Detroit Tigers News: Spotlight on the Tigers’ closers

Take a trip down memory lane

With the team almost out of contention in June, there is little to discuss outside of who is going to be sold and when. But don’t worry, Brendan Savage of MLive is here to make you feel even worse. He compiled an impressively comprehensive list of Detroit closers from years past, and as he puts it, it is not for the faint of heart.

I was pleasantly surprised with some of the fond memories it conjured as well. Mainly that the Tigers fully made all of New York depressed for about 1000 days straight.

That being said, the darkness overwhelms all. Especially when looking at your Joe Nathans and the ERAs in general. We have all seen some of the worst closers trotted out by good teams in the history of baseball.

Speaking of closers

Detroit’s old one was picked up swiftly, signing a minor league role with the Washington Nationals. And, oh yeah, sure, now you’ll accept a lesser role in the minors to figure stuff out. Just took blowing six saves, throwing your manager under the bus, and then getting cut to get there.

The silver lining for Francisco Rodriguez is the Nationals are the only team that has a bullpen that can remotely compare to our tire fire. So he’ll probably be back costing them games in no time.

The suck is contagious

Former Tiger Jason Grilli has been designated for assignment by Toronto. Despite still having his velocity and strikeout ability, Grilli was betrayed by the long ball (sounds familiar) and has given up 16 runs in just over 20 innings. He had a very different reaction than K-Rod to not being good anymore. No word on when the Nationals will be signing him.

Well, not for position players

If only we had Miguel Gonzalez closing out games earlier this year, the team would still be in contention. The pitching efficiency makes this especially awesome.

:FIRE EMOJI:

Sprint Leader board

Daren Willman, king of charts and graphs for the MLB, came out with another fun statistical tool yesterday. It’s a sprint speed calculator for every player in the league. Obviously the first question that comes to mind is where is “turning a double into a single” Victor Martinez. And the answer is, not last! That would be the slowly disintegrating Albert Pujols.

For your free time

Speaking of Pujols, he has the second-lowest WAR in the league but a lot of RBIs so everything is fine (it’s not fine). The five toughest pitchers to hit in the AL East, according to Evan Longoria. Braves are looking to trade for a starter. I guess if you have prospects you might as well use them. And the league has a whole host of young and exciting stars. Time for the Tigers to start looking for theirs.

Dogs are awesome