August 8, 2007

Bullpen Still A Problem

By John Milton in Milton's Musings | 2 comments

It was nice to see the Tigers win last night. Nice to see them win two in a row for the first time since they swept the Twins in Minnesota. It was heartbraking to see Nate Robertson pitch his heart out only to see Jason Grilli come in and not retire a batter in the 8th inning. The disaster capped off with a grand slam to Johnny Gomes to erase a 6-2 lead. The Comerica Park faithful showered Grilli with a chorus of boos as he left the mound to be replaced by Tim Byrdak.

The Tiger fans at the park expressed what fans are still feeling about this bullpen. Even though they have performed better in recent weeks, there is still not a lot of confidence in any of the middle relievers coming out of the pen. It proved to be too much to ask to get a solid middle reliever at the trade deadline to get the Tigers one more stopper out of the pen to go along with Fernando Rodney should he prove to be a good setup man before the season is over. Todd Jones has looked good in his last couple of closing appearances, but I still cannot relax when he comes into the game.

I’m glad the Tigers were able to put a rally together, even it was helped by a mental lapse by the Devil Rays defense, so that the tank job by Jason Grilli did not cost the Tigers the game.

Unless the Tigers can claim a good setup man off waivers before August 31, they are going to be subject to games like we saw last night.

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2 Comment(s)

  1. Ian C. | Aug 8, 2007 | Reply

    John Milton! Glad to see you writing on the Fungo.

    The bullpen could look pretty good in a week or two if Joel Zumaya’s recovery is going as well as we’ve been reading.

    But I’d still like to see another guy picked up. I’m afraid, however, that with the whole waiver thing, the only name that’ll be available is Kyle Farnsworth.

  2. Mike McClary | Aug 8, 2007 | Reply

    Great to have John on board with the Fungo writing team. Here’s a snippet from the Tigers’ Game Notes for Wednesday night’s game (in which Jason Grilli is pitching as I write this):

    Grilli
    Last Five Outings: 0-1, 10.80 ERA (5.0 IP/6 ER), 10 H, 3 BB, 5 SO

    Stellar.

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