Joel Zumaya: looking great, feeling great
There’s nothing more the Detroit Tigers want than to have their squad members feeling healthy and looking anxious for a shot at the post season pursuit this year.
The club has a concrete set up on rotations and bullpen roles this year. Manager Jim Leyland isn’t making changes this time around and one player is looking to come to form after a lengthy lay off.
Joel Zumaya is in spring training and he’s looking great.
Joel was practicing with Victor Martinez in Lakefield camp and both seemed content with the experience. Zumaya has a speedy delivery to watch out for and Victor Martinez caught one by surprise during training.
That brought pitching coach, Rick Knapp, to the scene who scolded Joel a bit. However, there was a point to the delivery and that is to confirm he is ready and back from injury for a full relief role in the squad.
The player has been having a tough ride for the past four years. Suffering from various injuries, Joel has come back, again and again, to fire up a fast ball delivery that leaves the management amazed.
The bullpen member ruptured a tendon in his middle finger, suffered an accident and sustained a stress fracture on his shoulder in those four years. However, he’s back and that means a lot.
"He was hurt, and he was hurt bad", Leyland said. "And now, all of a sudden, he's feeling really good. You want to go out, you can't wait to get on the mound and get a hitter in there. That's normal, and I don't think you want to act like that's not there.
But you also want to make sure you have that (energy) channelled a little bit. Don't get so excited that you make some sort of foolish mistake, which he won't”.
Zumaya can be a deadly force in the coming season and Leyland won’t hesitate to employ him in critical games. As to how he’s feeling at the moment, the answer is the same as it has been for a while.
Joel is feeling good and wants to remain healthy for the whole year.
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