I agree that Casey’s defense has been plus this year. This is also the only year of Casey’s career that his defense has rated above average. I share Nate’s concerns about Casey’s lack of secondary skills but agree that numbers-wise he’s at least an acceptable option at 1B if he can keep his average up. Which he might be able to do with plenty of support from Tigers fans.

C-A-SEY C-A-SEY GOoooooOOOOOO CAYYYY-SEEEEE!!!! WHOOOOO!!!!

He’s actually had a pretty decent season — much better than I thought, before researching these posts — if you exclude April.

I started the year as a loud voice in the anti-Casey camp, but have decided that I am fine with Casey, so long as his batting average remains high. I still worry, though, because Casey’s production is more susceptible to a slump than a player who hits for more power.

Both his OBP and SLG are extremely dependent on batting average — that is, on balls in play turning into hits, rather than outs (only .093 of his .387 slug comes from extra-base hits; an above-average, but not great .065 of his OBP comes from walks). Thus, when he is scuffling, or is even just plain unlucky for a stretch (a victim of the at’em ball, as Jim Price would say), his value all but disappears, as we saw this April.

Think about it: if has a stretch when he hits .250, and his walk rate and isolated power remain the same, you have a first-baseman with an OBP falls to .315 and his slug falls to .343. That’s pretty terrible.

But, if you have a stretch like he had in May and June where he hit .349 and .355 respectively, you have a very valuable player.

This is a long way of saying, I’ve come around on Casey, but he’s still more susceptible to a slump than someone who hits for a lot of power or draws a lot walks.

I agree Casey isn’t high on the list of Tigers problems and he is relatively cheap. However, Maggs and Sheff will inevitably cool off and then the reality of an American League first basemen in this homer mad era with, uh, one hr will sink in. I agree that slugging % can be overrated, but c’mon, Casey’s slugging % is down in the slick fielding, little hitting middle infielder category. He has hit near Wade Boggs-like to justify that. The thing about the Tigers is they can carry underperformers, for their position, like Casey and Inge, because they’re compensating at other positions like second and short. Their shortcomings get magnified when the overacchievers get hurt like they did in Aug/Sept of last year.

The only problem with Casey is lack of power and lack of base running ability. Other than that, he’s an exceptional player. Too much emphasis is put on his SLG or lack thereof… in this forum especially. On this team, I’ll take the average and consistancy at the plate over his lack of slugging and lack of speed, given the over abundance of SLG elsewhere on the team. Come on? What are you all thinking? The Tigers lead MLB in SLG% — and you’re complaining about a .300+ hitter who contually makes sparkling devensive plays at 1st? Who cares if his SLG% is sub-par? SLG is not a hole this team needs to fill. Everytime Casey comes to the plate I feel good about it, which is a hell of a lot more than I can say for a whole handful of other Tigers’ batters (named Monroe, Inge, Perez — and some others, too). Since there is so much Casey bashing going on, I’ll officially say, as of today, Casey’s “my Tiger”… I’ll take the hitting for average at .300+ and the occasional doubles, and clutch hits, and above-average defense. The guy comes through. If we could have got Casey up bases loaded one out in the 10th, we got ourselves a walkoff “V” on Friday. No question about it. No disrepect to Guillen — he’s a marquee player and every now and then what happened to Guillen on Friday just happens — even to the best hitters.

The point is, I put Casey in that camp of hitters. In that situation we don’t need a HR to win the game, we don’t need .675 SLG, we need a player who can put the friggin’ ball in play, excuse my language. In that case, Casey’s your man.

Either it will happen or it won’t, just enjoy the ride.

Jettisoning Monroe (my “Tiger” at the beginning of the season, for what it’s worth) would make that ride a bit easier to enjoy.

Oh, to be an NL team.

I think people just use “on pace for” because it’s a general estimate of where the team would be if it continued, more or less, the way it’s been. Just a ballpark figure. Maybe it gets healthier and wins a few more, maybe it doesn’t and wins some less.

About the best thing you could have said to back your argument is “there won’t be 18 NL teams in the second half, so 94 is probably a bit high.” The fact is, you don’t know that this team will duplicate the 2006 White Sox any more than someone knows it will win 94 games.

Which is to say, in the end, I agree with you. 94 is quite likely too high. But until we see what the team looks like after the trading deadline, it’s really too early to say for sure what to expect in the end.

I was talking about complaining about the team (which I do long and loud), just complaining about the All-Star hoopla. PErsonally, I’m very happy my team has a bunch of players there, and of course our manager. It’s the sign of an elite team, which we can be if we ever get the bullpen and the black holes of suck (LF and 1B) sorted out.

You know what feeling I’m getting with this team? 2006 White Sox.

Hit then don’t pitch. Pitch then don’t hit. Offense was great 1st half, pitching let them down. Then the starters got it together, and the bullpen faultered. It’s very reminiscent, in my opinion.