Another blow to the Tigers Pitching Staff

[MadThinker88]

Joel Zumaya has been diagnosed with a ruptured tendon in the middle finger of his pitching hand. Estimated time out is 12 weeks. Ouch

More chance for the Tribe to pull away if they can stay healthy and perform reasonably well.

[skatingtripods]

Too much Guitar Hero.

[The Math God]

It would be better if it was Verlander.
Zumaya is a closer in waiting

[MadThinker88]

Zumaya is a key part of that bullpen. He normally pitches in the 7th or 8th so that late rallies can be squelled before Jones comes in for the 9th.

We all saw how important Howry was for our pen in 2005 and we all complained when no one was an effective setup to get to Wickman early in 2006.

I don't know if Detroit has anyone able to step right into that slot but until they find someone, Detroit might lose a few games that would have otherwise been won.

[Steve Buffum]

Zumaya is a key part of that bullpen. He normally pitches in the 7th or 8th so that late rallies can be squelled before Jones comes in for the 9th.

We all saw how important Howry was for our pen in 2005 and we all complained when no one was an effective setup to get to Wickman early in 2006.

I don't know if Detroit has anyone able to step right into that slot but until they find someone, Detroit might lose a few games that would have otherwise been won.

I don't know if he's completely up to it (he's not as good as Zumaya, but that's not very informative), but if Ferd Rodney gets his act together like 2006, that's a pretty seamless transition. It causes a cascade effect, of course: who now takes Rodney's innings? But Zumaya's are the most important, and I think they have an in-house option there you're not going to like (because Rodney's good, too).

[Hoover]

Such a shame.

[Hoover]

Baseball Prospectus on his injury--

Joel Zumaya's not going to be playing Guitar Hero anytime soon, but it's his pitching hand, not his fretting hand, that's injured. In one of the freakier freak injuries, Zumaya ruptured a tendon in his right middle finger. That finger is perhaps the most important to a pitcher. He'll have surgery to re-attach the tendon later this week in New York, but sources I spoke with seem very concerned. No one seems to understand exactly how this happened. Did the finger dislocate, spontaneously reduce (pop back in) and somehow the tendon popped during this? Did the tendon weaken over time and finally rupture? There's no way of knowing, and that's a big part of the problem. Few people throw the ball as hard as Zumaya does, so the problems are amplified, both in determining a cause and in anticipating how he will return. This is going to be a very binary recovery--either he'll be back, or he won't. While re-attaching the tendon and getting him back to normal functioning shouldn't be a problem, it's questionable whether he'll get back to being the flame-throwing reliever. The first time we see the ball come out of his hand at speed, we'll know, but Tigers fans will be holding their breath up until that point. He's out at least twelve weeks, but do not be surprised at all to see this go a few weeks beyond that.