Parra looks to finish his season strong
September 30, 2009Manny Parra will take the mound for the Brewers on Thursday in his final start of a trying season. After that? "I'm going to try to forget it," Parra said.
Suppan hit hard in final start as Crew falls
September 30, 2009Starter Jeff Suppan surrendered two home runs and uncorked a pair of run-scoring wild pitches in Milwaukee's 10-6 loss to the Rockies on Wednesday.
Rockies Outslug Brewers, Move Closer To Postseason
September 30, 2009Todd Helton, Carlos Gonzalez and Troy Tulowitzki each smacked two-run homers to put Colorado on the doorstep of a postseason appearance with a 10-6 decision over the Brewers.
Rockies 10, Brewers 6
September 30, 2009
W: Jason Hammel (10-8)
L: Jeff Suppan (7-12)
HR: Prince Fielder (44), Mike Cameron (24), Casey McGehee (16) Todd Helton (15), Carlos Gonzalez (13), Troy Tulowitzki (31)
MVP: Jason Kendall (+.191)
LVP: Jeff Suppan (-.464)
Win Expectancy Graph
SBNation Coverage
A game that started out painfully slow only got more painful as the night went on.
The Brewers picked up right where they left off last night, leaving too many men on base and missing countless scoring opportunities. Such as in the third when the they couldn't score with runners on first and third and only one out. Or in the fifth when Casey McGehee hit a rocket to left that Seth Smith caught, and was able to double Ryan Braun off first. Or how about in the seventh when Jason Bourgeois left the base loaded. Total left on base: 27
Of course not all scoring opportunities were missed. Prince Fielder hit his 44th homer of the year in the second. Jason Kendall added another run in that inning, driving in McGehee on a double that nearly went out. Mike Cameron hit one out in the fourth and Jeff Suppan drove in Alcides Escobar later that inning with an RBI groundout. Jason Kendall added another RBI in the seventh and McGehee finished the scoring in the ninth with a solo home run.
Jeff Suppan, who has had pretty good numbers at Coors Field in his career, saw those numbers take a big hit tonight, as the Rockies hit just about everything he had. Soup allowed eight runs, all earned (although a few misplayed balls added to his dificulties), in six innings. He also had three wild pitches, two of which allowed a runner to score. Chris Smith came in in the seventh and allowed a two run homer to Troy Tulowitzki. John Axford followed Smith and pitched a clean eigth.
The Rockies win and Braves loss tonight brought Colorado's magic number down to one.
Bush not likely to pitch on Saturday
September 30, 2009Dave Bush has probably thrown his final 2009 pitch for the Brewers, who are suddenly scrambling to fill the final innings of the season.
Hart could miss remaining games
September 30, 2009Right fielder Corey Hart was out of the lineup on Wednesday and could miss the Brewers' final five games of the season because of a hand injury.
Game Thread #158: Brewers (77-80) at Rockies (89-68)
September 30, 2009Current Series
Rockies lead the series 1-0
| Tue 09/29 | WP: Matt Belisle (3 - 1) LP: David Weathers (4 - 6) |
5 - 7 loss |
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Milwaukee Brewers Wednesday, Sep 30, 2009, 7:40 PM CDT Partly cloudy. Winds blowing out to right field at 20-25 m.p.h. Game time temperature around 60. |
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| Thu 10/01 | 2:10 PM CDT | |
If the Brewers win out, they'll finish at 82-80. Anything less and a winning season is out the window.
Follow the jump for tonight's pitching matchup, lineup and conversation on tonight's game!
Jason Hammel (9-8, 4.30) is completing his first season as a Rockie and his first full season as a major league starter, and has performed pretty well in 169.2 innings of opportunity this season. There's not a lot that's flashy about him, but he's managed to last at least six innings in seven of his last eight starts, posting a 3.31 ERA over that time, and the Rockies are 17-12 in his starts this season. He beat the Brewers on June 9, allowing two runs on five hits in six innings. Because he's spent most of his career in the AL, no Brewer has a prolonged track record against him: Corey Patterson (.286/.286/.571) and Mike Cameron (.200/.333/.200) are the only Brewers who have faced him more than five times.
Meanwhile, everyone continues to hit Jeff Suppan (7-11, 5.04), who will look to bounce back from a dismal performance on Thursday, where he allowed eight runs (seven earned) on twelve hits while lasting just 4.1 innings. He's allowed ten home runs in his last nine starts, and struck out 21 while walking 25 over his last 48 innings. On the plus side, if he can pitch six innings tonight and allow two runs or less, he'll drop his ERA below last season's 4.96. Here's something I didn't expect to discover: Brad Hawpe has faced Suppan 22 times and had very little success, posting a .091/.091/.091 line.
Lineup:
Felipe Lopez 2B
Jody Gerut RF
Ryan Braun LF
Prince Fielder 1B
Casey McGehee 3B
Mike Cameron CF
Alcides Escobar SS
Jason Kendall C
Jeff Suppan RHP
Carlos Villanueva pitched two innings (28 pitches) last night.
