Spring, and my thoughts are turning to baseball. If I stick with "all politicians all the time" I might just go mad (or, madder, as the case may be).
VERO BEACH, Fla. -- Joel Zumaya's role is new. So is his curveball.
"Last year I tried to guide my curve," he said. "Now I try to throw it as hard as I throw my fastball. It's been successful."
Tigers manager Jim Leyland has seen that curve, not to mention Zumaya's fastball, which rages from 98 to 101 m.p.h. Leyland didn't have a spot for Zumaya in the rotation, but he had to have him on the team.
So Zumaya, in these final few weeks of spring training, is making the conversion from starter to reliever. He'll lurk in the bullpen when the season opens Monday at Kansas City -- a potential contrast to Kenny Rogers, the left-handed stylist who will start the game. Zumaya's curve might be faster than Rogers' fastball.
Zumaya knows that like almost every other pitcher, he needs a second pitch, no matter how hard he throws. Big league hitters can hit any human's fastball if they know it's coming. That's why the curve is crucial.
"You can't go out there and just have one pitch," Zumaya said.
But a 98-m.p.h. fastball is a good first pitch to have. A fastball at that speed can look even faster to a hitter, Houston Astros catcher and former Tiger Brad Ausmus said.
"Going from 93 to 98 m.p.h. is a much bigger jump than going from 88 to 93," Ausmus said. "The reason is a hitter sees a lot of fastballs in the 88 to 93 range, so they become accustomed to them.
"When you jump up to 98-100 m.p.h., only a handful throw that hard. So your eyes and reflexes aren't accustomed to reacting to that extra five miles per hour."
I'm going to add the Tigers to my menu now that some of the Whitecaps I know are starting to reach the show.
Joel Zumaya has got the smoke. I question the wisdom of turning him into a reliever just to "have him on the team"; seems that you might be destroying what could have been a very successful starter, ala Zambrano.
Joel pitched for the Whitecaps in '03- unfortunately I wasn't taking pictures yet (didn't have a camera that year), so I don't have any old pics of him.
This kid can throw. He stood out then, I think he will stand out now. He used to get a bit rattled when hitters started tagging his fastball- with new pitches and some control on his emotions he will be unbeatable.