Panic Time in Detroit
Published April 15, 2008
When the Yankees made their championship run in the 90s many a critic focused on the large money spent on various free agents like Roger Clemens and David Justice. While those high profile players figured prominently in their success, at the heart of that dynasty was a consistently outstanding bullpen.
From the historic combination of Rivera to Wetteland in 1996 through the line of effective pieces like Jeff Nelson, Mike Stanton, and Ramiro Mendoza leading to Rivera in the latter championship years, the Yankees' greatest advantage was their ability to reduce the number of innings in which a team could feasibly beat them.
Likewise, the most recent run of success by the Boston Red Sox has been similarly solidified by stellar bullpen pawns like the aforementioned Papelbon as well as Keith Foulke, Mike Timlin, and Hideki Okajima, to name a few. Without this arsenal of arms, the efforts of the high priced headliners like Pedro Martinez and Curt Schilling would have gone for naught. Who would remember Schilling's infamous sock if Foulke had come in and blown the save?
Even before Rodney went down, the Tigers bullpen was highly questionable. Without him the outlook is completely dismal. While Detroit GM Dave Dombrowski deserves his due credit for returning legitimacy to the proud franchise in Detroit, one must question his ease in trading for a pitcher like Dontrelle Willis while totally neglecting the Tiger's long standing and glaringly obvious need for bullpen help.
Knowing that Jones successor in waiting Joel Zumaya would miss a good deal of time, why would Dombrowski not make some effort to shore up this crippling weakness? It's a testament to the seductive influence of star power and large home run totals that fans and analysis alike would think that a powerful lineup would supplement the damage inflicted by this massive deficiency.
Also shrouded by the power charged ballyhoo surrounding the team was the Tigers' obvious lack of starting pitching. Detroit fans need only reminisce back to the era of Fielder, Fryman, Tettleton, and Deer, to remember how ineffective home run power can be in masking a weak starting rotation.
Barring a career altering injury, Justin Verlander will be, at the very least, one of the best pitchers of his era. Beyond that, the cupboard is deceptively bare in the Tigers rotation. The Detroit faithful has pinned much hope on the eventual breakout of Jeremy Bonderman. While Bonderman has, at times, shown top tier stuff, going into his 6th season he has still never posted an ERA under 4.00 nor has he won 15 games.
While Jeremy has recorded respectable WHIP numbers due to his low walk totals, his penchant for tiring in the second half of the season has proved troubling for the Tigers, to say the least. For the team to be successful Bonderman must perfect the changeup he has been working on and the Tigers must find a way to solve the second half swoon syndrome he seems to be afflicted with.
- Panic Time in Detroit
- Published: April 15, 2008
- Type: Opinion
- Section: Sports
- Filed Under: Sports: Baseball
- Writer: Anthony Tobis
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Totally valid points.
In the case of Lopez he has definately put up good numbers. From a pure talent evaluation standpoint (however qualified I am to make one of those) he reminds me of Matt Anderson or, at best, Kyle Farnsworthless. You need more then just a fastball once the league gets a book on you, but we'll have to wait and see if he can develope a second pitch to offset his speed.
As for Jonsey, yeah he's kept it together thus far but seriously, does any Tiger fan really feel good about that guy closing ball game? He gave up 64 hits in 61.3 innings last year and in 06 he gave up 70 in 64. That's a little much.
Clete is awesome but what does his success say about the Tigers' offense? With a guy nearly replicating Granderson-like stats they still can't generate any offensive fluency. Maybe when Curtis comes back they can find a place for Clete in left, giving them something to work with at the top, but that's up to Leyland.
Forgive my skepticism on his long term prospects but the Tigers have definately had their share of Chris Sheltons and Ryan Rayburns, as have all teams.
If Clete can keep it up they really could have something nice with the two of them.
"You need more then just a fastball once the league gets a book on you, but we'll have to wait and see if he can develope a second pitch to offset his speed."
You don't necessarily need to change speeds, but a breaking pitch can be just as effective. I looked at Aquilino's pitching splits on ESPN, and it looks like his out pitch is actually a slider. Fastball and slider -- those were Zumaya's pitches too. (Now, Lopez is 32, so he's not exactly a budding phenom.)
"As for Jonsey, yeah he's kept it together thus far but seriously, does any Tiger fan really feel good about that guy closing ball game?"
Even though one needs more than the prescribed dosage of Maalox while watching him ... at least I do. At face value, when you hear about a closer who allows a lot of baserunners and is probably last among closers in strikeouts, you'd think he's horrible. But he blew six games last year. 13 other closers blew more than that, some with fewer saves. It's at this point that you basically have to throw out the stats and numbers and just concede that Todd Jones is an old, old man with a slow, slow fastball, and somehow does the job good enough.
Of course the other edge to that sword is that he'll have the job until he blows three straight games with a 7-run lead. But this won't be until he's 53 years old.
"Forgive my skepticism on his long term prospects but the Tigers have definately had their share of Chris Sheltons and Ryan Rayburns, as have all teams."
Understood, but Granderson will be back soon, and Thomas did his job as a replacement player. Furthermore ... Raburn was certainly a shot of Red Bull for them in the second half last year but ... is he really a Shelton-y flameout already? He's still with the team. Shelton never even made it back to the majors a few months after The April To Remember.
You can definately make that assertion about Jones, and there are definately are a good deal of closers who are far worse then him, that goes without saying.
Jones just isnt championship caliber and neither is the rest of their pen.
My point was never that the Tigers are a horrible team. Like I said in the piece, the Yanks of the 1980's won more games than any other franchise in that decade. They just didn't have the pieces in their rotation or their bullpen to bring it home.
The team is good, they just aren't championship caliber as they were projected to be. They will crush some teams like they did last night but in the end I don't predict that to be enough.
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Well, it's a two-game winning streak later, and while I thought any winning streak would be the result of bashing and no bullpen relief, consider:
• Aquilino Lopez, horrible? His ERA is 0.73 -- One run allowed in 12 innings.
• Todd Jones gave up his first run tonight in six games, moving his ERA to 1.50.
Also, Clete Thomas is filling in nicely for Curtis Granderson. He's hitting over .300 in his absence.
They've got holes, but when nothing was working in the first two weeks, it's really hard to gauge exactly what their problem is. Maybe their bullpen will actually be very good and the starting pitching will be horrible.