What an interesting few years for Jose Valverde. In 2011, he has his “perfect” season.  Then last year he was good but had a late season melt down and didn’t get the job done in some high profile games.  Then the Tigers gave up on him until he was still available as a minor league signee and now he’s back as the team’s closer.

I know this is 2013 but I still think the “closer” is stupid.  Why you’d want to advertise to a team when and how you’ll be using a particular player seems foolish but it’s something most managers buy into these days with Jim Leyland included.  I didn’t like how he handled Valverde during the melt down and now to just throw him in there again seems a little desperate.  I think Valverde can be a decent reliever but only if he got his velocity back.  He pitched well down in Lakeland but that’s, well, Lakeland.

And it’s not even like the pen has been the problem lately but in this one inning at a time day and age, a guy like Drew Smyly can shine in a blow out loss then get buried back into the pen until another starter has a melt down.

With that, I hope Valverde does well.  I’m not totally optimistic but I’m interested in seeing him pitch.  I’ll also be interested to see over at www.topbettingreviews.com if the Tigers odds of winning go up or down after this weekends tough sweep at the hands of the Angels.

Permalink | Posted in 2013 Tigers