Detroit Tigers Streaky Bullpen Is Starting to Take Shape

A couple weeks ago the Detroit Tigers bullpen was a bigger mess than Charlie Sheen's place after an all-night bender.

It was a far cry from what was expected to be a strength of the team.

Joel Zumaya's no-show is the least surprising thing about the team this year, Ryan Perry might be flaming out on his once promising young career and Joaquin Benoit appeared to be a major bust as a free agent acquisition.

As roster shake-out has already started—some names have stuck and others have fallen by the wayside.

David Purcey was acquired from the Oakland A's after the Scott Sizemore experiment finally came to an end. He's pitched well in his brief stint and will surely figure into the bullpen plans.

Ryan Perry has earned a well deserved trip to Toledo, especially considering the Zumaya injury—Perry was expected to be a late inning righty that Jim Leyland could lean on this year, but instead, became opposing hitters' best friend.

Luckily for Leyland, the unheralded offseason acquisition of Al Albuquerque has been a godsend in light of Perry's struggles. 

Albuquerque has 31 strikeouts in 17.2 innings of relief and—despite a mild control concern—he has been better than Perry ever had been as a late-inning righty specialist. 

Joaquin Benoit was temporarily removed from the set-up role after allowing 12 earned runs over a six game, four inning span and looked like a complete free-agent bust.

However, since the mini-slide, he's pitched 6.1 innings without an earned run and appears to have righted himself.

Jose Valverde may not invoke the need for a defibrillator quite like Todd Jones did, but he's an adventure in his own right in the closer role.

The two rules for Valverde we've learned are: 1. Don't pitch him in a non-save situation and 2. Don't ever let him pitch to David Ortiz.

I found it's easiest to DVR the game and watch Valverde close out the game in fast forward. It's much less anxiety inducing.

Still, Valverde almost always gets the job done and is 14 for 14 in save situations—impressively the only pitcher in the AL with more than one save that hasn't blown one.

The only unsettled situation in the bullpen might be settling itself.

Daniel Schlereth has been the late-inning left handed specialist for Jim Leyland and—despite his good ERA—he hasn't pitched well with the lead and hasn't stranded enough inherited runners—evidenced by his gaudy 1.44 WHIP.

Something interesting happened this week that might indicate Leyland will start leaning another way when he needs a lefty in the late-innings.

Down 7-6 late in Tuesday's game vs. the Twins, Leyland turned to rookie lefty Charlie Furbush in a late-inning situation against Jim Thome after Max Scherzer had just surrendered a lead.

Normally that would be a spot for Schlereth.

Furbush—a fairly highly touted starting prospect—has been dazzling in long relief for the Tigers since his call-up a couple of weeks ago—after Brad Thomas was mercifully placed on the DL.

Furbush has pitched nine innings with zero earned runs and 10 strikeouts since his promotion but hadn't been called upon late in a game.

In the game Tuesday, Furbush struck out the future Hall of Famer easily on three pitches.

In a similar situation in Wednesday's game—Leyland turned back to Schlereth to pitch to Justin Morneau in the seventh with a 4-2 lead.

Schlereth promptly hit Morneau with his only pitch of the game.

While Leyland normally hates to use rookies in pressure situations, he may need to start to turn to Furbush more if he continues to impress and Schlereth keeps having control issues.

Even though Furbush long-term projects as a starter for the Tigers—Leyland needs to win this year to guarantee he'll be back and he'll pitch whoever gives him the best chance to win.