Cubs sign Manny Parra

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I guess he knows the NL Central quite well?

[David]

i thought gerardo for a half second and was like wtf

[UMFan83]

Matt Murton, Manny Parra, David Ross. Now we just need a 2007 Cardinal and Pirate to complete the collection.

[JudasIscariotTheBird]

Averaged 93 MPH last year with his fastball that also drew groundballs. Splitter (GBs) and slider (whiffs) have signs of life. More harder throwing or LHRP depth, clearly that was a want this offseason. Wouldn't be surprised if he beat out Richard for a spot.

Really? Richards throws just as hard out of the pen, and he was pretty excellent last year for us.

[JudasIscariotTheBird]

Really? Richards throws just as hard out of the pen, and he was pretty excellent last year for us.

 

Richard doesn't make batters miss. Only one pitch with a whiff rate over 10% and batters put both his fastball and cutter in the air. Last year was a nice run, but he's one of the guys most likely to take a step back on the pitching staff this year.

Sure, with a much lower walk rate over his career. If Parra can beat him out of the spot, great, but I just doubt it happens.

[JudasIscariotTheBird]

Sure, with a much lower walk rate over his career. If Parra can beat him out of the spot, great, but I just doubt it happens.

 

Despite the lower walk rate, Parra has a signficantly better K-BB% for his career and even last year. He strikes out hitters better than Richard doesn't walk them between the two. While Richard gets more groundballs in general, they give up HRs at a similar rate too for the career, with Richard older and more prone to getting beat on his fastball. As a reliver hitters hit .294/.333/.431 against him last year. Keep in mind that Richard was a scrapheap minor league deal pickup himself, he could leave as quickly as he came.

A walk is more of a bad result than a K is a good one, so K-BB isn't exactly the whole story, but I get what you are saying. I was surprised to see that Streamer has Parra pegged at a slightly better FIP for next year (but slightly worse ERA). It is nice to have options.

[Aaron_Kennelly]

Yeah, I kinda like this signing as a "yeah, he might be better than Clayton Richard" kind of thing. It's at least nice to have that option.