Joba Rules 2.0

As reported by the New York Post. Thoughts to come…

Michael Rosenberg: Friend of the Loogy Lounge

Now let’s have a little friendly disagreement. While I’m hesitant to criticize a writer who extols the virtues of relief pitching, Rosenberg’s article today goes a little overboard on the importance of relief pitching in the regular season.

Rosenberg believes that, despite improvements in the off-season, the Tigers are still missing one “crucial piece of the puzzle” — relief pitching. I tend to agree: the Tigers enter the season with Fernando Rodney (inconsistent), Jason Grilli (mediocre), Tim Byrdak (wild), Zach Miner (unproven), and Bobby Seay (one good, full year in six-year career).

Rosenberg goes on to write:

Relief pitching was the biggest reason the Indians won the AL Central over the Tigers. Tigers relievers had a 4.40 ERA; Indians relievers had a 3.75 ERA.

Sorry, Michael. As much as I’d like to agree, this just isn’t true. A .65 difference in bullpen ERA is not the biggest reason why the Indians finished eight games above the Tigers in 2007. The Yankees, as one of many counter-examples, finished 11 games ahead of the Blue Jays despite the Blue Jays’ bullpen ERA being nearly a run less.

In 2007, the Indians had two ace pitchers (Carmona, 151 ERA+; Sabathia, 143 ERA+) and some decent complementary pitchers. The Tigers, on the other hand, had one ace (Verlander, 125 ERA+) and a lot of crap after him. This was the reason that Cleveland finished 8 games ahead of Detroit. And, by the way, this remains as another “piece of the puzzle” missing from the 2008 Tigers, unless you’re counting on the D-Train to regain his 2005 form.