Bless You Boys Podcast 107: Luke Putkonen is not a figment of your imagination

The morning after the Tigers are one-hit in the middle of the night, Al, Kurt and HookSlide struggle their way though discussing the worst 5-3 team ever, dead arms, not-so-imaginary relief pitchers, Andrew Romine, jinxed ballplayers and the umpires not telling anyone about new rule interpretation.

Bless You Boys Podcast 107 has a running time of 54 minutes and features Al Beaton, HookSlide, and of course, Kurt Mensching.

Topics:

• If you believe a certain vocal segment of the Detroit fan base, the Tigers are (voice of Comic Book Guy) the worst 5-3 team ever. EVER.
• The bullpen finally didn't give up a ninth inning run Friday night. Let's not mention the bottom of the ninth wasn't played...
• Same pitcher, different season. Phil Coke is getting rocked. The Tigers have seven lefties in Toledo, but not one of them would be an upgrade to the Detroit bullpen?
• Joe Nathan: "I have a dead arm." Brad Ausmus: "Joe is still the closer."
• Numbers support Nathan's annual 'dead arm' period.
• Grantland: Trust in Dombrowski.
• The Detroit News' Tony Paul writes the Tigers may (and should) keep Drew Smyly in a relief role. Isn't Smyly more valuable to the team pitching 160 innings instead of 80?
• Anyone else prefer to see the Tigers play Andrew Romine over Alex Gonzalez at short?
• Both Avisail Garcia and Jose Iglesias are out for the season with injuries, while Brayan Villarreal is buried at Triple-A.  Every young player involved in last year's three-team trade is jinxed!
• West coast baseball is a PITA ... especially for Rick Porcello.
• Seems the umpires have changed their interpretation of the "transfer rule" and didn't tell anyone.