Mike Parisi headed to St. Louis
Posted on May 4, 2008 by fewgoodcards
Today the Cardinals have promoted Mike Parisi to the major leagues while sending reliever Anthony Reyes to Memphis. Parisi becomes the first member of the Cardinals’ 2004 draft class to make it to St. Louis. It is not clear what his role will be, but I would expect he will just assume Reyes’ long reliever role. This seems to be the move that set everything into motion over the last 24 hours. P.J. Walters was promoted to Memphis to take Parisi’s start today, with Tyler Herron filling in for him in Springfield. There are other rumored moves, but none of them have been officially announced to this point.
Filed under: Transactions
erik
azruavatar
fewgoodcards
roarke49
This is very odd to me. Parisi might have been the third player I would call up . . . maybe. Motte and Worrell both seem like better choices. Odd.
This Memphis team is getting more and more interesting; all these younger guys just a step away from St. Louis.
I’m watching P.J. Walters pitch to Bryan Anderson right now. Walters has only given up a couple weak groundball hits in his first couple innings pitched.
what did reyes do? send springer down if anyone. Mike Parisi will get lit up. I’m calling a 10-plus ERA 2-losses and a demotion by the end of the week.
month*, not end of the week.
This is an odd move. I’m with AZ, Worrell, Motte or with Izzy’s struggles, even Perez make a lot more sense. Parisi is just so hittable.
…also at the Birdhouse, they are saying Garceau up to PB. Elvis Hernandez will be activated and on PB roster
Jess Todd up to AA along with Herron.
Is Reyes going to be conditioned to be a starter again?
Parisi being called-up should mean they have some use for a starter. This could get interesting.
according to the memphis announcers parisi is going to make a start in colorado. no word on which one of the starters is being skipped.
Could Reyes be on his way out very soon via trade?
Also, if the rumor that Jess Todd has also been called up to Springfield is true, I’m very excited.
You also have to think Steve Hill and Pete Kozma will get a promotion within the next month if they keep up their hot hitting.
Just a weird, weird move. My best guess is that we’re going to try to showcase Reyes as a starter, hoping he can string 3 or so good starts together. Hopefully that will be good enough to convince some team to overpay for him.
As for Todd, I’m very excited about him. Will be very interesting to see how he responds to the dreaded A to AA jump.
Another idea: could someone in the current rotation be on his way out?
Love the moves from a minor league perspective. Seems a bit much for Herron, but everyone else is ready. From an MLB perspective, it seems to me that we should just trade Reyes to the Braves for whatever Low A/High A player they deem worth him.
Parisi? He is a “decent” starter but this move makes little sense with 5 starters who are moving decently. Hope Parisi isn’t taking Wainrights start. That would be spoooooookkkkyyyyy.
You Never know we might be going with a, dare I say it, 6 man rotation.
From Fallstrom’s article on Yahoo! Sports: “A secondary reason for the move was uncertainty surrounding Joel Pineiro, who’s scheduled to start on Monday at Colorado. Pineiro reported back stiffness since his last outing.” I hadn’t heard about the back stiffness, but it all hangs together as a story. It also makes sense to give that start to a guy who’s (1) a ground-ball pitcher, since they do better at Planet Coors than ones that give up flies, (2) not at the top of the organizational chart, and (3) more likely to be excited to see The Show than to be devastated when he gets bombed — which is the lot of any and all pitchers going to that ballpark, it’s nothing personal. I’m certainly glad they’re not giving Garcia or Boggs or anyone with a probable real future their first exposure to major-league ball at Coors!
Alan,
You asked, “what did Reyes do?”. Easy….he sucked. Just like he’s always sucked. Check the stats…they suck. Reyes has showed a few flashes of brilliance but has also showed that he sucks overall. Cardinals fans wake up….ANTHONY REYES SUCKS!!! Has anyone else noticed that the Cardinals rotation has been VASTLY IMPROVED since the subtraction of Reyes and Kip Wells? Does anybody with half a brain think the cards would be in first if reyes was starting every fifth day??
finally some news from people that actually can talk to people in the front office. i can’t believe the post dispatch hasn’t had anything on this yet.
agreed…. not sure where the P-D was on this one. VEB was all over it, and Leach had at least a small blog post, much earlier in the day.
if Parisi gets bombed, it won’t be because of the thin air, thanks to Colorado’s humidifier thing… it’ll be because the Rox are heating up. But he’s facing a weak pitcher - Jimenez, with a 5.90 ERA. So hopefully he’ll keep us in it.
comment gestapo here…saying things like “REYES SUCKS!!!” will get your comment deleted. I understand where you’re coming from, i really do. but find a more intelligent way to get your point across. thanks.
avenger — Jimenez has fantastic top of the rotation stuff but his command isn’t all there yet for his pitches. He’s capable of shutting down just about any lineup though.
