Over the past weekend, Bobby Parnell recorded two saves against the Cubs en route to a series win for the Mets. Even though the 2013 season is still young, Parnell has been flat out dominant.
In fact, it is easy to make the case that he is on pace to be a part of the All Star team in July. @Rob_Zloto’s tweet after yesterday’s game had me reflecting on Parnell’s Mets career thus far:
It’s a one run save and I didn’t feel nervous at all. I can’t recall ever feeling that with closer. Maybe with Wagner at first. #mets
— Robert Z (@Rob_Zloto) May 19, 2013
Rob is absolutely correct. Unlike years past, the fan base has confidence in the closer getting the job done. In the past few years Frank Francisco and Francisco Rodriguez walked the tightrope every other outing. So far, Bobby Parnell hasn’t been in the same class as those guys. He has been on a level above.
For the record, I hate the idea of a closer. I’m more from the school of thought that your best reliever should come into the game in the highest leverage situation.
For example, if the heart of the opposing team’s order comes up in the 7th or 8th, that is when I believe your “relief ace” should be summoned into the game. Bullpen roles should be variable based upon match-ups and timing. But anyways, since Terry Collins disagrees with me, let’s talk more about Parnell and the ninth.
As a whole, Parnell has had an up and down career as a Met. He began as a starter in the minors, and then transitioned in a relief role. It’s hard to imagine, but Parnell is in his 5th full season as a reliever on this team.
It feels like just yesterday he was throwing fastball after fastball after fastball to opposing hitters. Not to mention, when he first came up his fastball was quite a heater, but it was straight as can be.
Parnell’s first full season as a big league reliever left a lot to be desired. A 5.30 ERA and a low strike out rate to be exact. The past three seasons have been a little different.
Many fans are just starting to appreciate how strong of a pitcher Parnell is and can be, but check out his ERA’s over the past three seasons: 2010: 2.83, 2011: 3.64, 2012: 2.49. And so far this season in 19 games: 0.93. That is an impressive body of work over a four year span.
Bobby Parnell has been scapegoated for many of the Mets bullpen woes the past few seasons, and that misguided reputation is due to a few late inning performances that involved some terrible luck. When the Mets first experimented with Bobby as the closer, they received some pretty poor results.
There was one outing in specific against the Nationals where he was called on the save the game, and Valdespin made a costly error at shortstop that ultimately led to a blown save. After this game, I remember fans claiming that Bobby Parnell doesn’t have “the closer mentality”.
The Closer Mentality? I don’t even believe that such a thing exists.
Relief pitching is quite simple, either you can get outs, or you can’t. You do not need some kind of fancy mindset to pitch the ninth inning either, so I find it a waste of time to even try to determine who possesses this so called mentality, and who doesn’t. All I know is that Parnell is getting hitters out because he is throwing strikes, and he has downright filthy stuff.
This years elite level performance from Parnell is a cultivation of years of adjustment and fine tuning. The 100 mph straight four seam fastball is now at 93-96 mph and Parnell can throw all over the zone, plus paint the corners with movement.
That lazy slider that Parnell used to throw? Well now, thanks in large part to Jason Isringhausen, it’s a knuckle curveball that has nasty bite to it. I know it is an overused cliche, but Parnell went from being a thrower to becoming a pitcher.
The most important lesson Mets fans need to learn from Parnell’s journey is that it sometimes take a little time for a young player to reach their full potential.
This could have easily been another Heath Bell disaster in the making, but the Mets’ patience paid off. As fans, we need to have the same patience with other young players, as we all know there is going to be many of them coming up in the not too distant future. (Except for the Matt Harvey kid, you don’t need patience with him, he is just a freak.)
So, is Parnell the next Craig Kimbrel, Mariano Rivera or Trevor Hoffman? Probably not. But it is nice to have a homegrown guy getting the job done in the 9th for once.
