Jim Parque signs
DMZ · February 3, 2007 at 11:58 am · Filed Under Mariners
Man, you dudes are staaarved for news. Jim Parque’s this year’s “injured former player now hopefully healed and dreams of making it back” story. Injuries destroyed his career: after a nice 2000 with the White Sox, he never started more than five games in a season and hasn’t put on a major league uniform since 2003. There’s really no projections or analysis to be done here – the health of his arm determines entirely how well he can pitch, and at this point only the teams that have talked to him and Parque have any idea what his condition is.
Be still my heart. Ya know, if everything breaks (no pun intended) just right, we could have 3/5 of our rotation, a couple relievers, a DH and maybe Guillen all on the disabled list. Yep, it’s Paul Abbott-syndrome. ‘sigh’
little typo, I’m sure you’ll catch it.
WHO IS JIM PARQUE????????
Oh good, Mariners news; this will hold me over for a few hours.
man, i think i remember having parque on a team on triple play baseball back in the day
With this news, Mike Cameron is happy and Brett Boone is thinking of making a comeback as a specialty pinch hitter just to face Parquee.
Here’s the boxscore for those wondering what TIF is talking about.
Mariners removed Yorman Bazardo from the 40 to make way for Weaver. He is DFA’d.
http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/baseball/archives/111124.asp
heres the link for that, BTW
Well it is not butter, it’s Parque.
I like the part about his high-school students urging him to return to professional baseball after he busted out an 82-mph fastball.
Aaron Sele can throw 89. Big whoop.
The Mariners signing an injured, washed up has-been and hoping God drops everything else to turn him into a productive ballplayer? How unusual!
but, by golly, he is going to be the best little Jim Parque that he can be.
apparently, Geoff Baker is in the same news-starved state ….
11
What was that? The sequel to the Jim Morris Story? I doubt Quaid can play Parque.
Shigetoshi Hasegawa has accepted the part of Jim Parque.
Now we need to sign Juan and we will be all right.
Best actors to play Parque in “Rookie 2: Born-Again Lefty”:
Anthony Michael Hall
Dustin Diamond
Corey Haim
Corey Feldman
Neil Patrick Harris
Fred Savage
Ben Savage
Some of you guys baffle me.
Have you looked at some of the Major League lefties who’s fastball can’t break wind?
Let’s see:
Jamie Moyer: Age 308 – in dog years but only 45 in people years! Robust 81 mph smoke! Ah, how soon they forget! Contract status: signed a two year contract extension through 2008 worth 10.5 million bucks.
Kenny Rogers: Age 43. With a stiff wind at his back MIGHT be able to hit 85 on the gun. Contract status: 2007 will be final year of contract which will pay him 8 million dollars
Andy Pettitte: Age 34. Gun rarely registers 86 mph. Contract status: 2007 – 16 million, 2008 option: 16 million.
Mark Mulder: Age: 29. Prior to arm surgery was running it up there 84 – 85 mph. Contract status: rewarded with 13 million for two years and isn’t even available at the start of the season.
Barry Zito. Age: 29 in May. While watching some of the A’s games on tube late in the season it was interesting how many games his fastball was sitting right at 82 – 84 mph. Contract status: Just signed 7 year deal at 126 million.
Jim Parque: Age: About to turn 31.Velocity comparable to above. Contract status: Minor League AAA deal.
And some of you guys are chirping about Parque signing a AAA contract? Come on! I swear some of you guys sound like transplanted Philly fans!
Every once in a while some of those lefties who have been out of the game for a significant time do wind up pitching, and sometimes contributing, in the Major Leagues. Off the top of my head I can think of three lefties who were MIA who came back to the ML, Kevin Hickey, Scott Bailes and Dan Boone – even though he wasn’t real effective. Hickey and Bailes were at least somewhat effective in their first year back in the ML, even if it was in limited service.
I’m pulling for this guy and plan to drive down to Tacoma to see him pitch a few times at the start of the season. Hey, risk/reward and the price was certainly right for the risk.
Re: Josh in #17:
From your link, “‘I think now he is a different Juan Gonzalez in the sense where he is not driving the ball out of the park,'” -Alex Cora.
So which Juan Gonzalez might he be, exactly–the one whose fielding prowess is akin to Raul Ibañez, unfortunately now without the benefit of the homers and ribbies? Or the one more similar to Carl Everett–a one time power threat whose “mastery” of the fine art of outfield play is no longer offset by his adeptness at the plate? I don’t foresee a happy ending in this final trip to the massage parlor by Gonzo…
While I think the Parqué–(likely the original Castilian spelling)–signing is a decent gamble, (and without speculating on the causes of the following) I’d like to point out that Juan Gonzalez’ career trajectory has taken a rather perceivable “‘roid parabola.” During the newly identified “steroid era” he was one of the mainstays of the league, being voted MVP twice. However, he subsequently succumbed to nearly a half-decade’s worth of season-ending injuries; rather like McGwire, Sosa, Belle, Griffey, et al. Again, I dont’ wish to speculate, but, like Parqué, I might think Gonzo would be a potentially decent signing; with new testing for performance-enhancing substances there’s little risk of repeat offense–both might prove able to make a decent run at a bench position on their respective teams. Good luck to both!
It also dawned on me that Moyer, Rogers, Pettitte, Mulder and Zito are all either playing on contending teams or teams that are expected to contend.
I vote the Mariners now bolster their line up by signing “The Brave Little Toaster”
http://imdb.com/title/tt0092695/
Hey, zero risk, and maybe he turns into something. Probably not, but if so, nothing lost. All in all, worth doing. It’s not like anyone’s projecting him to be the staff savior, after all.
#18– tchaw. Obviously it will be Brandon Baker. He’s already Disney property. Sure he’s a decade too young, but then again, when did Jim Morris ever look like Dennis Quaid?
Re: 7 — thanks for the boxscore! That was a crazy, crazy game. I love this bit in the recap of the M’s 7th: “the Chicago crowd boos Porzio for hitting Cameron”
I’d forgotten that James Baldwin started that one for the M’s and ran his record up to 3-1 on his way to the stellar season we all knew he’d have!
Isn’t Jim Parque the guy who tried to sell his car on E-Bay, stating that it belonged to a Major League pitcher?
(I can’t remember if this was before or after that career outing.)