How is this team 31-22

[fallingleaves]

You don't get much better then the Brewer's 3, 4, 5 in the national league. Combined with a stellar bullpen and better coaching and strategy I think this team is in position to win the division.

[LouisEly]

Naming Suppan as opening day starter and bumping the others down to create more favorable pitching matchups for starters 2-5. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

[rluzinski]

It does to me. Last year, his first full season, he was 79th of 88 "qualifying" pitchers in WHIP (tied with Suppan).

 

You use only WHIP to decide if a player did well or not? It seems more like you are just cherry picking to me.

 

He had an above average K rate, below average walk rate and average HR rate. His BABIP bad but K rate and walk rate are the stats you want to focus on with a limited sample size (one season). His FIP was 4.16, and his ERA was 4.39. Anyone can define "disappointed" as they see sit but Parra was an average pitcher, when you look at the big pitcher. Not bad for a guy's rookie season.

[Invader3K]

Well, I think describing Parra as an average pitcher last season would be reasonably accurate. That's why I questioned before this season started why so many felt he would suddenly ascend to being a #2 pitcher behind Gallardo. For one thing, there wasn't much of a track record to base that on to begin with, other than him "having good stuff." Wanting a guy to do well is one thing, but expecting huge leaps in performance between seasons is usually a recipe for disappointment.

 

Maybe the pressure has gotten to Parra and that's why he's struggling. I couldn't know for sure.

[Ennder]

A #2 pitcher in baseball has around a 4 ERA, Parra had a 4.39 ERA and a better track record in the minors, I don't see how it was a leap. Anyway it is too early to judge any of our pitchers, I would think people have learned that over the past few years by now. Last year at this time we were crying for Bush to be DFA'd, three years ago at this time Capuano was our ace before faltering in the second half. Parra could easily go on a run and end up with an ERA down around 4 still or he could blow up even more and be in the minors by the end of the year, it is just too early to tell.

[endaround]

At least with Bush it was obvious something was wrong, his velocity was way down early. Still can't believe he didn't a file a complaint agaisnt the Brewers and got sent down instead of going on the DL because obviously something was physically wrong even if it was just a dead arm.

 

As for Parra, looking at his pitch data, it looks like they are making him a fastball changeup pitcher. All his off speed stuff is down except for change up which is way up. He has also lost some velocity of his fastball and 2 mph on his splitter

[Ennder]

I think the problem is he is always behind in the count so he cannot go to the off speed stuff. Parra won't be 'fixed' until he gets his control together. He did throw 67 of 100 pitches for strikes this last start so there is at least a little bit positive about it even if it was mostly negative.

[logan82]

That game is going to skew his stats all year. I know we can't ignore the game, but he probably would have been pulled 5 runs earlier if our bullpen wasn't burned out. It was a terrible time to have a rain delay, which I think contributed at least a little to his poor pitching.

[Trowekamp]

That game is going to skew his stats all year. I know we can't ignore the game, but he probably would have been pulled 5 runs earlier if our bullpen wasn't burned out. It was a terrible time to have a rain delay, which I think contributed at least a little to his poor pitching.

True but if you pull the outliers (best and worst game) he is still disappointing to me. The lack of strikes as Ennder mentioned is concerning. I just think a couple of months in the bullpen to build confidence in going after hitters and being more agressive could be good for him and keep him fresh for the second half and give McClung a chance to see if he can leverage what he has learned in the pen. If this team gets into the playoffs it needs pitchers who can miss bats (Gallardo, McLung, and Parra) more than pitchers who don't (Bush, Suppan, and Looper)

[logan82]

Like I said, you can't take it out, but it adds .225 points of ERA if Parra pitches 200 innings. I think it is a good example of how ERA, even over a whole season, can be misleading. I think that most people would agree that 0.25 points of ERA is pretty drastic. Even if he pitched 4.5 ERA the rest of the year , he would be at 4.72 instead now. He took one for the team. I am not saying he has pitched well, just pointing out how drastically that one extra inning is going to affect his stats.