Paronto was probably the Braves’ most valuable reliever last year. That says more about the Braves’ bullpen than Paronto, but Wickman only threw 26 innings, Villarreal was used almost entirely in low-leverage situations, McBride was awful in the first half, and everyone else sucked, so that just leaves Chad. Well, I guess Wickman’s 26 innings will have to do, but Paronto was the most valuable reliever to spend at least half the season in a Braves uniform.
Paronto never got into the closer role, unlike everyone else, but pitched a lot of seventh and eighth innings, mostly pretty well. He struck out 41 and walked 19, in 56 2/3 IP, a pretty good mark; only Wickman, of the primary relievers, had better control and power numbers. Paronto’s 3.18 ERA seems a little low, and I’d expect he’ll wind up in the mid threes. That’s not bad for a guy who should be no more than the #3 righthander in the pen. He’s not great, but he’s a guy you can use.
Its kinda sad that he was the best reliever last season and we weren’t even counting on him for anything in spring training excepting keeping a “large” spot on the bullpen bench warm in Richmond.
Solid numbers. Paronto is definitely a guy worth having around. He’s a #2 RH option in a decent pen and, IMO, a #3 is a very good one.
Yes he was all right last season, plus he’s big and that’s nice to have in a bench brawl. Go ahead, charge the mound on him or Wickmania…
For some reason, I always have called Paronto “the Fat Toad” – I have no idea why, but it sticks with me, as did Rafael Fur-ca-hol.
Jeff,
your right, even after a little chin music the batter is gonna think twice before charging the mound with one of those two up there.
Paranto is solid and if he’s the worst arm we have in the pen, then i really like our chances.
Anyone here an accountant? I have a question that I need to get answered regarding tax returns. Can anyone help, if so list your email and I’ll follow up. Thanks
Go Chad Paronto.
Hey, how much will A-Rod cost this offseason? If Renteria is dealt and his salary is off the books, I wonder if we could make a run at home. It would be pretty sweet to harbor the 2 of the 3 players in the last 40 years to break the all-time home run record. This is of course he doesn’t demand $20M per.
him*, not home.
There’s almost no chance at all that the Braves get ARod. A lot of random and unexpected things would have to happen….
Also, why are the Braves going to trade Renteria? Sure, we’ve got organizational depth there, but no one besides Renteria is ML ready….
mraver,
It’s a hatred of his non-existant range. Tony Pena, Jr. would provide more range, like what ground ball pitchers need. That’s why they want Renteria to be traded.
New Baseball Rules….
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-ruleschanges&prov=ap&type=lgns
I wonder if there is even room in the bullpen for Paronto this year. You know the following will be there:
Wickman
Gonzalez
Soriano
Macbride
Villareal
That leaves at most 2 spots for:
Cormier (assuming he doesn’t beat Davies for 5th starter)
Boyer
Devine
Sturtze (probably has no real chance)
Paronto
Yates
Cormier, Boyer, and Devine have options. So, I’m guessing that if Paronto and Yates pitch effectively, they’ll get the spots. The caveat is that unlike last year, they’ll have to be effective to get in the bullpen, though perhaps not as effective as the three others. And once there, they will either have to remain effect, get hurt, or they will be cut. As fans, this is good news brought to us by depth. For the players, I’m guessing that this makes it a bit tougher mentally.
Cormier will start in Richmond, there is no point in having him as a reliever. Sturtze cant join the team until May and will most likely go to Richmond. Boyer and Devine still need development and will be back up options. Stockman probably will stay in Richmond also.
I think the last two spots are really between 3 guys at this point. Moylan, Paronto, and Yates.
Re: Rule Changes
It’s almost amusing that the 20-second pitch rule, which was never enforced, has been reduced to 12 seconds. Call it the Steve Trachsel Rule and one that I doubt will be enforced.
FYI—Sirius & XM have announced a merger. Dunno what affec that’ll have on current subscribers. Stay tuned.
Wow, Sirius and XM merging. That’s really weird. That would be like Apple and Microsoft merging, on a slighter bigger scale. If it’s a true merger, then there’s no competition in the satellite radio industry.
Actually, I know exactly who would replace Renteria if we traded him and signed A-Rod: A-Rod. I would stick A-Rod at SS. He’s still gotta be better than Renteria, even after a three or four year hiatus. I’d be totally okay with Langerhans in center and Thorman at first if we could sign a big-time hitter like A-Rod to play short.
Actually, that could really work. How much does Renteria make? How much does Andruw make? You let Andruw walk, trade Renteria, sign A-Rod, and stick Langerhans in center. I think you got something there. Of course, A-Rod and Andruw are, I believe, the same age, but I would still give a better future outlook on A-Rod instead of Andruw. Plus, Langerhans is a great defender and he’s cheap. I’m sure this will get torn apart, but I like this.
Speaking of mergers I work for Compass Bank – we were just bought by a bank, BBVA, which is out of Spain
Paronto will make the team. it’s really between Moylan and Kali for the last spot in the pen.
CSG, I do taxes. Send the question to karlehrsam@juno
Football news…
ESPN is reporting that Norv Turner was hired as the Head Coach of the Chargers.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2771126
also the Bears released defensive coordinator, Ron Rivera.
Renteria’s listed salary on ESPN is $10 million, but the Braves only had to pay $6 million of it because the Red Sox were so eager to get rid of him.
MLB Trade Rumors, that bastion of reliability, says that the Braves have $6,333,333 owed to him. With $13.5 million, that’s $19,833,333. Of course, Tim Hudson will be $7 million richer in 2008, so that makes $12,833,333 in extra money if Renteria is gone. So no A-Rod for us.
