Comments on: Manny Parra: A Lesson in Baseball Mortality

By: Anwalt – Erbrecht - Reaping The Whirlwind

Anwalt – Erbrecht - Reaping The Whirlwind — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 12:27:31 +0000

[...] Manny Parra: A Lesson in Baseball Mortality That should be a testament to the variety of participant Parra is – or at the very the very least, the type of participant that the Brewers considered he could be. Both Hart … He went out and labored, even if the very best he could muster was practically nothing much more than not getting handed … Read much more on Examining the Brew [...]

By: Colin Bennett

Colin Bennett — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 05:50:00 +0000

Last time I went to a game, we sat in front of the bullpen during BP. I literally gave up on every athletic dream I’ve ever had

By: Colin Bennett

Colin Bennett — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 05:49:00 +0000

I think you hit on something there – a full season with a new bullpen coach may just turn things around for everyone who’s left.

Thanks for the insight and for the comment!

By: Barb Caffrey

Barb Caffrey — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 00:23:00 +0000

In some ways I was very surprised that Manny Parra lasted until the end of the season. I thought he’d be DFA’d midway through July after those horrid back-to-back outings. But that said, I did root for him to get better through his back injuries and arm injuries and other problems, because he seems like a nice person who tries really hard and I knew he had the talent to succeed.

The main problem Parra ran into now is that he’s been with the Brewers for such a long time but has never made the All-Star team (Hart has made it twice). He’s been good in long relief, so-so as a left-handed specialist, OK as a spot starter, and when he first came up I thought he had a really good chance. In ’08, I still thought he had a good chance.

Then came the injuries.

I’m sympathetic over them, don’t get me wrong, and I really do hope that Parra will find his groove. I think he’s better suited as a starter. I also think he’s a guy who needs a different sort of mentoring than he’s had since Mike Maddux left the team as a pitching coach and went to the Rangers. (Whatever Maddux did was working; whatever the others have done just hasn’t done much of anything.)

We’re not known for doing well with home-grown pitching talent, save for Ben Sheets and Ted Higuera and maybe one or two others. Jorge de la Rosa had to go elsewhere to get a decent shot, and it’s de la Rosa’s career that Parra should be looking at if he wants to find a model for his own future success. (Granted, de la Rosa had a terrible 2012 and lost most of the season due to injury. But it’s finally getting traded a team that knew what to do with him that finally led him to some success.)

By: Ryan Bennett

Ryan Bennett — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 16:54:00 +0000

Awesome article. When I imagine myself as a major league player, it is decidedly with less talent than Parra.