Semi-bold Prediction
By Doug Hill in Doug's Dispatches,Fungoes | 1 comment
Based upon nothing but a feeling in my gut – and the announcement that Andrew Miller is bumping Chad Durbin back to the bullpen Friday night – I believe Jair Jurrjens will hang around and hold down the rotation spot until/if Kenny Rogers returns.
The odd man out … I say it’ll be Jason Grilli.
This will be another example of this team “outgrowing a player (Josh Wallen, 2007).” Grilli was fine last year and at times this year, but I don’t believe Jim Leyland wants to deal with his erratic pitching the final month of the season. Durbin’s been more consistent and – along with Zach Miner - can serve the role of long-man that was previously Grilli’s.
This sets up the bullpen to look like this: Mop up/long men Durbin and Miner, lefty specialists Tim Byrdak and Bobby Seay, set up men Joel Zumaya and Fernando Rodney, closer Todd Jones. This is certainly what everyone envisioned at the beginning of the season.
Of course you’re now relying on a pair of fresh-faced first-year starters in your rotation in Jurrjens and Miller if Rogers can’t return.
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Matt | Aug 23, 2007 | Reply
That sounds about right. I like that bullpen alignment. I’ve been hoping that Grilli would get the ax much earlier. Face it, we could have be developing a young arm at the MLB level and still getting the same results as Grilli’s lackluster performance. It is interesting that without having really hard MLB stuff Grilli has lasted a heck of a long time.