Man, I was getting really worried wondering if Ed would ever get around to finding us a righty middle reliever, seeing as how we don’t have any and we are overloaded with ace starters.

Thank GAWD he managed to grab Chad Paronto, RHP, for a piddling half mill. Chad, age 32, will be 33 in July, is another ex-Brave who was DFA’d (joining Villareal.) In fact Chad was sent down in August of last year because the Braves bullpen was so overwhelmingly magnificent that he found himself on the outs.

Chad was drafted by the Orioles in the 8th round in 1996 out of U Mass. He had a cup of coffee in the bigs in his 6th year 2001, threw 27 innings with a 5.00 ERA, was put on waivers and claimed by the Indians. He split his time in 02 and 03 between the ML and minors, throwing 35 innings with a 4.04 ERA in 02 and then spent almost all of 03 in the minors, throwing only 6 innings in the majors.

He spent all of 04 in the Cards’ AAA club, split 05 between the Brewers and the Braves AAA clubs. He threw 56 innings for the Braves in 06, 5 HR, 19 BB, 41 K with a 3.18 ERA and a 1.27 WHIP.

Last year, he threw 40.1 innings (before he was sent down in August) 1 HR, 19 BB, 14 K – 3.57 ERA and a 1.64 WHIP. But you notice we are talking about 3.12 K/9, 4.24 BB/9 for a guy who has never been an extreme GB pitcher.
In fact, he’s only thrown 166 ML innings in his career, and has a 4.00 ERA and a 1.46 WHIP – almost exactly his minor league numbers. He doesn’t strike out many – 5.41/9 IP, low for a reliever, and walks too many 3.41/9 IP, but he has never given up very many homers and you KNOW that is important with all the rightys taking aim at the Crawford Boxes.

One thing is that he hasn’t thrown more than 60 innings in a year since he was 23 years old – he averages around 52 innings/year, and that sure isn’t very much. In his best year, 2006, he had more appearances than IP, so it looks as if the Braves had him coming in to get out of innings. He was usually used in the 7th and 8th innings, reviewing the game logs.
Well, as you know, clubs have some time in ST to evaluate the pitchers and they can release them owing them only small fractions of their salaries if they don’t perform.

UPDATE: here is a report from ”Ann Onnamuss” who watches Braves players and prospects very closely, and sent me a report on Chad Paronto:

Me: How about a scouting report? You’ve watched him for 2 years.

“Ann” – yeah, i’ve actually seen Chad pitch quite a bit (he spent the 2004 season with the Cards’ Triple A affiliate and pitched VERY well there and he’s pitched well for the Braves too)….he’s a bit of a late bloomer (he’s in his early 30’s now I think) but he’s had FOUR good years in a row now while bouncing back and forth between AAA and the majors.

I don’t know WHY the Cards and Braves didn’t have him and/or keep him at the major league level cause he’s defiinitely good enough to be/stay there. I think he got caught in a numbers game a couple of times because both teams were kind of overstocked with middle relievers (Ed Wade’s not the only one obsessed with middle relievers). Anyway, he’s a real big guy, about 6′ 5″ or so and 250-260, and he’s really pretty good most of the time. He throws hard but also has excellent breaking pitches – his slider and his sinker are both OUTSTANDING, Also, he’s GREAT against lefthanded hitters for a RHP; for some reason, lefty batters, as a group anyway, don’t hit him well at all. The only negatives that I can think of are that he struggles with his command once in a while and is occasionally susceptible to the long ball, but what pitcher isn’t? He and Villareal should do a good job for you guys as they’re both pretty good. Bobby Cox liked both of them a lot.

Me: then why did he get sent down in August 2006?
“Ann”: they sent him down to clear a roster spot for Mark Teixeira when they acquired teixeira at the trade deadline. Now why HE was the one sent down – who KNOWS He was pitching well at the time, got caught in a roster numbers crunch again I guess. Like I said, he’s pitched well four years in a row now and hasn’t gotten as much respect from the organizations that he’s pitched for as he probably should have. Hopefully, that will change with you guys and he’ll get to stay in the majors because he’s definitely good enough to be there.

Interesting…