Since losing the World Series, the Detroit Tigers lost their only reliable left-handed reliever, Jamie Walker, to Baltimore. The talk around town has been for the club to audition any lefthander with a pulse for the 2007 team. In baseball, the pitching has become so specific in role definition that no club these days can be without a late-inning, lefty specialist.
So who do we sign? Uh, a guy that throws with the wrong arm... and a guy who's closer to Social Security than myself: Jose Mesa.
All of a sudden, the calls for a lefty in the bullpen have died down to a dull roar (good club analogy). But take away the starters, and what lefthander can you find to meet those situations I mentioned? Nobody in particular, and the "waiver wire" looks awfully thin at first glance. Don't they have enough power righthanders in the bullpen, i.e. Joel Zumaya and Fernando Rodney?
Manager Jim Leyland described them as being literal lefthanded specialists, given their outstanding respective seasons. But baseball has long been an odds-playing game, especially in this era, and do we continue to defy the odds in order to see whether the ballclub can succeed?
I get the feeling this ballclub is getting long in the tooth, as well. They talk about giving shortstop Carlos Guillen an extension, but he'd be 35 by its end, and it looks like he's a first baseman in the future. Where's the young shortstop to replace him? Pudge Rodriguez is in his late 30s, Kenny Rogers is 42, Magglio Ordonez is fast approaching his mid-30s. Mesa is 40, and never mind the fact he's a fitness freak. Bodies tend to break down around that age.
We waited nineteen years to get a pennant winner in this town. It would be a damn shame to have it be a one-time-only special because some bodies can't make it through six months.
