There were a lot of things wrong with Monday night’s game against the Astros. Manny Parra wasn’t one of them, but that didn’t stop Anthony Witrado from writing another piece slamming him.
Witrado acknowledges the decisions that will have to be made with the starting rotation once Doug Davis returns, and observes that it’s likely to come down to Parra and Chris Narveson.
It figures Parra and Narveson have one more start each, in St. Louis this weekend, as a closing argument before Davis’ return. Narveson stated his case Sunday when he pitched eight scoreless innings, walked one and struck out seven for his best start of the year and the advantage in the race to stay put.
Meanwhile, the Brewers are still waiting for one of those from Parra, as is he.
Sorry, but this is just a stupid thing to say.
In his five starts in June, Parra struck out 36 batters in 28 innings. His 10 strikeouts against the Cardinals wasn’t enough of a statement? If you ask me, that’s a hell of a lot more impressive than shutting out one of the worst offenses in baseball for eight innings. Prior to Monday night, Parra had put together four very good starts despite the fact that he wasn’t stretched out to start. Narveson has yet to put together good starts in back-to-back outings.
Yet somehow, he’s the leading candidate to keep his job, while Parra should go back to the bullpen? Am I insane? Shouldn’t history have something to do with this decision?
Narveson’s great start put the ball in Parra’s court and he never had a good grip against Houston. He got the no-decision after being handed a four-run lead after two innings.
He was a horrible pitch by Todd Coffey away from still being in line for the win. Not bad considering Macha shouldn’t have even brought Parra out to start the 6th, anyway.
Maybe I’m overreacting a bit in this case, but I wouldn’t feel this way if it wasn’t for Witrado’s story after Parra’s performance against the Cardinals (one that drew glowing reviews from the national announcers on ESPN that night):
The Manny Parra story is predictable, frustrating and baffling all at the same time.
An enigma no one has been able to figure out, not even the man himself.
The Milwaukee Brewers’ hard-throwing left-hander is extremely talented with plus-pitches, making him an attractive commodity in this game.
But there is a reason he has made just three starts this season and spent most of the year in the bullpen, only emerging in the rotation because of injuries and ineffectiveness by others.
Parra lacks control at times and poise at others, and there are times when those two flaws have played off each other.
It has happened several times over Parra’s career with the Brewers, and it started to again Sunday night against the St. Louis Cardinals. Fortunately for Parra and the Brewers, the bullpen was able to clean up his mess and the hitters did just enough to eke out a 4-3 victory in 10 innings at Busch Stadium to avoid the sweep with a national television audience watching.
He wrote this after seeing Parra strike out seven batters in a row.
I can understand a fan being frustrated at times with Parra, but Witrado is paid to report on the team. His comments are coming in stories about the game, not in an opinion column. Instead of reporting the facts or even acknowledging that Parra has looked better than he ever has, Witrado continues to perpetuate this myth of Manny being a mental midget.
It honestly makes me wonder what happened that’s causing Witrado to act this way. Was it the incident in Cincinnati a couple years ago that led to the Parra/Prince Fielder altercation? Did he stiff him on a quote? Whatever the reason, Witrado is (again) coming off as childish.
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