The End of the Jay Sborz Era

The Tigers have officially purchased the contract of Double-A Left hander Andy Oliver, who will make his big league debut tonight, as was expected. There is a ton of quality information on Oliver over at Bless You Boys. Head over there for a scouting report, just be sure you come back here when you’re finished. I’ll wait…

Done? Good. Now that you’re all up to speed on Oliver, we’ll get to the heart of this post: (after the jump.)

In order to make room for Oliver, the Tigers have optioned RHP Jay Sborz to Toledo. Sborz enjoyed great success as the MudHens closer before being recalled for the Mets series. In his lone appearance in the Show, however, he was not good.

Sborz ended his first and only outing for the Tigers after facing seven batters, which sounds like he might have thrown a couple of innings, but sadly, that was not the case. Sborz plunked each of the first two batters he faced in the major leagues, which has to be at least close to a record, though I have not the information in front of me to confirm.

It really didn’t get much better from there. In addition to the two hit batsmen, Sborz allowed three hits and five earned runs, while recording just two outs.

To make matters worse, he also allowed both inherited runners to score, which couldn’t have made Justin Verlander very happy. That alone may have been the deciding factor in sending Sborz back to the depths of Hell, er, I mean Toledo. Same difference.

If this is the last we ever see of Sborz (and I doubt it will be, but who knows?), he finishes with an ERA of 67.50. Something tells me he’ll be back though, a guy with already eight years of minor league ball under his belt is not going to quit now, not when he has tasted his dream.

Perhaps next time it will have a sweeter flavor.