Or…. Mike Hampton would have $14.5 million extra too, and that’s…. $27,333,333. But what about contracts for McCann and Francoeur? don’t want them to get away.
A-Rod, now that would be sweet. I sat at his table at a party in Miami (10 years Nikki Beach, woo-hoo!) three weeks ago. A surprisingly quiet but really nice and down-to-earth guy…
CSG, where do you live? Isn’t Compass a regional bank? I had Compass in high school, but I had to go somewhere else because they didn’t have a location in Clearwater, St. Pete or Tampa.
Oooh yeah, forgot about Hudson’s raise, Sam. Good catch. Well, that sucks.
Rob, I’m in Birmingham. The bank is located in 6 states currently. It looks like our closest branches to you would be in the Spring Hill/Ocala areas…
Yeah, I thought about sticking with Compass and just heading to Spring Hill periodically since I do direct deposit, but I just figured I would get a bank that has offices nationally. I ended up getting Bank of America. I’ve heard a lot of complaints about BoA, but I haven’t had any problems and they’ve been really good to me. Of course, they do give credit cards to illegal immigrants, but I will stop there to not violate the “no politics” rule.
info on the merger if anyone cares about this stuff…
http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1171707766304350.xml&coll=2
hopefully my job is safe
Man, I should have invested in Compass.
Buster Olney has a article on McCann, its a decent read if you have ESPN insider.
some notes after the article…
Mike Hampton threw off a mound, and looked good. Mike Gonzalez, newly acquired from the Pirates, pitched live batting practice to hitters and seemed a tad nervous. Tim Hudson looks like he’s in incredible condition.
And there was one vibe in particular that came through: This is a team confident that it can bounce back from a disappointing 2006.
Here’s what I wrote about Compass on Saturday.
everyone here is saying that this is the best thing that can happen for the bank and its employees. For some reason, everyone is too optimistic in my opinion. Something will change, the key words in your post “For Now”
http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/news/press_releases/press_release.jsp?ymd=20070214&content_id=1801915&vkey=pr_chc&fext=.jsp&c_id=chc
Cubs sign on with Under Armour – signage on the walls at Wrigley – “We Must Protect This Ivy” unofficial new slogan for Cubbies.
So, I have one more pitcher to cover (one of my favorites, that’s for sure!) and then the “other possibilities” post, but after Wednesday I’ve no idea what I’m going to write about. I can cover the notes from spring training, I guess, but my view of the value of spring training as anything but an opportunity to get in shape gets dimmer every year.
Chipper: We’re going to be good.
My favorite game of 2006:
Please ignore the name of the site. I laughed though.
http://www.macisanidiot.com/news.php?item.419.14
I thought Paronto was going to go through the Adam Bernero syndrome and sink like a rock (aka the Ken Ray syndrome) at the end of the year. Paronto seemed to pick up the pace a little at the end of the year, so I’m optimistic about the future.
Good writeups Mac. I would love to see a writeup on a few of the coaches – hitting and pitching especially. I have never been a huge fan of TP, but you can’t fault the Braves for their offense last year, and he at least deserves some credit.
I never quite understand why Paronto has to “fight” for a spot in the bullpen with the season he had last season. The bullpen spot is his to lose. In my mind, there is really only one spot left in the bullpen after Wickman, Gonzalez, Soriano, Mcbride, Villarreal, and Paronto. My bet is that the last spot will go to Yates before Sturtze returns.
Then, Richmond will have a pitching staff including Devine, Boyer, Stockman, Molyan, Cormier, and Lerew. That’s quite impressive.
Csg, what dept at compass do you work in? I work in IT.
One good item is all the BBVA branches in Texas will be converted to Compass. We’ll be busy for the next 18 months converting 170 branches over.
Sorry to bring Vandy up again, but why exactly are the benches behing the baskets? From watching on tv I’ve always thought there was plenty of room on the sides of the court, so why the difference? Is it purely an arbitrary move so opposing coaches have to scream louder or what? And did Vandy have to get special permission from the NCAA to have that setup?
david,
1. It was originally done because Big Daddy Rupp didn’t like having to climb up onto the raised court on the sides. Rupp always got what he wanted, even if it was in someone else’s gym.
2. This happened before the rule was instituted that requires the benches on the sidelines, and Vandy — which grew to like it — was just grandfathered in. Much to the chagrin of Dennis Felton.
mac,
perhaps we could take a look at the rest of the NL East…this could be a long six weeks.
That’s not such a bad idea. Maybe we need to figure out why the Mets and Phillies are favored. They seem to have the same amount of problems the Braves do. Just look at parts have problems on paper:
Mets – Starting staff, second base
Phillies – Bullpen, third base, bench
Braves – Starting staff, second base, bench once Chipper gets injured
And the Mets and Phillies are going to finish ahead of the Braves? Psssh, don’t make me laugh. I don’t know how the hell the Mets won with all the starting pitching problems they had.
sam, that’s easy they scored a ton of runs and more importantly their bull pen didn’t handover as many games as the braves.
also if you look at games lost or won by one run
the Braves won 19 and lost 33 while the Mets won 31 and only lost 16.
I’m not sure how many of those losses for the Braves were a result of blown saves, but it seems like a little more luck in those sittuations could have really made a difference. We had 9 one run losses in June alone
I was just poking fun a little bit. All that is true.
Interesting piece on Leo…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/18/AR2007021801121.html
Thanks, Stu.
A-Rod? Has anyone checked the Braves payroll lately. I guess they could sign A-Rod as long as they were able to just cut out a few positions and play with six players.