"Hey, I'm in the bigs. How you doin'?"Sweet, Manny Parra was called up this morning to take Spurling's roster spot as Spurling was placed on the "Temporary Inactive / Bereavement List" with an undisclosed family situation.
Not going to lie, but this sounds a bit fishy as Spurling is out of options and would be exposed on the waiver wire if sent down. Kind of like Dessens "injury" which Ned recently said would take our buddy Elmer all of the allotted 30 days in Nashville to get his arm back up to strength. Back to Spurling, I like having him in the organization, just don't think he should be at the MLB level right now. We shall see how this all plays out.
This is good for Parra. He was rising fast in the minors until he blew out his shoulder. Hopefully he can do well in the bigs. (This gives us some hope for Rodgers as well) There is some concern that Parra takes a long time to warm up, so we shall see how effective he can be out of the pen.
All in all, I like the move and hope things are alright for Spurling.
http://http://www.brewerfan.net/ViewNews.do?newsId=63
EDIT: milwaukeebrewers.com is reporting tha Parra is in Milwaukee but is in a holdern pattern in terms of being called up. The Brewers are waiting on the Spurling situation, but also on the results of Sheets MRI. This would explain why they are looking at calling up a starter in Parra as opposed to a bullpen guy like Oxspring.
EDIT of the EDIT: Anonymous informed me that Oxspring was now pitching in Korea. I looked this up and sure as shit, Chris Oxspring is now pitching for the LG Twins of the Korean League. I wonder if he will be forced to make my next cell phone during his off time? The LG Twins really need to publicize these moves a bit better so i do not look like such an idiot when I post stuff like this. It should also be noted that there is a team named the Hyundai Unicorns in the Korean League. That would not be good times to have to support that team. They should have just gone all out and named them the Ligers. Would have had a great marketing opportunity in the US 3 years ago.
EDIT to the EDIT of the EDIT:
Sheets to the DL, Parra is up. No word on who will be going to the LG Twins, Hyundai Unicorns or Daewoo Ligers. Gallardo back to the rotation or Parra? All three of our young pitchers (including Villy) need to keep their innings down. Villy stays in the pen because he has been doing a great job there. I put Yo back in the rotation for now and if Sheets is out a long time, skip him every couple starts and throw in Parra. That's my quick, off the cuff take.
EDIT,EDIT,EDIT,EDIT
Balfour (worst pitchers name ever after Bob Walkoffgrandslam) is also getting the call. So it looks like Sheets to the DL, Spurling to the berevement list and Parra and Balfour to the Brewers. So, what does the staff look like right now. Lets go with what we know.
Starters:
Suppan
Bush
Vargas
Capuano
7th: Wise
8th: Turnbow
9th: Cordero
LOOGY:Shouse
that leaves us with Villaneueva, Gallardo and Parra and Balfour.
Balfour fills the 12th man in the rotation role. Carlos has done too good of a job in the pen so far, so he retains his role. Do you start Yo from here on out and risk blowing out his arm like me at the company speed pitch last week? Is Parra really ready to start at the big league level with all of 6 or so AAA starts under his belt? Will we see Greg Aquino again? What happened to Zach Jackson?
32 comments:
That picture is great...
that and oxspring is pitching in korea now
Must have missed that one in the transaction section of the sport spage. What about Balfour. He was pitching decent, however, he may be in the Mexican league for all I know right now.
Not that it means anything, but there was interview w/ Melvin during either Friday or Saturday's game. From what Dougie Moustache was saying it sounded like he was leaning more towards Grant than Manny being called up. Obviously I am only speculating, but if that's the case, than maybe Parra is being called up as insurance against losing Crapuano out of the rotation. Otherwise, they'd have nothing but RHP's......Of course, nothing could happen at all.
Why would you send down a guy with a 3.03 ERA? Carlos Villanueva has a 3.41 ERA, should he be sent down to???
From a fan's perspective, I don't feel very comfortable when Spurling is pitching in a close game. Ned must not either. Here are Spurlings last 8 outings and the spread when he entered:
-Down 4
-Up 6
-Down 4
-Up 9
-Up 5
-Tie game. Spurling does a good job of only allowing 1 run after capellen loads the bases. Spurling was last releiver left.
-Up 6
-Down 5. Brewers come back to tie, Spurling gives up GW HR.
I am just saying that as a fan, I don't like seeing this guy pitching in close games. I also don't like that he has allowed 45 baserunners in his 29 and 2/3 innings pitched. I think he may have been sent down at some point if he had any options left. I have no problem with seeing someboody else have a shot.
