Zumaya is Back and Enhances a Bullpen that has Already Exceeded Expectations

Joel Zumaya returned to the Tigers in last night’s 9-1 victory and boy, did he return.  Zumaya pitched a scoreless bottom of the ninth inning, where he may find himself pitching in the not too distant future, and looked like he never missed a beat (just like on Guitar Hero).

Zumaya threw 13 pitches, eight of which were strikes, and was throwing 97-100 fairly consistently.  Zumaya did give up two hits on choppers up the middle, but those are hardly a concern as the main issue with Zumaya at this point is his command and velocity; and both were more than satisfactory.

With Zumaya back in the Tigers bullpen (Eddie Boner Bonine was sent to the minors) this Tigers bullpen has the make up to be pretty lethal. The starting pitching has been giving more than their fair share of quality starts allowing the Tigers to use 1-3 guys for an inning a piece to close the door.

Ryan Perry, Fernando Rodney, Bobby Seay, Joel Zumaya, and Brandon Lyon have what it takes to become one of the better bullpen corps in baseball this season. Perry and Zumaya’s power, Rodney’s change, Lyon’s junk, and Seay serving as the loogy, all provide just the right mix for success.  Let’s not forget the Tigers have Nate Robertson providing the lengthy relief duties (teehee, lengthy relief ‘duties’) and Juan Rincon as an inning filler if anyone else is over worked and needs a rest.

I’m very excited about this bully and even more excited that Tigers’ pitching has proved a lot of “experts” wrong thus far.  After just 17 games, the Tigers find themselves atop the Central division (tied with the White Sox and Royals) and the Tigers rank 11th in the Majors right now in bullpen ERA (16th in overall ERA).  However, those numbers are slightly skewed against our favor as the Tigers have been a lot better in terms of bullpen ERA since that one blow up game in Toronto and the overall ERA would be a lot better without Verlander’s atrocious-ness.  Either way, it’s still a lot better than last year and what critics were predicting.  It’s still early, but this team has a lot of opportunities to improve and prove stupid people wrong.