Comments on: How much would you give up for offense?

By: RBARNES

RBARNES — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 18:12:20 +0000

it’s a long season guys….but one thing about baseball remains a fact. Its all about pitching and defense. The rest will fall into place!

By: Goodge

Goodge — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 21:58:59 +0000

Immediately: The backup catcher scenario needs to be altered, fast, and Willis has got to go. Other than that, hold steady until the deadline (or until Minnesota pulls even) and hope to heck that Maggs, Cabrera, Polanco return to form, and that Thames adds even more pop to this lineup.

I almost typed “poop” there instead of “pop,” which, sadly, might have actually been more appropriate.

Dunn? Bring him on. I would love to be able to cheer for a guy whose nickname is “Donkey.”

By: Jerry the Tiger Fan

Jerry the Tiger Fan — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 18:36:15 +0000

What I would do right now is outright release or put Willis on the DL and move Miner into the fifth starter’s role. I’d ride out Galarraga a bit longer because he’s been good as recently as April for us. Knapp needs to make Armando his #1 priority and get this guy back to where he was in 2008 and April of 2009. If Galarraga can get back to pitching like he previously did for us (or something reasonably close), that would shore things up far more than a hitter. Free Miner from the bullpen!

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 16:11:31 +0000

After reading all these posts, I really think Perry is our best trade bait. His tools and age make him very attractive to any team. He should be able to get us a solid starter or corner infielder. I’m looking to land a guy like Adam Dunn, or a starter like Aaron Harang.

By: jud

jud — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 07:48:57 +0000

I wonder if playing Rayburn so much lately means the Tigers are dangling him out there as trade bait…

By: Mike R

Mike R — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 04:22:55 +0000

In the Wins Above Replacement stat, there’s a positional adjustment given in runs. SS’s get a 7.5 run bonus and 2B/3B get a 2.5 run bonus. So, it’s about 5 runs difference between the two positions.

And even throwing numbers out of it completely: SS is the more demanding position. While someone is an above-average fielder at 2nd, it doesn’t translate 100% to the SS position. There will be a defensive dropoff because of going to a tougher position. It’s why guys move from SS to 2nd base, not the other way around (rarely happens).

By: Coleman

Coleman — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 03:01:43 +0000

He was my 3rd favorite Lockhart, behind Spider Lockhart and June Lockhart.

By: Coleman

Coleman — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 02:48:30 +0000

I think 2 problems with our offense, one obvious and one less so, are the number of pitches they see and starting games slowly (and both these become part of the Easy Start which we give other pitchers).

Take a look at Tiger 1st inning stats sometime…Runs (11 of 14) OPS (14 of 14) Walks (13 of 14) Hits (12 of 14) SB (11 of 14)…oh, but GIDP, we’re 1st in that (11, AL avg 5.1). So we don’t get on base and when we do, we’re likely to follow up with the GIDP. A starter’s gotta love the easy 1st inning, to be followed by the 1st pitch swinging.

Along those lines if we are going to add a bat I can think of worse types than a good leadoff hitter. Granderson’s solid stats mask the fact that he is very poor as a leadoff hitter the times he is actually, you know, leading off.

Here’s how we begin games with Granderson: .146 / .239 / .244 (.483 OPS) 5 BB / 13 K 4 R – that’s only 4 1st inning runs in 41 games, easily the lowest among AL leadoff hitters. And 1 was on his leadoff HR. DET overall totals are .504 OPS and 5 runs, so the other guys leading off haven’t done much better.

Of course we aren’t likely to see Granderson leading off much, since Leyland pronounced Granderson would be moving back to the leadoff spot…

By: Keith (Mr. X)

Keith (Mr. X) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 02:46:24 +0000

That’s what they use to say about Keith Lockhart. Next to Keith Hernandez, he was one of my favorite players.

By: stephen

stephen — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 02:13:07 +0000

Don Kelly is the quintessential 4-A player. He can’t get at-bats on a contender.

By: Coleman

Coleman — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 02:06:47 +0000

Of course if you would have posed a similar question last season, the first non-pitcher shipped out would have been the one guy on top of both the fielding and hitting lists this season (Inge, who according to Fangraphs is worth approximately Cabrera + Polanco at this point).

Well, OK, the second, but I wasn’t counting ham sandwiches.

By: billfer

billfer — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 01:59:02 +0000

This is correct.

By: Kyle

Kyle — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 01:57:42 +0000

I’d be willing to sacrifice some defense for some offense. There’s no point to having the best defense in all of baseball if the offense only scores two or three runs a game. Pitching can’t be lights out every night.

By: David

David — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 01:16:50 +0000

By: Keith (Mr. X)

Keith (Mr. X) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:46:31 +0000

I’d like to see how Don Kelly plays out little longer. His power isn’t much, but he really deserved this call-up after what he done in Toledo so far this year.

In 52 games, he had 0 errors defensively. Offensively he stole 14 bases, had 16 extra base hits, had a .339 AVG, with a .407 OBP, .475 SLG, and a .882 OPS. He just might be the perfect lead-off hitter that we’ve been looking for to take over for Granderson.

This line-up might work-
LF Kelly
2B Polanco/Santiago
RF Ordonez
1B Cabrera
CF Granderson
DH Thames
3B Inge
C Laird
SS Everett/Santiago