I should also state that i have no probem with Spurling being with the big league club. You need guys to eat innings here and there, I just hope by September, Ned is able to trust him in a close game.
Totally Goldy, I think the "run defecit" argument shows that they don't trust Spurling. He's just an inning eater.....I don't hate Spurling either, but there must be some reason Yost doesn't seem to trust him, right?
He has a 3.03 ERA. Three Point Zero Three. Do you know how many other teams would want to have a guy like that. His role isn't gonna get him in many close games. You want to see somebody else get a shot in games up/down by 5? Because we're pretty much set at the back end of the bullpen.
All I can say is I'm glad fans don't run the team. Cory Hart would be in the minors, Mench and/or Jenkins would be traded, Gross would be sent down, Graffy and Counsell would be traded for weaker versions of themselves, Vargas would be in the pen and Gallardo would be doing his best Francisco Liriano impression by the middle of September because his innings are high.
The "run defecit" shows that someone has to pitch those innings and that someone is Spurling right now. We could stick a scarecrow out there if you want.
Spurling gets that kinda work not because he's bad but because we have enough guys who are better.
I don't think its a trust issue at all. It comes down to bullpen role. I stated this much earlier this season. In close games (up by 3 or less), we go with Wise/Chuck in the 6th/7th, Turnblow in the 8th, & CoCo in the 9th. If the Crew is down by a similar margin, Wise/Chuck/Turnblow are responsible for 6-9.
Spurlings job is (was) secondary long relief when the game was already decided, especially now that Gallardo is up. Its well known that Wise can only throw an inning before his arm goes to hell, so you aren't going to throw him when the game is (most of the time) already decided (4 runs or more either way). You wouldn't waste Turnblow either.
The point is, you wouldn't see Spurling pitching in close games, because that isn't his role. I don't think it was a trust issue at all. Yost would be reemed in the media if he brought in Spurling up by 1 run in the 8th when Turnblow was available.
That all being said, I agree with you Goldy, I hope Spurling's family is ok or whatever, and I hope Parra is the man...
What if I were tell you that Manny Parra is a lefty, is that something you might be interested in?
It would be nice to have a guy in the pen (if that is where Parra ends up) from the left side besides Shouse. This makes it more likely that Shouse will not face any righties, which should never, ever happen.
I just hope that Parra's ERA is not over 3.03 because then I will look like the fool since we know pitching is only judged on ERA.
Good thing bloggers don't run the teams.
I think Spurling is the 3rd 7th inning option. As we know, Wise usually does not pitch on back to back days. When the starters were actually pitching well, Villenueva was usually Option B in the 7th. Now that carlos has to pitch 3 or 4 innings a pop, he is on the shelf for 3 days.
I agree with Woz, Spurling has a role, it is just not one that usually sees important innings.
For that role, I would rather have the 2nd lefty in the pen.
Good thing bloggers don't run teams because we all really don't know anything in the long run either. :)
I never said Parra would be bad. I think he would do just fine in the bigs. But just fine is exactly what Spurling is currently doing.
Another lefty in the pen would be a nice thing to have but I think having one does the trick as well. I also don't like to see Shouse face rightys as well but I just checked his splits and he's actually doing pretty well against them. Rightys only have a .619 OPS against him. That suprised me.
To me the big problem is that the starters just aren't going deep enough. I wish Villenueva could just pitch an inning to two every few days but this 3-4 innings stuff is killing him. He's gonna wear out at this pace.
Villenueva has pitched 63.1 innings so far over 20 innings more than the next highest, Turnbow at 40.2.
Hey, this is fun, an insightful, thoughtful debate about Chris Spurling!
For the record, I kind of like Spurling. At least I don't hate it when he comes into a game. Remember some of the guys the Brewers used to have in this role? Joe Winkelsas, Mike Adams or Chris Demaria? It wasn't that long ago...
I don't exactly see how it became a "Spurling" discussion anyway? Where is the post where someone says, "Viva Manny.....Fuck Spurling!" Plus, and this is most important, if he's on the PAP/Bereavement list you're not sending him down for performance or shit like that....your sending him down so he can get a grip on his family after a tragedy, so the 3.03 ERA could be a .03 ERA but he's still not going to pitch. So Benjamin, to answer your first 2 questions: You would send him down AS A FAVOR TO HIM to let him attend a funeral or some such bullshit and no Villanueva shouldn't be sent down......and it seems to me everyone is pretty clear on his "role" evident in the words "inning eater" & "mop up", but typically guys get into that role because you have the least faith in them. It's two sides of the same coin.....Talent Vs. Role.
