OT: Jose Valverde regains closer role with Tigers
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/jose-valverde-regains-closer-role-000750392--mlb.html
Any thoughts on this? Tigers re-sign Valverde after he pitches 3 shut out innings in single A. Leland says he will be the closer starting Wednesday night if the situation arises.
I really don't think I will ever be able to watch another 9th inning after the playoffs last year with Valverde.
Freep has more information, but I am not going to be the one who links it.
April 23rd, 2013 at 11:37 PM ^
April 23rd, 2013 at 11:51 PM ^
He can't pitch back consecutive days, he certainly has the stuff but that slider is a killer on that arm. You risk losing him for extended periods of time if he was put in the closer role.
April 23rd, 2013 at 11:50 PM ^
...we had no other options, Leyland LOVES Valverde, we weren't consistent enough.
IMO, it's his job all season. Does he fold under pressure? Don't know. But hopefully we at least get to the pressure (deep in the playoffs).
April 24th, 2013 at 12:01 AM ^
It's weird. I mean, he could come back and be solid. His falling apart last year was strange. If he's gained some velocity back on his fast ball he should be fine, but even if he hasn't, the key to his success is his splitter. He just stopped throwing it at all down the stretch, and if he's found his command again he'll be right back to his old self, only waaaaaay cheaper.
Looking back, I feel like everything was blown out of proportion. Jose made 4 saves in the final week of the season and gave up 0 runs and only allowed 1 hit over that time.
Then he gets into the post season, makes a routine save in game 1 of the ALDS. Allowing no baserunners and striking out 2 of the 3 batters faced. After that we remember the implosions against Oakland and New York, but I don't know. It was 2 games. Granted, they were huge games, but it happens, and maybe the pressure got to him a little bit. However by no means was he awful over the course of the entire season. He was solid. Which is all we really need out of our bullpen.
Yeah, he imploeded in the playoffs last year. Up until that point he had been fine, and in 2011 he was unbelievably good.
Who else do they have to do the job?
Benoit has been a home run machine over the past year.
Coke can't get righthanders out.
Villarreal suddenly can't throw a strike.
Dotel is hurt
Rondon is completely unproven.
About the only option I could get behind other than Valverde is Albuquerque. His numbers actually are good enough that he might be able to do the job. But he has never closed before or even pitched heavily in a setup role, so that would be a large risk. Does he have the mental makeup for closing?
and it's not based on last year. if you look closer at his 'amazing' 2011 year, he was the latin version of todd jones' last couple of years. absolute chaos, leaving two guys on base with somebody bailing him out with a diving grab. unbelievably lucky in 2011 and i told everyone a year ago that valverde would not have a good year in 2012. and he didn't.
want this to work, but looks more like desperation. unless he's got his splitter really moving he is dead meat.
April 24th, 2013 at 10:29 AM ^
That is an exaggeration. In 2011 he DOMINATED right handers (.158 .213 .219 against) and his only real problem against lefties was walks. His .230 .356 .331 line against lefties was far from ideal but doesn't indicate a lucky escape artist. Combined with his righty split it shows a guy with relatively unhittable stuff who almost never gives up extra base hits but does walk a lot of left-handed batters.
So yeah, he gave up some baserunners but almost never the big hit that lost the game. In fact, he gave up only 12 extra base hits all of 2011 in 301 plate appearances against. That's about 4% of the time, which doesn't sound much like luck to me.
April 24th, 2013 at 10:29 AM ^
LULWAT? He was just fine, if not good, in 2012. If you want to toot your own horn on the internet, at least get your facts right.
...in a certain Detroit paper, if you will, Leyland's expectations are fairly realistic:
“I just hope that this works out,” Leyland said. “This would be great for the Tigers, it would be great for Jose Valverde. But I’m not going to put the cart before the horse. Let’s just wait and see what happens and see how many days he can go in a row. He never turned down the ball as long as I had him here. He was a true soldier. He was. I think the world of him and I’ll just be glad to see him.”
I rather agree with Leyland here in the sense that we simply need to see how it works and go from there. It would be huge for Detroit and perhaps personally for Valverde if it does, and somewhere in there is a nice little comeback story potentially. According to Dombrowski, the velocity is back and he has got movement on his pitches again, so if the potential upside is getting back the pitcher who has averaged 32 saves per season in his career (36 per season with Detroit), then if you're the Tigers looking at the bullpen now, it seems like a low-risk high-reward scenario possibly. It's definitely an interesting development with the potential to be a timely and great one.
no other sport features personal drama quite like this, so much scrutiny on one player in the late going.
April 24th, 2013 at 10:18 AM ^
Laying on the couch last night after my son's baseball practice, reading MGoBlog mobile, and I see this post.
Quickly run to PC, log into fantasy baseball, see Papa Grande is the top trending player in all leagues...and still a free agent.
Pick him up, drop Benoit (who's been pretty much useless for saves so far, due in part to his sucky team). I feel like a slave to trends, but I can't see how Valverde can be much worse in terms of save production.
Thank you, MGoBlog!
April 24th, 2013 at 10:31 AM ^
If your metric of 'improving your life' is making a roster move for your fantasy baseball team, you might want to think about the bigger picture a little bit more.
April 24th, 2013 at 10:57 AM ^
Are you the Life Improvement Police? Do you have a list of approved activities and situations we should be following? Please advise.
April 24th, 2013 at 11:41 AM ^
I'd probably be a bit curmudgeon, too.
Having said that, I'm content with my life as an MGoBlog simpleton.
If Leyland likes a subpar player and can get them, they will play unless Dombrowski ships them to British Columbia.