Ordonez(especially) , Poly, Inge, Laird and Granderslam have crushed Buehrle

basically everyone on the Tigers (who has a decent amount of AB) has done well besides Miguel Cabrera

The good news here is that Zumaya appears to have retained most of the arsenal that he possessed when he first appeared in the majors; the bad news is that his 2006 performance was not sustainable. However, Zumaya is still only 24 years old, and a slight alteration in approach could unlock his full potential. A reliever doesn’t need three pitches to be successful—in fact, in 2004 Baseball America said that “His approach, power stuff, and lack of a changeup [emphasis mine] could make him a closer in the long run”—but while his raw stuff may be relief-ace worthy, his usage and placement of it has not been. Look at the list of relievers with double-digit save totals last year; very few sport walk rates rivaling Zumaya’s, and those who do either strike out more batters than Zumaya has at his best (Brad Lidge and B.J. Ryan, in their good years), or make substantial use of a third pitch (Francisco Rodriguez, Francisco Cordero). Of course, Zumaya can give the likes of George Sherrill and Kevin Gregg a run for their money without changing a thing, but Detroit’s beleaguered bullpen, which finished 29th in the league in both WXRL and FRA last season, needs something more than mediocrity. If Zumaya hopes to indulge his dreams of closing, becoming the first Tiger to rack up 20 saves with a FIP under 3.5 since Matt Anderson barely accomplished the feat in 2000, he might be wise to do some tinkering.

One fact that just caught my eye- I went to look and see how Granderson’s 9 HRs stacked up against the rest of the AL and saw that 1st place with 12 HRs is none other than former Tiger Carlos Pena.

Anyhow — did anyone else hear the radio pre-game for this non-game? In Jim Price’s interview with Jim Leyland, they were saying that Bonderman hit 91 a few times and had a solid outing earlier in the day, and Leyland said he struck out a bunch and gave up something like 4 hits… But they didn’t mention where Bonderman was throwing. Anyone have more info? Billfer?

Price asked what they were looking for before Bonderman came back, whether they wanted to see more velocity come back, and Leyland said it wasn’t just that — a 91 mph fastball could be ok if it had enough “sink”. So it sounds like Bonderman is a step closer, anyway.

2nd Buehrle rainout? lol.