The Cubs have outrighted righthander Mike Parisi to Triple-A Iowa according to a team press release. Chicago selected Parisi from the Cardinals with the 12th pick of the Rule 5 draft this past December.
As Derrick Goold of The St. Louis Post Dispatch explains, Parisi has already gone through the process of clearing outright waivers and being offered back to St. Louis as per the Rule 5 rules. However, since he had been outrighted once before in his career, Parisi was able to elect to become a free agent, which he informed the Cardinals he would do instead of returning to their minor league roster. So after all that, the Cubs retained Parisi on a minor league contract.
The soon to be 27-year-old got smacked around in seven Spring Training outings (7.45 ERA), though he owns a 4.27 ERA in the minors with a 6.6 K/9 and a 3.3 BB/9. He threw 23 innings with St. Louis back in 2008, walking more batters (15) than he struck out (13).
Well, that worked out okay, I guess. I was worried they’d keep him like they did David Patton last year. At least he doesn’t take a spot on the 40 man roster. It looks like this opens up the roster spot for James Russell.
why did we keep him? Shoot, why did we want him in the first place? And really, why did he want to stay here – with a club that has an abundance of relievers in the system? I fear what the club might have said to him to make him want to stick around.
It’s just a minor league deal. At this point he’d have to leapfrog several arms that are already on the 40 man roster to get the call. I’d be surprised if the Cubs bend over backwards to create a roster spot for him unless he somehow pitches exceptionally well at AAA and forces their hand. Then again, I never thought we’d see Kevin Millar get this far…so what do I know?
“At this point he’d have to leapfrog several arms that are already on the 40 man roster to get the call.”
Then why did he choose to stay here when he had the chance to go to any of the other 29 clubs? Thats the point…
Of all the clubs to be with, this would seem to be one of his worst shots at making the majors and he decided this is where he wanted to be? There has to be a reason, and I fear that reason is a promise we dont want to hear. Specifically, I think he was told “you will be the first call to start if we suffer an injury or pull someone from the rotation”.
After all, once we get past the hurt Lilly, Zambrano, Dempster and Wells we get to the absolute trash section of our rotation – Gorzelanny and Silva with Marshall and the Shark who will both be in the bullpen and not stretched out to start. Parisi seems like he might be slotted in a rotation depth chart that unofficially, but realistically, looks like this
Zambrano/Lily/Dempster/Wells/Silva/Gorzelanny/Parisi
Where there, leapfrogging Silva and Gorz probably wouldnt be that hard to do…
I don’t think he had better options. Who’s going to give him anything more than a minor league deal? For what it’s worth, Parisi said he felt comfortable staying, largely because his minor league pitching coach with the Cards is now with the Cubs. At best he’s behind Marshall and Samardzija and 3rd in line for that spot. It would be an incredible slight for the Cubs to bypass them in favor of a non-roster guy. And if Gorz, Silva, Marshall, and Samardzija all bomb, and Parisi is outperforming other pitching prospects who are already on the roster, we’re probably in big trouble anyway. Keeping Parisi as a non-roster minor leaguer doesn’t worry me much at all.
“At best he’s behind Marshall and Samardzija and 3rd in line for that spot.”
Marshall is an extreme long shot to start for this club and Jeff has already been told he will be in the pen with Lou hyping him as the desperately needed power-arm to replace Guzman. Neither should see starts this season seemingly putting Parisi directly behind the pitchers already given a spot in the rotation. And like I said, I imagine they probably told him that otherwise there are teams in desperate need of pitching that probably would have given him a better shot at the majors then the 9th or 10th on the depth chart you imply.
Alright, time for fangraphs. These are the 2009 value ratings for starting and relieving for Marshall, Samardzija, and Parisi
Marshall – S: 4.8, R: 4.2
Samardzija – S: -0.8, R: -2.4
Parisi – S: -0.1, R: -1.1
Alright, it seems like Marshall is the obvious choice to fill in for an injury. He’s also ranked as a more valuable starter than a reliever, which is contrary to most of what I’ve heard… Anyway, the point is that Parisi’s a long shot behind Marshall. And besides, the only way he’s starting is if we get an injury before Lilly comes back or 2 injuries after.
those rankings dont mean much and will not dicate what will happen with the club. Marshall is much more valuable to the club out of the pen, hence his being there in the past and being slated to be there again. If the team made the roster solely off those rankings then Marhsall would have beaten out both Silva and Gorz for one of the spots those guys will hold…
But both Marhshall and Shark have been told they are to be in the pen and its a pen which has much, much, much bigger issues then the rotation. Marshall and the Shark are both longshots to get out of the pen this season – they will be needed there much more then in the 5th starters role. And that means Parisi likely is 6th for starts behind the 3 sure things, the injured Lilly and the questions in Silva/Gorz.