The Angels on Friday announced that they’ve claimed right-hander Blake Parker off waivers from the Brewers, marking the second time that the Halos have won a waiver claim on Parker since the regular season ended. Anaheim also claimed Parker from the Yankees back on Oct. 5, but designated him for assignment in late November when clearing spots on the 40-man roster in advance of the Rule 5 Draft. The Brewers scooped Parker up on waivers shortly thereafter, but his stay in the Milwaukee organization will ultimately last just one month.
The 31-year-old Parker split the 2016 season between the Mariners and Yankees, and wound up pitching 17 1/3 innings in the Majors. During that brief stint, he turned in a 4.67 ERA ball with 15 strikeouts against eight unintentional walks. Parker actually averaged a career-best 92.2 mph on his fastball in 2016 and comes with a 3.67 career ERA in 90 1/3 innings at the Major League level. He’s an extreme fly-ball pitcher and has averaged 10.5 K/9 in parts of nine seasons at Triple-A but has also averaged 4.2 walks per nine innings there.
“Extreme fly ball pitcher”? Well sure, that’s the reason why the front office has been building up the defense up the middle–so some pitcher can serve up a home run.
Guess I’m not understanding Eppler’s fascination with Parker.
Probably the same reason Dipoto kept dealing with the D’Backs and Rockies. I expect a handful of Yankees to go through the Angels during Eppler’s tenure.
This guy works so slow. He pretends every pitch is the most important pitch ever thrown by a major league pitcher. Reminds me of Joel Peralta.
I always liked him when he was a Cub, but when the front office changed, he never got a real chance.