Cleaning out over a weeks worth of links and emails:
- The Hardball Times gives us a taste of some of the batted balls data available in this years annual. The Tigers defense were 42 runs better than league average on ground balls.
- Daisuke Matsuzaka will provide coniserable drama this year as he comes over to the States. He’s got a pretty good track record and he’s young. I just don’t see the Tigers finding value in coughing up $30 million for the right to talk to him. But if you want to keep track of the saga, Knuckle Curve provides some good sources of information
- Kenny Rogers and Pudge Rodriguez were very deserving gold glove winners. But the Tigers probably should have had more.
- I find it amusing when people talk about what the Tigers need to do to get over the hump next year. they got to the World Series and played poorly. It wasn’t because of the team construction that they failed in the World Series, it was that they were outplayed. Plus there’s that whole got to the World Series, I think that is the hump. But even with that preamble, I agree with Rob Neyer that the Tigers need to get better.
The problem, if you’re Dombrowski, is that nobody was terrible this season. That was essentially the secret of the Tigers’ success. But just because nobody’s terrible doesn’t mean nobody’s replaceable.
(thanks to Joey C for the tip)
- There are a couple new Tiger bloggers on the block. The New Corner will look at the Tigers farm system and prospects. There is also Motor City Kitties. Check em out.
Inge’s errors in the World Series are really a shame from the standpoint that they may prevent him from ever winning a Gold Glove now–since the awards seem to be based about 90% on reputation.
Shelton’s fielding is another reason to make sure he gets a crack at the starting 1B job next season. He was such a pure hitter over the last half of 2005 and the first half of 2006. I still think he just needs to get his head straightened out. It wasn’t like he was just a guy who ran into a bunch of home runs.
Yeah, but the way they played for the last 1/3 of the season, you could make a case that they only got there because they caught a hot streak at the right time.
Don’t get me wrong; I enjoyed every minute of this season and I’m thrilled that we have a competitive team, but it’s not dominant.
On Golden Gloves: I’m not sure Rogers has a strong case for “deserving it.” Hes’ got great range, but made 5 errors the regular season. On the other hand Chien-Ming Wang may not have the range, but only made one error while leading the league in assists.
Inge is a valuable fielder, but 20-some more errors than Chavez. You can argue that fielding is more than errors, but that’s too great a gap.
Besides Pudge, Granderson is the only one who can make a legitimate case for deserving a GG.
Kyle J, I totally agree with you. He’s going to have to make some spectacular plays on a big stage to get those errors out of people’s heads. And I also agree with DJS, that Inge needs to cut back on the errors to get consideration. He makes a lot of great plays, but he boots too many easy ones as well.
That blog devoted solely to Tigers prospects is going to be great!