"RHP Joel Zumaya won’t be closing games for Detroit until he can eliminate outings like Tuesday’s. Manager Jim Leyland thinks it’s because there’s something wrong with him. Zumaya faced five batters and all of them reached base as Toronto erased a 4-1 deficit with a four-run seventh in a 6-4 Blue Jays victory."Leyland thinks something is wrong with Zumaya, eh? He's got that right. Zumaya sucks, and has always been an overrated fastball thrower who lacks the control and the pitch variety to ever be a truly good closer. But hey, Rodney's hardly a model of consistency, and Farnsworth is turning out to be a completely useless trade (unless you're the Yankees; good luck Pudge).
The Tigers' bullpen has dropped TWENTY-ONE save chances this year. Let's put that in perspective: the Tigers are currently 58-61, post-Allstar surge and back to their craptacular performance. They're also losing the third game of their series against the woeful 4th place Blue Jays, 0-4, at time of blogging.
Chicago is 66-52 and the Twins, 67-53, leading the Tigers in their division by 8 games (for those who don't follow baseball, that means if the Tigers won 8 games straight and the White Sox lost 8 straight, they be tied).
The bullpen's effect, then? If they'd managed to keep just HALF of their blown saves from occurring, the Tigers would be 68-51 and in first place. And remember, you don't get a blown save by just pitching a losing game; the Tigers have to be UP when the relief pitcher starts, and then tied or losing (I'm actually not sure if that matters) when the pitcher leaves or the game ends.
21 times these idiots have cost the Tigers a winning game. If they managed saves in 15 of those blown saves, they'd have the best record in baseball.
I'm done venting, and I'm done watching for the season unless they can seriously turn this around. It's one thing to suck all around; it's heartbreaking to watch your team hit and pitch well, and then have a handful of completely useless bastards throw the game away.
1 comment:
Look at the bright side- at least they aren't the Nationals.
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