The long wait is over Tiger fans: Joel Zumaya has returned. The club announced today that they have recalled the flame-thowing right-handed reliever from AAA Toldeo. He will be available to pitch Tuesday night as the team takes on the Cleveland Indians in the battle for first-place in the AL Central division. How effective will Zumaya be, however? Only time will tell. After having a tendon in his middle finger (on his pitching-hand) replaced after rupturing it earlier in the year, Zumaya had only three stints at Toledo — none more than 30 pitches as the club eased him back into gear.

His velocity? A mere 99 MPH. Pretty good, right? To most pitchers, yes. But — unlike any other pitcher — Zumaya seems to feed off the energy of the crowd when he reaches triple digits, a mark pre-surgery he reached routinely. How will it affect his psyche if he fails to reach that plateau again with any regularity? Will he push himself harder and harder simply to get some reading on a radar gun? Or will take advantage of still having a 95 MPH+ fastball and simply learn to paint the corners a bit more. After all, chicks may dig the longball, but hitters loathe on-the-black heaters. Fact is, stuff that quick will get guys out if it is well-placed - period. Doesn’t matter if it’s 99 or 101 or even 96 MPH. It’s all good. Let’s hope the only numbers Zumaya really concerns himself with in his return are the three outs he needs to get per innings. To Tiger fans, those should be the only numbers that truly matter.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 20th, 2007 at 12:58 pm and is filed under MLB photos, Baseball News and Views. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.