That poor Brewers pitching staff. Whatever bug hit one hit all of them. Jeff Suppan went 7-12 with a 5.29 ERA. Braden Looper won 14 games with a 5.22 ERA. David Bush had a 6.38 ERA. Tough times.
Manny Parra, though, had the toughest year of the bunch. Parra was probably best known coming into this year as the guy who got into that shoving match with Prince Fielder in 2008. He pitched pretty well in 2008 — but struggled mightily in 2009 though he did become the first pitcher since 1938 to win more than 10 games with an ERA higher than 6.25. He went 11-11 with a 6.36 ERA.
One thing I found interesting — and this is obviously just a small sample size thing but still I like it — is that Parra was 7-6 with a 5.97 ERA on four-days rest but 2-3 with a 10.52 on five-days rest. Maybe he’s the kind of guy who pitches better with the less rest you give him. Maybe if you pitched him on three-days rest he’d go 8-5 with a 4.74 ERA and go 7-1 with a 2.23 ERA on two-days rest. I just wish teams would try stuff.
He almost gave the AL Anti-Cy Young to Luke Hochevar, which would have lent a nice symmetry to the award since I'm sure there are many Royals fans who still expect good seasons from Hochevar. I have not given up hope on Parra, and expect that once Parra finally gets diagnosed for social anxiety disorder and gets on some meds that his career will turn around.
No comments:
Post a Comment