Zoom or Doom?

He might seem an odd person to pick on at the moment, when so many others have featured epic meltdowns. However, it had seemed to me like he hasn't been as sharp lately. He hasn't created any disasters, but he seems pretty good at getting himself into trouble, and then wriggling out of it.

Here are some numbers from Baseball Reference.

Joel's WHIP is now 1.429--ouch--he's following the Tigers' staff trend of issuing base on balls. Each outing in June has produced at least one walk, with three on June 7. He's also giving up a fair number of hits. In three of his six June outings, he's allowed a run to score.

One thing that does make me very happy is his strand rate--he doesn't inherit a ton of runners, but he's been decent at stranding those he does. Seven times this year, he's inherited runners, and only twice has he allowed any to come around and score--two of eleven to be exact, making his strand rate .819.

Zoom has four holds to his credit this year, one blown save, and one blown save/win.

I can't remember what game it was, but I believe it was his first opportunity to close a game this year, and he got way overamped/nervous/howeveryouwanttoputit. He admitted after the game that he was jittery being in there for the save. A lot of people thought he'd be our closer by now, but after injuries threatened his career and whatnot, we're still on a bit of a remedial track. Hopefully in time he'll be ready to be that guy.