Zumaya’s Rough June
By Blake VandeBunte • Jun 25th, 2009 • Category: 2009 Season, Brandon Lyon, Joel ZumayaThis past Tuesday night, I was making my way along on my summer trip and was spending the day in New York City. I spent the night at CitiField, watching the Mets take on the St. Louis Cardinals. I was keeping close tabs on the scoreboard in left-centerfield so I knew how the Tigers were doing. I saw the Tigers take a late lead and then noticed that they had put Joel Zumaya into the game. I said to my friend that I wouldn’t be surprised if Zumaya coughed up the lead, since he’s been struggling for most of the month. Sure enough, Zumaya blew the lead. Luckily for Joel and the Tigers, Ryan Raburn was ready to bail them all out, but it doesn’t get rid of Zumaya’s issues.
Here’s the skinny on Zumaya’s rough month of June:
- 10 games
- 8.1 innings
- 2 HR
- 11 walks
- 10 Ks
- 5.40 ERA
- 59% strikes
Here’s what he did in April/May:
- 12 games
- 16 innings
- 2 HR
- 2 walks
- 15 Ks
- 2.81 ERA
- 71% strikes
It’s no secret, Zumaya has had a lot of trouble finding the strike zone. In those first 12 games he stayed in games much longer and gave up fewer walks. Walks are obviously the last thing you want to see out of the bullpen.
JAYRC wrote a bit about this the other day, but Brandon Lyon has really emerged as one of the more reliable bullpen arms. He’s been throwing strikes and getting himself quick innings. Zumaya’s innings, on the other-hand, have been slow and quite often feature him coughing up a tie or a Tigers lead.
Clearly, Zumaya is one of the top relief pitchers in baseball when he’s on top of his game. No one in the game throws as hard as he does. His control needs to improve and so does his pitch selection. It could be that Joel is still learning and that’s reasonable. However, if his June struggles follow him into July or August, the Tigers should look at Lyon or “Mr. Outside Hire” to pitch the 8th inning.
Blake VandeBunte is a posting fiend.
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I wonder when they will trade for an arm. We have all talked about Street, Hawkins etc
You can never have enough bullpen studs.
At least last night was encouraging for Zoom Zoom
You are right though, I bet Zumaya is looking forward to the end of June
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