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.
3 responses so far ↓
MJ // February 12, 2008 at 1:00 pm |
I wholeheartedly agree with your criticism of Mr. Rosenberg and of the 2007 and 2008 Tigers. Their starting pitching was so good in 2006 that the mainstream media and conventional wisdom sapped us of our ability to accept that 2006’s success wasn’t repeated in 2007 BECAUSE THE STARTING PITCHING WAS CRAP!
Having said that, Todd Jones is a dogshit closer and the Tigers DO have a problem with their bullpen corps.
John Stevens // February 12, 2008 at 1:06 pm |
Agreed. To the extent it wasn’t clear, the Tigers’ bullpen isn’t very good. And that mediocrity will only be magnified in the post-season. But, if they get even a little starting pitching after Verlander this year, they have the offense to get them to the post-season (a la the 2007 Yankees).
Jim Leyland Agrees With Me! « The Loogy Lounge // February 13, 2008 at 9:39 pm |
[...] 13, 2008 · No Comments Leyland rationally believes, as do I, that his team’s starting pitching will be more important than his team’s relief [...]