Jose Valverde - I can't take it any longer

I have bit my tongue for far too long on this issue (unless you ask my closest friends or my wife).  This Jose Valverde experiment is annoying the absolute piss out of me for more reasons than I can count (though I will try in the below post). 

The raw numbers:

I thought we were through with this mess at the end of last year.  I could see it coming a mile away....anyone with a reasonable baseball IQ who watches the game and understands statistics could see it coming.  The guy clearly wasn't the same pitcher in 2012 that we was in previous seasons.   Here is his K/INN rate since 2007, the year he became a full time closer with Arizona:  1.21, 1.15, 1.04, 1.00, 0.95, 0.70.  Pretty distinct trend there, and something that you could see plainly with the naked eye.  The guy was simply struggling to miss bats (more on that later), which is the primary thing a pitcher can control. 

What makes this more annoying is that I would have to read articles, and hear people on sports radio touting his high save percentage, and that he is still getting the job done.  This was exactly the wrong kind of negative reinforcement that the Tigers brass did not need, as they were constantly putting a pitcher into a critical situation, who was getting by on pure good fortune in a small sample size. 

He has 2 pitches

I only say this because I've heard a rumor that Valverde actually has 2 pitches, a fastball, and a splitter.  I say it's a rumor because I can't recall seeing anything other than a fastball in the last 1 year plus.  Let's first ignore the absurdity of any pitcher ever getting to the highest level of the game and only throwing 1 pitch - a fastball, as it seems ridiculous to me to for it to even be done at a high school level. 

So let's first assume that throwing only 1 pitch is rational.  If that's the case, you would have to assume that fastball is a top shelf plus pitch, probably lighting up the radar gun near 100 MPH with a good deal of movement, and perhaps even good location and command.  That's not the case with Valverde, his fastball regularly clocks in around 91-94 MPH, with the occasional blip at 96 MPH if he somehow catches a hot radar gun.  Movement???  What movement, the damn thing seems to be straight as an arrow, flat with zero drop.  The capper to this?  He can't even control it, evidenced by his recent outing on May 12th, where he walked the leadoff hitter, and throughout the inning had thrown more balls than strikes. 

During yesterday's outing, Rod Allen, the Tigers color commentator, who has rarely had an insight that I considered to be groundbreaking, pointed out that of Valverde's first 20 pitches, all were fastballs.  No shit!!!  If Allen can recognize it, then you better believe other teams are going to pick up on it (unless you are as blind as the Tigers apparently).

Imagine your hitting approach when facing Valverde.  You have to be patient, as you don't know whether he is going to throw strikes.  You are sitting dead red on fastball, as there is zero chance you are going to receive anything other than that.  If you happen to get behind in the count by letting a good fastball go by, not to worry, you are certainly going to get another one. 

At this point (and it was the same last year), Valverde is throwing the ball hard, trying to get it over the plate, with zero movement and basically hoping that the other team either doesn't hit it hard, or hits it right at somebody. 

Intangibles - settling effect on the bullpen

It's been argued, primarily by Tigers brass, that installing Valverde as the closer has a settling effect on the rest of the bullpen, as the other pitchers better know their roles.  They do have a point to this, but this could also be achieved by naming me the closer....or anyone else on the team. 

Others may argue that if you don't have a replacement in mind, then you can't argue Valverde being the closer.  To that I agree, so my response is ANYONE on the roster,  and quite possibly anybody on the AAA roster.  I would even allow Don Kelly a shot at it, at least he threw an off-speed pitch in the inning he pitched a couple of years ago. 

Conclusions: 

There comes a point when the tangibles begin to outweigh the intangibles, we can only hope that day comes before the real games start (and this is assuming we win the division and are in the playoffs, which is a giant leap this early in the season.  Having Valverde as the closer is doing the entire team and fanbase a great disservice, as it is not putting the team in anywhere near the best position to win a game, championship, etc....