Casey Coleman’s in basically the same boat. Both of them have low 90’s fastball with a 2-seamer’s that sits in the high 80’s (and off visual evidence, Coleman’s 2-seamer also seems more of a tailer than a hard sinker), along with decent change and curve options. Coleman really needed a pitch to force the hitter to adjust, so he started messing around with a cutter/slider that can be classified much in the same way Harry classified Parisi’s – a slutter of sorts.. Parisi picked it up later in his career than Coleman did, and I’ll be fascinated to see how they track and if there’s some similarities.

I guess it’s interesting to me because Larry Rothschild is known as a good slider teacher (unless my brain’s fried, I’m pretty sure of that, though) so it’ll be interesting to compare their developments. That said, I might be the only one fascinated with the fact that Parisi and Coleman have some similar attributes.

Harry makes an excellent point that I was trying to make but it didn’t really come across. If the competition early in the year is Samardzija vs. Parisi, I’d like Parisi’s chances (with Marshall slated for pen and Gorzelanny as a starter). Samardzija is the better raw arm, but Parisi is much further along as a starter (leaving aside the debate as to whether or not Samardzija is even a starter).

That said, I still expect the Cubs to make a cheap SP signing or two. Very disappointed we didn’t do what Boston did and land Boof Bonser.