What's Going on with Joel Zumaya?

(Updated:October 12 at 10:30 PM)

Since everyone is googling Joel Zumaya's injury today, I've put together a collection of stories commenting on his condition:

Jim Leyland did not sound overly concerned last night:

"Joel Zumaya's forearm was a little tight and I chose not to use him tonight, and that's why you didn't see him," Leyland said.

However, Zumaya says that he is worried:

"I'm just taking it day-to-day, but it's sore," Zumaya said. "It's the second time I've had this. It's a little worrisome.

"I'm a big factor on this team, but I couldn't pitch with it. That's all I have to say."

Pitching coach Chuck Hernandez is not sure of his availability for Fiday:

When asked if he expected Zumaya would be available Friday, Hernandez said, "We'll see. We'll see how things go tomorrow."

Trainer Kevin Rand also does not know when he'll return:

"We'll re-evaluate it (today)," Rand said, "and see if it's improved."

His current problem is probably the same one that caused him to miss time near the end of the regular season. Here is an old link discussing the tendonitis he experienced in September.

Rand believes the problem arose from the repetitive act of pitching. Zumaya, whose fastball travels more than 100 mph, said he thinks it comes from the aggressive way he holds the baseball. He said the pain "comes and goes."

The latest from MLB.COM is fairly good news although it still looks like he'll miss time:

Results of an MRI exam and an ultrasound conducted on Thursday morning confirmed inflammation in his right wrist and forearm, which head athletic trainer Kevin Rand called "very similar" to the injury he suffered in September.

"We're going to treat him with ice and put him on some medication," Rand said. "We're going to work to get the inflammation out and re-evaluate his pitching status daily."

"I'm not sure he'll be ready to pitch [Friday]," Leyland said, "but we got a good report. We got the best news you could get."

Any arm ailment for a pitcher is a potential concern. This one doesn't sound too serious but there is no time table for his return and they really need him for the playoffs. The good news is that they are two games up and can afford to take their time bringing him back. The second bit of good news is that Fernando Rodney is looking very sharp again which makes Zumaya's absence a little more managable. Still, if this soreness lingers on too long, it would obviously be a big loss in their quest for the championship. He would be especially important if they face the powerful offense of the mets in the World Series.

ALCS Game 2: Tigers 8 Athletics 5

The big news coming into the game was the injury report on Sean Casey. Casey has a partially torn muscle in his calf and will likely miss the rest of the championship series. There is also a good chance he won't be able to play in the World Series if they make it. The new first baseman is Carlos Guillen who played there 9 times during the regular season. Tonight, Neifi Perez was the starting shortstop and inexplicably batted second. Most Tiger fans around the net agree that Infante should be the shortstop. According to Danny Knobler, Jim Leyland wants Perez at shortstop because Infante did not play there much during the season.

Justin Verlander had trouble locating his curve again tonight and the Athletics did a good job working the count. He went over 100 pitches in the 6th inning and left after giving up 4 runs and 7 hits in 5 1/3. The bullpen was excellent as Wil Ledezma, Jason Grilli, Fernando Rodney and Todd Jones allowed 1 run in 3 2/3 and struck out 6 in a row at one point. Jones made us all uncomfortable in the 9th by loading the bases on 3 singles after 2 were out but he got Frank Thomas on a shallow fly to center field. Fernando Rodney was especially impressive easily striking out the side in the 8th. He looks to be back on track again after struggling a little at the end of the regular season.

Milton Bradley kept the Athletics in the game almost single handed going 4 for 5 with 2 homers and 4 RBI. Bradley can get hot at any time and he is really hitting the ball hard in this series. Thankfully, the Tigers contained Frank Thomas who went o for 5 with 3 strike outs. The Big Hurt and Nick Swisher are now 0 for 14 with 8 strike outs in the series. The Athletics won't get too far unless those two get going.

Because Athletics starter Esteban Loaiza has trouble with left-handers, Leyland started Chris Gomez in place of Marcus Thames at designated hitter. The move paid off with Gomez getting a home run and a single and 4 RBI. Every night, it's somebody different. The one constant has been Placido Polanco who got 3 more hits tonight and seems to be back in 2005 form. He is now 11-24 in the post-season. Curtis Granderson went 2 for 5 including his 3rd post-season home run. The whole team seems to be consistently having good at bats. They are looking as good as they have at any point this season.

