OT--Another Blown Tigers Save
It's frustrating for sure and you have to feel bad for Frankie, but what are the Tigers' other options at this point? They can't keep throwing games away like this. Any word on whether Jiminez is close to ready? Do they move J. Wilson down to closer? This is getting really hard to watch.
What a joke, an absolute joke. Joe Jimenez isn't ready yet, big leaguers are able to square up his fastball too often, he needs to develop the slider more to be an effective pitcher in the show. That said what Greene did today and the emergence of Hardy has given the TIgers more options to have in the late innings and at this point I think you;ve got to give Krod the Anibal treatment if not an outright release.
You can't throw your fastball 87-88 and your changeup 85-86 and expect to get anybody out, there is zero deception. He's literally throwing batting practice speed fastballs up there and trying to get major league hitters out. K-Rod's arm is dead, he's done. Recently, he just isn't locating pitches either and looks like he has no confidence (for good reason).
At this point "guy X" from the minors can't be worse.
How many washed up closers can we sign in a row? It's just INCREDIBLE.
I'd find it more incredible if the solution wasn't always some really old guy. I understand that it's hard to sign a closer with a lot of miles left in him, but guys like Joe Nathan were a million years old when we sign them and then people whistle through the graveyard saying they'll be "a reliable solution" and then they get old and cost us games.
All the time.
It's too late to save this era, so maybe we just have to roll with young guys and kludges for a while, but maybe they should have spent money on a couple of younger bullpen arms instead of old guys when the team was a contender.
I turned it off after the double. Didn't see the walk off live, but saw it coming. We all saw it coming. HR-Rod needs to go.
That's true. The starters have been more than decent and the middle to long relief has been solid for the most part. K-Rod has four blown saves and all of them were losses. Time to move on - there is no trade possiblity for him. He has an 89 mph fast ball, an 86 mph change up, and little control. That is not a winning combination. Cut your losses and get someone like Wilson ready for the closer job.
K-rod may single handedly make us firesalesmen at the deadline
I knew it was bad when i was thinking "I'd have more confidence with Jones/Valverde out there"....
should have signed betsa instead
Betsa might throw harder at this point.
a guy that tops out at 89 mph should not be the closer. Make J. Wilson the closer now (& I know he struggled today). It is time.
89!?!? That must have been one of the games with the juiced up radar gun.
There's days he's barely reaching 87. For a major league closer that is INSANE.
If you can't touch 90, you better have Greg Maddux-esk type control or some top notch breaking stuff if you want to consistently get people out, and well, we all know K-Rod does not.
He threw one inning, yielding one hit, no runs, and striking out one. He threw 14 strikes and 9 balls.
Whoever can get outs should pitch the 9th. It shouldn't matter if he is a "closer" or not. Greene or one of the Wilson's would be worlds better than this.
It's time to dispense with the idea of one pitcher is "the closer," and the whole idea of superspecific roles in the bull pen. Ever since Mariano Rivera, everyone has bought into the idea of a "closer," regardless of whether the pitcher labeled as such has the qualities to succeed in that role. NEWFLASH: Rivera was a unique, no doubt first ballot HoFer.
How's about we look at the matchups in a specific situation, see who maybe needs some work or some rest, and use the best relief pitcher in the 7th, 8th or 9th when we have a lead and the other team has a rally going?
Moreover, I suspect the answer is already in the Tigers' system. (As long as we don't saddle a young pitcher with "the closer" role he's not ready to fill, or not the right guy for it.) Let's review a couple of the pitchers who the Tigers released or traded for a pittance and went on to be quality relievers: Fernando Rodney, Joaquin Benoit. I say Shane Greene should get the ball in more high leverage situations, and think he and Wilson should get more 9th inning appearances.
K-rod and Sanchez should be given low leverage appearances. Perhaps without the pressure they will find something, and could become a trade deadling bargaining chip.
Finally, I think we should all just chill about this year's Tigers. They are Team Chaos of the 2017 season. They have the worst ERA in the majors, yet are flirting with first place in the Division. They have a great win one night, and yak-up a lead the next. Who knows what they will do this year? Drop all the expectations, enjoy the wins, and let's see where they are at the All Star break.
