Could Parnell Start?

With Niese going down today, the Mets need to get creative with the starting pitching, as they do not have anyone left to call up, and are running out of healthy starters.

Minor League History

Untill last year Bobby Parnell was a starter, starting with Brooklyn in 2005, making it to Double-A in 2007 with a WHIP .1 higher than his career average of 1.3, so he struggled at first, and was sent down, his second time up he was .2 higher than his career average, and started 2008 at Binghampton, where he would get back down to his career average, and then in 2008 with a horrible bullpen and Parnell on the 40-man they called him up in September and used him in some critical spots out of the bullpen which slowed his growth as a starter, and when he started this year in the bullpen he added something that we did not have last year, a hard thrower at the back end of the bullpen.

One problem presented is that he would have to stretch out his inning so he could not start, but then again he pitched 3 today, and he could throw an 80 pitch bullpen session sometime between now and when Niese's next start would have been, and then limit him to just 80 pitches, or hopefully about 4-5 innings of work, or just shift the rotation so we give him an extra day or two.

If he were to do this it would be pretty impressive, as other pitchers have tried and failed, like Jonathon Papelbon.