The Tigers, now up 2-0, go back to Detroit for 3 games (or maybe just 2 the way things are going!). Friday night, it will be Kenny Rogers against Rich Harden.

ALCS Game 1: Tigers 5 Athletics 1

The Tigers defeated the Athletics 5 to 1 in the first game of the American League Championship tonight. From the start, this game had a different feel from any game in the Yankee series. In contrast to the tension and excitement of the first round, this one felt almost like a regular season game. It's now like June or July again where I expect good things to happen in each game. Here are my additional thoughts on the game:

Oakland had 13 base runners tonight but could not take advantage of the opportunities. They hit into a league leading 170 double plays during the regular season and that trend continued tonight as they were doubled up 4 times. Craig Monroe also frustrated the Athletics with a highlight reel diving catch to rob Milton Bradley ending the 5th.

Nate Robertson had another shaky start allowing 6 hits and 3 walks in 5 innings. He was helped out by the double play balls but he also took care of business himself in the 4th. With runners at second and third and nobody out, he proceeded to strike out Eric Chavez, Nick Swisher and Marco Scutaro in succession.

Fernando Rodney pitched for the first time since the regular season and was not rusty at all. He looked pretty sharp in 2 innings of work.

The Tigers continued to get good at bats tonight. They are still being aggressive but they seem to be in much better control in the post-season than they were at the end of the regular season. They had 11 hits and also managed to draw 5 walks (a pretty hight total for them).

Every day of the post-season, there is a new hitting hero. Tonight it was Brandon Inge. Inge, who had a rough series versus the Yankees, started the scoring with a 3rd inning home run and later singled, double and walked. Ivan Rodriguez, who also struggled a bit in the first round, hit a solo home run and a single.

Sean Casey suffered a muscle spasm in his calf trying to break out of the batter's box on a grounder to first in the 6th inning. He had to leave the game but, according to Fox broadcasters, felt a little better later and might not miss much additional time, if any. There is official word on how long he'll be out though. I imagine they won't know until tomorrow.

When Casey left the game, Carlos Guillen moved over at first base and Ramon Santiago took over at shortstop. Guillen then made an error on a grounder to first in the 7th inning. The error turned out to be harmless but it made me wonder again why Jim Leyland is carrying 3 utility infielders and no real back-up first baseman on the post-season roster. Chris Shelton seems like a better option than having both Santiago and Neifi Perez on the roster.

Tomorrow, it will be Justin Verlander versus Esteban Loaiza at 8:00. Verlander could benefit from the shadows again as it will be 5:00 in Oakland.

More Previews

Here are some more previews of the AL Championship:

Blez over at Athletics Nation understandably favors the Athletics slightly and his reasoning is sound. The one thing that he thinks might benefit the Athletics quite a bit is superior plate discipline and I can't disagree with him on that point:

To many, there be no question which team has the better offense. I would argue that it's closer than people think. Yes, the Tigers scored 51 more runs than the A's in the regular season. The A's hold a slight edge in OBP at .340 vs. .329 even though the Tigers had the better batting average.

Kurt over at Mack Avenue Tigers is rooting for the Tigers but he also likes the Athletics and is working on a 3 part preview. In part 2, he says it will be a close series but thinks the Tigers have the edge:

I see Detroit as having a slightly better defense, a better lineup, and about equal pitching. This truly is a close series.

Brian at TigerBlog discusses the Athletics and expects a close series:

So, you should some great pitching in this series. This should equate to some low scoring games and a lot of excitement, but these things never seem to work out exactly as planned, so we’ll see. I’ll stand by my earlier prediction and say Tigers in seven...

I'll add more as I find them.

Playoff Preview: Tigers Versus Athletics

Both the Detroit Tigers and Oakland Athletics are coming off surprisingly easy first round wins. The Tigers topped the heavily favored Yankees 3 games to 1 and the Athletics swept the Twins. Both teams played well in all phases of the game in the first round. The Tigers won the season series 5-4 and Billfer takes a detailed look at that in his Detroit Tiger Weblog. Much like my first round preview, my second round preview will focus on regular season team statistics along with a few other items:

Hot players in First Round:

Tigers

• Carlos Guillen - 8 for 14, 3 doubles and a home run
• Curtis Granderson – 5 for 17, 2 home runs and 5 RBI
• Placido Polanco – 7 for 17
• Sean Casey – 6 for 17
• Kenny Rogers – 7 2/3 IP, 0 runs
• Jeremy Bonderman – 8 1/3 IP 2 runs

Athletics

• Frank Thomas - 5 for 10, 2 home runs
• Marco Scutaro – 4 for 12, 4 doubles and 6 RBI
• Nick Swisher – 3 for 10, 2 doubles and 2 walks
• Barry Zito – 8 Ip , 1 run
  

Injuries:

Tigers - None

Athletics

• Bobby Crosby – Still out with back injury. Marco Scutaro is playing shortstop. Crosby might be back at some point but the Athletics are not counting on it.