Claudio Vargas pitched two innings (34 pitches) last night.
Todd Coffey pitched one inning (24 pitches) last night.
David Weathers pitched .1 innings (18 pitches) last night.
Chris Smith has not pitched since Sunday.
Trevor Hoffman has not pitched since Saturday.
Mitch Stetter has not pitched since Sunday.
John Axford has not pitched since Thursday.
Seth McClung has not pitched since Monday, September 21.
Enjoy the game!
Suppan to get chance; Bush likely won’t
September 30, 2009On Wednesday, Jeff Suppan will get one final start to put a positive finish onto an injury-plagued year. It doesn't look like Dave Bush will get that chance.
What should the Brewers do with Manny Parra?
September 30, 2009Later this week, Manny Parra will make his last start of the 2009 season, giving him one last chance to maintain some momentum heading into the offseason and spring training of 2010. I don't think anyone got the season they were hoping for from Parra, who's spent part of 2009 in AAA due to ineffectiveness, part of it on the shelf with a stiff neck, and the remainder being either infuriatingly inconsistent or simply infuriating.
Nearly every projection for the 2010 Brewer roster includes Parra in the rotation, and certainly, if he can bounce back from a rough season, he would be one reason to predict a major improvement over 2009. The problem is, Manny Parra hasn't just had a bad season, he's had a historically bad season.. Among pitchers who have thrown at least 120 innings, Parra's 6.16 ERA is the third worst in franchise history:
| Pitcher | Year | ERA |
| Glendon Rusch | 2003 | 6.42 |
| John Snyder | 2000 | 6.17 |
| Manny Parra | 2009 | 6.16 |
| Allen Levrault | 2001 | 6.06 |
| Gene Brabender | 1970 | 6.02 |
He also has the worst WHIP:
| Pitcher | Year | WHIP |
| Manny Parra | 2009 | 1.784 |
| John Snyder | 2000 | 1.764 |
| Glendon Rusch | 2003 | 1.751 |
| Jeff Suppan | 2009 | 1.692 |
| Jimmy Haynes | 2000 | 1.645 |
And the third most hits per nine innings:
| Pitcher | Year | H/9 |
| Glendon Rusch | 2003 | 12.48 |
| Mike Caldwell | 1984 | 11.43 |
| Manny Parra | 2009 | 11.34 |
| Scott Karl | 1999 | 11.20 |
| Larry Sorensen | 1980 | 11.13 |
There are a lot of names on those lists that no one should be proud to be listed next to. Even while playing for a franchise that's had more than it's share of terrible pitching in the past, Parra's 2009 season is arguably one of the worst in franchise history.
Obviously, Parra is still young, left handed, and has tremendous stuff when he's on. But it might be time to stop making excuses for him: He'll be 27 years old in October (he's only ten months younger than Chris Narveson), and if the Brewers are serious about contending in 2010, then they could be seriously hindered by a decision to keep trotting him out there and seeing if he can work through his troubles.
If I ran the Brewer front office, there are several courses of action I'd have to seriously consider taking with him. Follow the jump to read about them.
I'll start with the controversial one:
Urge him to play winter ball. After pitching 166 innings in 2008, Manny has thrown 162 this season (including 24.2 in AAA), and will likely finish 2009 with under 170. Without overextending himself too far, Parra could probably make somewhere in the range of 5-6 starts for a winter league team, and those additional starts would give him an opportunity to work things out and potentially build some momentum for 2010. If he can make a few good starts this winter, maybe he'll bring some confidence with him to camp. Even if he struggles in winter ball, he won't have much less momentum than he has now.
Get him a psychiatric evaluation. If you've watched Manny pitch more than one time this season, you've probably seen him pout his way through a rough outing at least once, or sit on the end of the bench and look like he's about to cry after getting pulled. Parra is routinely accused of having a lack of mental toughness, but maybe there's more to it than that.
It wasn't that long ago that Jorge de la Rosa was in a similar situation with the Brewers - great stuff, poor command, "mental toughness" issues. The Brewers eventually traded JDLR to the Royals for Tony Graffanino, and he struggled for parts of two seasons there before being dealt to the Rockies. He struggled there too until he started seeing a sports psychologist. Read through that article and tell me JDLR's problems don't sound a lot like Manny's problems. De la Rosa has made 31 starts for the Rockies this season and is right around league average.
Write him onto the 2010 roster in pencil, not ink. After the season he's had, Parra hasn't earned any favors and should have to earn his way onto the team and into the rotation next season. Even if no one else is brought in to compete for a spot, Parra should have to beat out the likes of Chris Narveson and Chase Wright to be a part of the rotation next spring.
As I mentioned above, Parra is left handed and has great stuff when he's on, but he's also been wildly inconsistent and he'll turn 27 before next season. It's time to stop treating him like a kid and hold him accountable if he's not capable of performing at the expected level.
Rockies Hope To Creep Closer To Playoff Bid In Clash With Brewers
September 30, 2009The Colorado Rockies are closing in on a playoff spot and will resume a three-game series versus the Milwaukee Brewers tonight at Coors Field.