Closers have been around for 40 years or more. Rollie Fingers, Lee Smith, Goose Gossage, Trevor Hoffman, the list goes on.
For the record, I think too much is made of the "mental makeup" for a closer. If you can get guys out, go do it (see: Benoit with the Tigers, for a hot minute). But managers and GMs seem to be stuck on the idea.
When I say "closer role," I mean the guy who pitches the ninth from the start, and only the ninth. Yes, we had "fireman" relievers like Fingers or Gossage before the Rivera era. However, those guys would sometimes come on in the eighth in a jam to get a four or a five out save. I'd dearly love to see a return to that approach.
My beef is with the idea that your best reliever has to pitch the entire ninth inning, and only the minth inning, every time you have a lead. Mariano was great a that. Very few people are Mariano Rivera (and few teams are consistently good enough to have a lead in the ninth often enough where that is the best use of your best reliever).
Media been spinning this same thing for last 5 years and yet despite that talk the Tigers have been top 3 team in the AL since 2011.
No ream in the AL may be better set-up with their starting pitching (most important area in baseball) in the next 3-5 years than the Tigers are with Boyd, Fulmer, Norris and Verlander (not even counting the $20 million a year Zimmermann who's also signed, thanks Al Avila). This put Tigers at a big edge over most teams in near future, thank Dombrowski for that.
In 2020 still not one of those 3 mentioned guys will even be 30 year's old yet as all are locked in at a very low cost also meaning they likely won't have to worry about building a SP staff.
The Tigers have been leading or near the top in team quality starts for most of this season from their entire SP staff but they've also had the MOST innings pitched by an American League team from starting pitchers who are age 26 years old or younger and that group is currently also 4th overall in the AL in team ERA for aged 26 and under SP (top 2 teams actually only have only 1 SP in their numbers).
Most importantly biggest thing is that MLB doesn't isn't obviously a salary cap sport and the Tigers hold a huge spending edge over the rest of their AL Central foes (between 40-70% more money spent a year on team payroll). I'd argue the Tigers are set up better for the future than any team in their division the next 3 to 5 years.
I'd prefer he not come to the game honestly.
Right church. Wrong pew.
Blame Avila for not getting off of his ass and addressing this bullpen in the offseason.
Ausmus is basically Leyland 2.0 and with Gene Lamont and Lloyd McClendon in the dug out with him you have the same braintrust who cannot manage a bullpen let alone know when someone is washed up and does not have it anymore.
Watching the Tigers bullpen is like AAA ball. Especially in Rocky Mountain states where there is no such thing as a safe lead. You never know when someone is going to put up runs other than often!
In the famous words of Inigo Montoya, "I do not think it means what you think it means..." Unless in Rodriguez's case, it means giver up of all leads. Brutal!!
I shared your confidence (in Ausmus).
Why watch at this point? Management clearly doesn't care about this issue and hasn't for years, so I'm not sure why we're supposed to.
There are high school kids in the area that can throw 89. We would be better off going with one of them at this point.
When K-Rod came out for the 9th, like just about everyone else, I was wary that this was going to happen. I said, watch this turkey blow it again. I mean, who didn't?
But a part of my brain also hoped it WOULD happen, so the self-immolation can be complete and we can (hopefully) move on.
So you can all blame me for it happening (after Avila and Ausmus, of course). As long as you also credit me if Ausmus does the right thing and pulls him out of the closer role.
Not sure if this has already been posted/discussed, but Nate Silver wrote a very interesting article on why the fixation with 1 inning closers is misleading.
If you like the sabermetrics stuff, read this.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/goose-egg-new-save-stat-relief-pit…
K-Rod moves quite a few spots down the all-time relievers list in this analysis.
A good read.
Any reason J. Wilson can't stay in the game for two innings yesterday? Do we think the outcome could be worse?
Sure, maybe Wilson isn't available the next day (which happens to be an off-day), and maybe the the following day. Maybe Ausmus thinks it's too much work for him, in that game or over the course of a season. It's more likely Ausmus is just stuck in the "9th inning is for K-Rod" mentality that all of the other modern managers share.
I have a new appreciation for the Goose.