That sounds like another endorsment for Parra. Being a starter, maybe he could eat up some of Chuck's innings. Especially the ones in close situations that they didn't trust Spurling to do. Insted of Villy having to go 3 innings every other day, Parra could do some of those.
Or, this might be a stretch...how about putting both Yo and Parra in Sheets' rotation spot? If they are worried about both guys number of innings, have Yo/Parra pitch 4 innings in the same game? This doesnt help Chuck's innings issue, however. Just throwing it out there.
As Benjamin mentioned, we can all agree that the starters going 6 innings maximum lately is killing the pen.
Totally agree on the starters needing to eat inning Goldy.....After Suppan went 6+ on Sunday everyone on the radio was talking about his "Strong" performance and he helped spell the 'pen by going "deep" into the game. (He pitched a great game), However, 6 innings shouldn't be viewed as "deep" into a game....AND if it is then you know just how "deep" your starters haven't been going lately.
So if the starters are pitching poor (with the only sure fire starter now hurt), and the bullpen getting tired...are we screwed?
The Villenueva going down question was sarcasm since his ERA is higher than Spurling's, I wasn't seriously asking that.
I have no problem with putting Spurling on the PAP/Bereavement list, it's not sending him down or anything. I would rather he got things straightened out with his family so he can focus on baseball.
In the original post Goldy said that Spurling shouldn't be in the Bigs so that's where this discussion got started. I disagreed because I think that Spurling is a steady if unspectacular reliever that many teams wouldn't mind having.
Having said all that I wonder who gets moved when Melvin trades for Akinori Otsuka (I hope the deal gets done when Hall gets back healthy). I would have to think that Spurling would be on the outside looking in then.
Trade for Dontrelle! Now that would take a lot of prospects.
No, I wasn't commenting about Villy going down. I was saying Parra could take some of his innings if the Brewers wanted to lessen his workload.
Ahh...yes. You are correct Benjamin. I see that now, and I would definitely side w/ you for Spurling in the "bigs." You might even be able to argue, that Spurling's relative "success" in the mop up role is why the Crew doesn't seem too eager in having Dessens return or get healthy or ever pitch again with this club. And I got the sarcasm, i was just pointing out that any talk of Sending CS down was based on a tragedy and not relevant to his ERA, which you correctly pointed out has been good. It seems pretty obvious that this whole fiasco is going to be dependant on Sheets' MRI...if he's fine the rotation might not even change.
I probably was a bit too harsh in my first post saying Spurling didn't belong in the bigs. Ben put it perfect. He is a solid pitcher for what he does. I just don't mind seeing another arm, espescially a lefty, in the pen. Then again, Cappy's lefty arm could be in the pen soon.
I like the YG/MP hybrid starter solution to the problem. If Sheets is hurt, the rest of that rotation better be ready to step up, especially Crapuano. Perhaps I didn't knock on wood hard enough last week!
I wonder how long Yost will be loyal to Cappy, I mean he hasn't really pitched well in over a year (except for April). Maybe if Cappy keeps being crappy Parra could take his spot. Since Parra is what, 25, they really shouldn't be worried about overworking him like Gallardo. Maybe they still wouldn't want him in the rotation because of his injury history too.
Nashville Sounds site says that Balfour is/will be called up as well......
Lost in all this exciting transaction/Spurling conversation, is the fact that Brad Hawpe badly misplayed Jenkins and Mench's hits yesterday. Even if he comes up clean with Jenkins hit (against a lefty!) it's probably a double. It did take him for ever to get to that ball. Same with Mench. This one was slicing away, but they play he made on that ball was brutal.
Also, with the staff in flux, the bats need to pick it up after having 2 rough days. Hardy needs to play a lot better than he has been. His all start at best has been his best AB over the past 2 weeks.
Me thinks that Gallardo will go back into the rotation, sounds like Parra will head back when Spurling rejoins the team.
Actually maybe Parra will start one while he's here and then Gallardo will fill in for the rest of Sheets' starts. Which could be a combo game like you guys were talking about. Parra goes 4-5 innings Gallardo goes 2-3 and then Gallardo takes over in 5 days.
My guess is that Parra will pitch the Thursday game (he's on ten days of rest), and what happens after that will depend on how he does.
Again - look how far this team has come. When this happened last year? The choice was Dana Eveland, Rick Helling or the Zach Attack.
Now there are legitimate options.
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