Jarrod Parker Impresses; What Did You Think?
By Joseph Lopez
The A’s may not end up winning very many games this season, but they are off to a solid start. Offensively, the A’s remain a very easy team to shut down, but the pitching staff has kept the team hovering around the .500 mark this year. The young core that the A’s have assembled seems to be gelling and guys like Tom Milone, Yoenis Cespedes, and now Jarrod Parker are coming together to help the Athletics remain somewhat competitive.
Parker, 23, made his Oakland debut on Wednesday against the visiting Chicago White Sox. The former Arizona Diamondback prospect shined in his seasonal debut, lasting 6.1 innings while recording 5 strikeouts and allowing just one run. Like Milone and Cespedes before him, Parker showed, in my opinion anyway, a glimpse into the future of A’s baseball.
The future, as you may have imagined by watching Parker’s solid performance, is bright and promising. The A’s have put a lot of effort into their latest rebuild, with Billy Beane shipping away most of his established players in exchange for younger, inexpensive talent for the rebuild.
The A’s righty didn’t record the win due to Grant Balfour‘s first blown save of 2012, but what the A’s saw from Parker was all that mattered. The A’s have shown to have a real knack at putting together solid pitching staffs not only on a shoe-string budget, but while operating through a rebuilding process, too.
Oakland’s pitching currently ranks 5th in baseball in ERA (2.71), which isn’t too far behind the No.3 ranked Texas Rangers (2.62). The A’s have also logged the most innings of work with 185.2 so far this year. Bottom line, the A’s know how to pitch. Jarrod Parker, the former No.1 prospect from Arizona, is yet another strong piece to the puzzle Beane and the A’s are trying to put together.
_______________________________
What did you think about Parker’s first start with the green-and-gold? Are you excited, as I am, about the A’s future?
Follow me on twitter @oaklandace75 and for more A’s related analysis, stories, and opinions, follow us on twitter @FS_SwinginAs or like us on Facebook.