Shorebird of the Week – May 14, 2015

Bennett Parry

I can’t believe I’m picking Bennett Parry as my Shorebird of the Week – again.

You see, at the tail end of the 2013 season when I originally tabbed Bennett, he was in the midst of some great starting pitching. Here we are in May of 2015 and Parry is doing the same thing for Delmarva, shutting out Asheville for six innings on two hits last Thursday before Tuesday’s almost as stellar losing effort against Augusta, where two consecutive doubles did him in for a 1-0 tough luck loss. Parry allowed just three hits in five innings in that start, and has allowed only 23 in 31 2/3 innings pitched so far this season. He’s only given out eight walks against 25 strikeouts, leaving himself a sub-1 WHIP for the season.

So why hasn’t my 2013 forecast that Parry was “a contender for Frederick’s starting rotation (in 2014)” come true? Beats me. If you look at Parry’s Delmarva body of work over those parts of the last three seasons he’s been here, you really can’t argue that with an ERA under 3, strikeout-to-walk ratio of better than 2.5-to-1 (with about a strikeout per inning), and overall WHIP of 1.22 – mainly as a starter, by the way, so he’s facing batters multiple times per game – he doesn’t deserve a shot at the next level. Yet in five pro seasons Bennett has never gotten past Delmarva.

I’ve seen Bennett pitch a few times over the last three seasons, including a couple starts this year. One thing I notice is that he’s the kind of pitcher you watch for awhile and realize, hey, he’s in the fifth inning and throwing a shutout (or at worst keeping the team in the game.) It’s not flashy, but he does get his outs and they add up to innings and suddenly you’re applauding another solid six-inning effort.

I will concede to my above point that Bennett is a little older than the league now (he turns 24 in August) and was drafted in the 40th round in 2011. (Under current draft rules, that would be the final round.) When you’re 1,205th on the totem pole, nothing comes easy and apparently it hasn’t for Bennett, either. But here’s hoping that, for the second half of the season, Parry finally gets to try his luck at the next level and see if he can compete there.