Brandon Belt & Bobby Parnell: Waiver Wire
Got two young players finally stepping into more prominent roles this week…
Brandon Belt | 1B, OF | Giants | Owned: 32% Yahoo! and 49.2% ESPN
It took yet another Aubrey Huff (knee) injury, but it appears as though Belt has been freed for good. The 24-year-old has started 15 straight games at first base — even against left-handed starters — and he owns a .362/.483/.702 line with more walks (ten) than strikeouts (nine) during that time. Over the last two weeks, his 236 wRC+ leads all of baseball.
Now obviously two weeks doesn’t mean much of anything in terms of his production going forward, but Belt needed to put together a dominant stretch like this to earn regular playing time. ZiPS projects a .267/.369/.449 line with eighth homers and six steals (in nine chances) the rest of the way, but that’s only 290 plate appearances. He should be able to clear double-digit homers from here on out. Huff isn’t expected back anytime soon, meaning the first base job belongs to Belt for the foreseeable future. Enjoy it.
Bobby Parnell | RP | Mets | Owned: 16% Yahoo! and 14.3% ESPN
The Mets have, by far, the worst bullpen ERA in baseball at 5.27. Outside of lefty specialist Tim Byrdak, the most productive member of Tim Collins‘ Terry Collins’ relief corps has been Parnell (3.19 ERA and 3.09 FIP), who has assumed closer duties with Frank Francisco shelved by an oblique strain. Oblique strains can be tricky for baseball players because they use their core so much, and they’re a very easy injury to re-aggravate if not given enough time to heal.
Parnell, 27, sports some fantastic peripherals — 9.00 K/9 (22.5 K%), 2.32 BB/9 (5.8 BB%), 54.7% grounders — but he’s a little more hittable than most upper-90s fastball guys should be. His .313 BABIP is actually down from his career mark (.332), ditto his .254 AVG against (.267 career). This is a guy with over 200 innings and nearly 1,000 batters faced in his career, and while improvement is always possible, we shouldn’t wait around expecting much of it. That’s fine, it just means Parnell will have a higher WHIP than most closers but the saves and strikeouts will be there. That’s the name of the fantasy bullpen game.
Man, Tim Collins can do it all, including managing the Mets.
so can terry collins
5×5 H2H redraft league: I just picked up Rizzo but Belt is available as well. Would you prefer Belt to Rizzo for the rest of the season?
I picked up Belt last week…..talk about perfect timing! Also picked up R.A. Dickey right before his scoreless string……I’m getting lucky this year!
Can you guys rank these closers for the rest of the season? Ryan Cook, Carlos Marmol, and Parnell.
Cook, Parnell, Marmol. Cook has the job locked down unless he starts sucking, which is all that Marmol has done. Marmol also is playing on a team that finds it hard to win. Parnell has a lot to prove as a closer, and I’m not convinced Francisco won’t get the job back unless parnell really takes off and does well.
If Parnell does a decent job b/t now and the ASB, you’d have to think Collins would stick with him over Francisco, who’s been one of the worst closers (at least those who’ve actually held onto their job) in baseball. Francisco had a couple of very nice seasons n Texas, but he’s been supplanted several times over the course of his career and to go along with spotty control (4.34 bb per nine), opponents have been teeing off of him so far in 2012 (25.6 LB rate, career worst). Parnell is simply the better pitcher.
Huff is expected back, from Rotoworld (6/25):
“Giants manager Bruce Bochy said Aubrey Huff (knee) is close to returning.”
For what it’s worth, the Rotoworld writer opined:
“He’ll need a short rehab assignment first but will probably be back in early July. Huff will be used as a bat off the bench upon his return.”