There have been 579 days since Jose Valverde last blew a save. That is a long time. To put his 51 game streak into perspective, it was quietly the third longest streak in the history of major league baseball.
Eric Gagne has a streak of 84 saves in a row back in 2003 and 2004. Eric Gagne broke the previous record of fifty-four consecutive saves set by Tom Gordon of the Boston Red Sox from April 19, 1998 through June 5, 1999. Valverde now stands third.
While the streak would have been fun to continue through this season, Jim Leyland said it best.
"When I say this, I mean it," Leyland said. "In a way, I'm glad that streak's over because it puts that behind us and we can just go forward."
While there is no doubt that the professional nature of the Tiger clubhouse would have managed the streak well, Leyland does have a point. Working through the tweaks of the new faces and keeping the team focused on winning the AL Central can now remain the obvious priority.
In the midst or quietly aging, Valverde had a good spring (10IP 2.70ERA 10k 1BB) and his stuff today looked the same as last year. (Similar velocity and movement.) So... Don't worry about him this season. His streak had to end at some point and expect him to continue to be the rock solid foundation to the Tiger's bullpen.
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