But I agree re: Parisi. I’m not high on him as a pitcher but we’ll see.
one more way to look at this is that mcclellan is destined for later inning duty. parisi provides back-up for piniero if need be as well as long relief. we may not see mcclellan before the 7th (or maybe the 6th as of today) in the very near future (springer’s problem are not as low grade as reported). i believe this is why worrell and other short guys were not the ones called up. reyes to memphis gives him a chance to pitch. his fundamental problem has been how erratic his performances have been. sometimes i wonder if he is jason marquis not-so-evil twin, but kind of a knucklehead nonetheless.
Isn’t Parisi the guy who has like 6 different curve balls? I thought curve ball pitchers were the ones who got lit up at Coors because the ball doesn’t break in the thin air.
I remember that Duncan really liked Parisi during spring training, and that the Cardinals seemed to consider him the emergency starter they’d call up from Memphis. The Yahoo Sports! article seems like the most logical theory; Pineiro may get a day of rest, so Parisi takes his slot with Thompson on the DL.
As far as Reyes goes…of the pitchers that can be sent down, he appears to be the most expendable of those with options. The Cardinals haven’t really used him recently in pressure situations like they have with McClellan. I wonder if it’ll be one of those farm system “visits” where the player never actually leaves St. Louis….
shane -
They modify the balls now so they behave normally - hence the fairly normal amount of runs being scored now at Coors. Thin air shouldn’t effect how his ball breaks.
Coors is still, and will always remain, a severe hitters’ park. It simply isn’t as much of one as it was in pre-humidor days — according to Baseball Prospectus, it’s been about 10% better for hitters than average over the last 5 years combined, rather than up to 40%(!) as in the Good Old Days. No other major-league park has been nearly that hitter-friendly over the last 3 years (the period for which I have data for all 30 teams). It’s still an abnormal place to pitch, just not as abnormal as it used to be.
As for WHY it’s abnormal, the verdict is still out. There is little doubt that the ball carries farther, humidor or no humidor, than at sea level, but smart people argue among themselves as to how much difference that makes. They also argue about whether curve balls are disproportionately affected; the last I checked (I live fairly close to Coors and see a lot of games there), the consensus seemed to be that they weren’t, but the data aren’t conclusive. Dan Fox is doing some good stuff on this that may have answers by next year. For now, I’d really rather that Parisi not get his first chops there, but better him than a fly-ball machine like Reyes.
Exactly. They’ve suppressed the run scoring to a certain degree but I don’t think you can then say that the ball behaves in the same manner as it does elsewhere. Normalizing the run scoring environment to something more usual isn’t the same as having an actual normal run scoring environment.
Another thing to considerregarding the increased scoring at Coors Field
The walls at Coors are significantly deeper than the any other walls. This means that when you hit a frozen rope in the gap or even down the line, it rolls farther and the chance of men scoring from first on doubles or stretching doubles into triples and even singles into doubles is higher. Also because of the deeper walls, the fielders will play farther back and allow more balls to fall in front of them that they would normally catch.
What are the other rumored moves? That’s just an awful little thing to put in there to tease us with.
It is understandable to think that because of Parisi’s numbers through the minors, that he might not have great major league success, but the thing is, with the kid Parisi, he is a big game pitcher with mental toughness beyond his years.
Mike is a good family friend of mine and I have witnessed his dedication to becoming the pitcher he currently is. I remember a time during his high school years where his father would always be yelling at him telling him to practice, and one day it just clicked. Mike has been on a mission since Day 1, and I really believe that it’s just now all coming together.
His numbers at Memphis Triple-A are skewed before his call-up to the Cards..he was 2-1 with an ERA under 2.8 before his last start against Salt Lake where he knocked around a bit…stemming from a fly ball that could have been caught. The fact of the matter is, Mike got called up and he was suggested by Memphis to be that guy…he has a live fastball/sinker, a nasty hook and an above average change and he can hit his spots when he’s settled in and the nerves are gone
I don’t know many youngsters who have not been working out of the pen in the minors, to be able to get called up to the bigs, come in his 1st inning and pitch a beautiful debut. Followed by a kid who gets into trouble with 2 outs and has that mental toughness to not let the nerves get the best of him and finish up the inning against the middle of a good NL lineup.
Parisi would make an excellen 5 guy for the Cards, you aren’t expecting fireworks from a 5 starter, but someone who can go out there and battle for a solid 5, 6 innings. Mike has proved he can battle.
Throw Piniero on the 15 day DL, the guy is not healthy I think that is evident…let Parisi be that spot starter for Piniero see what the kid can do, after all, the Cards view him…exclusively as a starter.