Saturday night
I can see the forums all over the place are lighting up on the Todd Jones subject, and a lot of the posts involve removing him at closer. At this point, my answer would be a reminder that he’s blown one save. Entering with a three run lead and giving up two runs is not as bad as giving up those runs in a one-run game.
As for why Fernando Rodney wasn’t used, the manager said after the game he wanted to give Rodney the day off. If you use Zumaya, Rodney and Jones on the same day all the time, he said, you’ll have to rest them all the same days, too. This way, he has Rodney available Sunday if they can hit Santana and get into the late innings with a lead.
Jason Beck
jason, jones should be removed as closer, so he’s only blown one save. there have been other games this season in his few outings, that he’s put himself in situations where he almost blew the save, but was instead bailed out by good defence, or had more than a one run lead. zumaya has been lights out and diserves the closer role. the manager said he will do everything he needs to do to win today’s game and worry about the next game when it comes. he needs to back up his word.
I hate to say it, but I agree with the above comment. Only one blown save isn’t enough for a great closer to lose his job, but it seems like people are just afraid of him losing his job because then we’ll be paying a setup man $11M over two years. Zumaya or Rodney doing the closing is clearly going to get us more wins.
Ok, so compared to the other two here I am obviously a Jones supporter. We are talking about a guy who saved 40 games last year and has proven he can do the job. He blew 5 saves in 45 chances last year. Rodney blew 6 saves in 15 chances. Granted Rodney has been lights out so far this year but I still have to stick with Jones. Besides, the last reliable closer the Tigers had for the past few years that they have been able to stick with is… Todd Jones. They traded him when he struggled some in 2001 and I believe was in a contract year so they could hand the job to the heir apparent closer Matt Anderson. Just because the
“experts” think a guy has the stuff to close does not mean he can.
I am no Jones supporter, but I think you have to wait a little longer before even considering canning him. As the above comments indicate, Jones has the track record. If you change suddenly and Rodney or Zumaya doesn’t produce you are in a pickle. So you have to make sure it’s really final if and when you change closers.
In any case it is way too early for this kind of talk, in my opinion.
I like Rodney better than Jones so he’d be my choice to pitch in the most important spots. However, I’m not totally convinced that Rodney is ready to be a dominant closer yet either so I’m all the way on the Rodney bandwagon. I suspect Jones won’t be the closer all year though.
Are you people mad????? As it was mentioned previously, Jones only blew five saves out of 45 last year, and Rodney blew 6 of 15. In the world I live in you people that would use Rodney had better never go to vegas. In fact you should gamble with me, cause I would love to take the odds you are willing to play with. Jones’s track record last year speaks loads for his ability. I mean cmon guys how many closers do you see having a 15 year career in the bigs???
just my 2 cents and with conversion rates thats worth nothing