this point I'd hope that after a toss or two over to 1st base; just work the plate.

[TuesdaysWithRillo]

Well.... Parra Pitched well. But just his luck, the bullpen didn't and the offense can't hit before 7 pm. Poor Manny.

[DougJones43]

Maybe I'm imagining things based on the better results, but did anybody else notice that Parra seemed to have a different look on his face today? Whereas he usually looks like a deer in headlights, today he seemed kind of angry and intense.

[BrewCrewForever]

Maybe I'm imagining things based on the better results, but did anybody else notice that Parra seemed to have a different look on his face today? Whereas he usually looks like a deer in headlights, today he seemed kind of angry and intense.

I didn't see the game I was at work listening to Bob and Cory. But they made it sound that way and the highlights I watched on brewers.com I got that impression. He seemed to get out there and just "let it go" yesterday. Probably had the best start of his career. I hope he can keep it up. I rode the guy pretty hard before the send down but I'm rooting for him, he is very key to our success this season.

[JohnBriggs12]

How about some credit for Parra's performance to Mike Rivera? Parra came out and established his fastball and Rivera kept calling for it unlike Kendall who would often have Parra use all his pitches early. Later on he mixed in his breaking pitches but everything worked off his fastball.

 

Now I don't think this one start means Parra is over his problems. But Macha needs to keep pairing him with Rivera.

[DHonks]

I was at the game (my first of the year! Today will be game 2, but I'll be at the Brew Crew games when they come to AZ, too).

 

From the first inning on, Parra was different. He threw nothing but fastballs early on. He also kept his front side from flying open, yielding to few pitches that Rivera had to jump to catch (earlier in the year they were a regular occurance). Additionally, he stopped bringing his hands over his head in his delivery. All in all, I enjoyed seeing him follow through on his pledge to the Nashville paper that he was going to AAA to return to using his fastball to become a power pitcher.

[mletto157]

I'm glad he wanted to get back to the way he used to pitch (pounding the fastball). I don't really know why he thought he should change that anyway - there was nothing wrong with it. Pound the fastball that you're good at and mix in the other breaking pitches when you can. That helps him use one of his many breaking pitches as an "out pitch". He was really missing an out pitch earlier this year because he threw those breaking pitches so often they weren't throwing the hitters off balance.

 

I think he should have more confidence now, even without this start, because he's doing what he's been doing his whole life. I think mixing up the type of pitcher he is was really making him lose confidence, and now that he's back to himself we should see the Manny Parra that threw the perfect game in AAA. The Manny Parra that had us hoping he would be a front of the line starter in the near future.

[TooLiveBrew]

Great observations, guys. When your fastball's as good as Manny's, it definitely pays to work everything else off of it. I really hope this point is spot-on, since 7 IP/7K Manny Parra is just what the doctor ordered for this team.

[mletto157]

Don't forget 7 IP/1BB, that's just as (if not more) important!

[trwi7]

How about some credit for Parra's performance to Mike Rivera? Parra came out and established his fastball and Rivera kept calling for it unlike Kendall who would often have Parra use all his pitches early. Later on he mixed in his breaking pitches but everything worked off his fastball.

 

Now I don't think this one start means Parra is over his problems. But Macha needs to keep pairing him with Rivera.

 

I agree with this. He also seemed to throw more curveballs. But he established his fastball early and attacked the strikezone. He was always nibbling before he got sent down. Maybe that's what they worked on in Nashville and maybe it has something to do with Rivera as well.

[TooLiveBrew]

But... Kendall 'is an amazing game-caller' -- how could this be?