• Mark Ellis – Out for season with broken finger. D’Angelo Jimenez is playing second base.

• Rich Harden – His elbow is healthy and he’s well rested. He will likely start game 4.

Regular Season Overview

	Tigers	Athletics
Record	95-67	93-69
Head to Head	5	4
Runs per game	5.1	4.8
Runs allowed per game	4.2	4.5

Both teams rely a lot more on run prevention than run production. The Tigers have the edge in both areas finishing 1^st in run prevention and 5^th in run production. The Athletics finished 4^th in run prevention and 9^th in run production. It should be noted that the A’s likely would have allowed fewer runs than they did if they had a healthy Rich Harden all season.

Offense

	Tigers		Athletics
	Rate	Rank	Rate	Rank
BA	.274	9	.260	13
BB/G	2.65	13	4.01	2
Isolated power	.174	4	.152	9
OBP	.329	12	.340	7
SLG	.449	5	.412	13
OPS	.777	7	.752	11

Like most Billy Beane teams, the Athletics draw a lot of walks – 2^nd in the league. Unfortunately for them, that is the only thing they do well offensively as the don’t hit for average (13^th) or power (9^th). The Athletics’ offense revolves around Frank Thomas (.270/.381/.545) and Nick Swisher (.254/.372/.493).

The Tigers, on the other hand, do not draw many walks (13^th in the league) but they do hit for good power (4^th). The Tigers are led by Carlos Guillen (.320/.400/.519) and Magglio Ordonez (.298/.350/.477). Where the Tigers have the edge is line-up depth. While the Athletics have 5 hitters in the regular line-up (Jay Payton, Jason Kendall, Mark Kotsay, Marco Scutaro and D’Angelo Jimenez) with sub-.750 OPS, the Tigers have just 2: Placido Polanco and Sean Casey.

Pitching

	Tigers		Athletics
	Rate	Rank	Rate	Rank
FIP	4.36	3	4.44	5
ERA	3.84	1	4.21	4

The FIP ERA indicates that the two teams might not be as far apart in pitching as they are in overall run prevention. If you go by ERA, the Tigers look to have a significantly better staff but the closeness in FIP indicates that fielding may have something to do with it.

The Tigers go into the series with a starting staff of Nate Robertson, Justin Verlander, Kenny Rogers and Jeremy Bonderman versus the Athletics quartet of Barry Zito, Esteban Loaiza, Dan Haren and Rich Harden. Since Loaiza had a 4.89 ERA and Harden’s durability is still somewhat questionable, the Tigers have the edge here.

Both teams have pretty strong bullpens. It will be Todd Jones, Joel Zumaya, Fernando Rodney and Jamie Walker for the Tigers versus Huston Street, Justin Duchscherer and Kiko Calero for the Athletics. They look pretty evenly matched there.

Defense

	Tigers		Athletics
	Rate	Rank	Rate	Rank
DER	.704	1	.690	7
HBT Fielding	+56	1	-22	8
HBT Ground	+74	1	-6	6
HBT Air	-18	13	-15	12

Fielding is harder to measure but the Tigers appear to have the edge over the Athletics defensively as the two teams are #1 and #7 respectively in defensive efficiency. The Hardball Times looks at types of balls hit (ground ball, fly ball, pop up, line drive) in an attempt to break down DER further. These stats are explained further in an article by Dave Studeman. They indicate that the Tigers superior defense seems to be primarily due to fielding grounders while their ability to catch balls in their air is not very good. I find this breakdown very interesting and I want to research this further in the off-season.

Predictions

The Athletics have the homefield advantage in the series but the Tigers have the edge (although not a huge one) in all phases of the game. It should be a pitching oriented series but the Tigers offensive depth will help them win the series in 6 games. I’ll pick Carlos Guillen to be the big hitter (that’s getting easier to do all the time) and Jeremy Bonderman as the best pitcher. I pick Bonderman because he tends to pitch his dominant games in bunches and he’s coming off a gem.