I’ve been following Jose Valverde since he broke into the elite closer scene in the MLB because he was a draftee on my 2007 fantasy baseball team. That year, he had a league best 47 saves and a 2.66 ERA. He was an All-Star, and even received Cy Young and MVP votes. He wasn’t just a steady closer, though; he added pizzazz with every save he racked up. His saves were so exciting, in a good way, that I would switch over to his games on MLB.TV just to watch him close the door and see what kind of post-save dances would ensue.
So naturally, in addition to the Tigers filling a big hole in the closer’s role, I was excited when Valverde signed with Detroit. While a lot of fans were more concerned about the money he would receive in his two seasons, I was simply looking forward to having a closer to save games with a little extra swagger (and Rodney had good, cocky swagger, so he wasn’t bad, but this is a step up).
And as long as he’s pitching well, quirky will be fun for the fans. As Rod Allen said yesterday when Valverde was coming in, “he’s going to be fun to watch. Get a load of this.” Valverde then went into his little entrance routine where he stores a lot of water in his mouth, re-adjusts his junk, becomes a revolving fountain, hop-skips, and burls his way to the mound for domination. I have screenshots and video evidence after the jump.
The water chug:
The junk tug:
The triple-spit (click to enlarge):
The cap tap on the thigh, hop-step:
Video:
It wasn’t a save situation, so we didn’t see anything crazy after he got the final out (8-4 Tigers win), but he did crack a devilish smile because earlier in the inning he forgot how many outs there were. Basically, he thought there were 2 outs when there was in fact one, so on a come backer he went to the ol’ ‘run and scissors’ PFP move instead of turning two. Anyhow, I’m sure you’ll be seeing plenty of Valverde dance posts here at D4L as he’s already somewhat of a Bobby B favorite.
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