Friday 27 June 2008

They picked the wrong Southpaw...

With Shaun Marcum on the d/l, the Jays have decided to recall John Parrish to pitch in Marcum's absence. I speak for all of us here at The Southpaw when I say that we would have rather seen Purcey get another shot, but such is life.

The article mentions a reliever will get sent down - in my opinion, it'll be one of Frasor or League. Wolfe would be a surprising choice, although he'd be the guy I recommend. I've never been a big fan of his, and I'll join the "what have you done for me lately" train and bash Wolfe all the way down to AAA.

Odds are Brandon League (who has yet to throw a pitch since being recalled) will be sent down. Why he hasn't pitched even an inning of mop up (when Frasor has even warmed up in the bullpen!) is shocking to me. What's the point of wasting his service time if you refuse to use him?

Parrish is an odd choice - he has no options left, so he can't be sent down without being picked off waivers. So here are the possibilities of what could happen with Parrish:

A) Sticks in the bullpen
B) Sticks in the rotation due to an AJ trade or another injury (Marcum doesn't recover as quickly as was thought)
C) Is traded after a good AAA year and a couple of good spot starts
D) Is sent back to AAA and either claimed or unclaimed (my bet on claimed)

Again, the issue with bringing up Parrish for a short-term injury is you can't send him back down to AAA without risking losing him. For short-term stuff, Purcey is the right guy to bring up. If there is a long-term injury, than yeah, Parrish makes more sense. But for a short-term injury? Doesn't seem like the right move to me.

Twitchy.

3 comments:

Navin Vaswani (@eyebleaf) said...

purcey has more potential long term, but parrish deserves a start up here based on his stats. dude's been phenomenal.

MK Piatkowski said...

I don't get your argument. Why the hell would we ever give a guy a minor league contract if we weren't going to use him if the guy produces? Parrish looked great today and he has major-league experience. He could become great trade bait or take the slot that AJ could potentially vacate at the end of the year (or in a trade).

From what I saw of Purcey, he's not ready yet. But because he's considered a pitcher of the future, you'd rather use him than a guy who's had a phenomenal record in AAA? The only way that makes sense to me is if you've run up the white flag and are completely rebuilding. The hiring of Cito says the opposite to me.

The Southpaw said...

My argument was based on the fact that if we use him for 2 starts, he either has to stay with the MLB club where he has no spot, or he has to be demoted, at which point anybody can claim him on waivers.

I just don't see the point in bringing him up for 2 starts. If it's a long term replacement because of injury, than yeah, Parrish is the right choice. But for 2 starts? You're putting yourself in a bad position because either you have to trade him immediately, or you gotta move one of the other RP to keep him in the majors when Marcum comes back.

And while you bring up Parrish's good record in the minors, it's not like Purcey has a 4.50 ERA. He has a 2.88 ERA, and 95:31 K:BB, to go along with a 222 BAA. Parrish has been just as good, but the record has been better. I've never been a fan of choosing one player over the other because of someone's win/loss record.

The point was moreso that I found it a waste to call him up for 2 starts, because then what do you do with him? You're forced to make a move, whereas with Purcey you can just option him back down when it's all said and done.

Twitchy.