Joel Zumaya's Rough June

This 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
• Two HR
• 11 walks
• 10 Ks
• 5.40 ERA
• 59 percent strikes

Here’s what he did in April/May:

• 12 games
• 16 innings
• Two HR
• Two walks
• 15 Ks
• 2.81 ERA
• 71 percent strikes

It’s no secret that Zumaya has had a lot of trouble finding the strike zone.  In those first 12 games, he stayed in 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 eighth inning.