On Wednesday morning I wrote about Tigers manager Jim Leyland saying he wasn't sure when he was going to use Joel Zumaya again. Going off of what he'd been seeing from Zoom while on the mound, Leyland felt that something had to be wrong with flame-throwing reliever.Well maybe Jimmy should start up a psychic hotline, because it turns out his fears for Zumaya were dead on. As it turns out, there's some loose tissue in Zumaya's surgically repaired right shoulder. As a result Joel has been placed on the 15-day disabled list, but don't let that fool you, his season is basically done.
"I think it's great news that we got" on Zumaya, Leyland said. "He blew up scar tissue. It wasn't an elbow, shoulder or anything like that. From my standpoint, that's great, great news.I have to agree with Leyland on this one, this is great news for the Tigers. When a pitcher has gone through the type of injuries that Joel has, and throws as hard as he does, everytime you find out he's having some trouble physically you always expect the worst. So finding out that it's nothing major and won't require any additional work being done, it's a huge relief.
"Hopefully he'll be ready by spring training -- possibly pitch again this year, but I'm not going to push for that."
Sure, Zumaya's absence is only going to make a weak Detroit bullpen that much weaker, but the odds of the Tigers making a playoff run were very much against them anyway. At least the team can now look forward to having a healthy (fingers crossed) Zumaya for the 2009 season, which would go a long way in helping the Tigers get back to the top of the AL Central.
