It’s easy to sit here and complain about the Tigers letting pitchers off easy with low pitch counts (which they certainly do, with the lowest pitches/plate appearance in the entire league); what’s not as obvious is the toll that can take on the guys making a consistent effort.

Inge and Granderson have been 1-2 on the team the entire season in pitches / plate appearance; in fact they are the ONLY two on the team above league average, and no other team only has 2 average or above guys. In other words they have been going it alone in a 2-man pitch-count war.

This is completely speculative, but I think this is part of Granderson’s problem at the plate, and part of his tentative swing-taking good pitches-swinging at bad pitches funk. Granderson has said that batting leadoff and 5th are very different, because you’re playing a different role. I think working the pitch count is part of what he sees as his leadoff role, and has been giving him trouble.

Any time you take a 1st pitch for strike one your odds of getting on base plummet; once you get 2 strikes good luck, you’re in Sardinha land. Inge has had a ridiculous 245 PAs begin with an 0-1 count, and started 0-2 122 times. It’s pretty incredible what he’s accomplished considering.

As of last week, there was *one* player in the major leagues leading his team in both RBI and PPA, and he’s a Tiger.

When people have griped about Cabrera swinging at 1st pitches, billfer and others have rightly been quick to point out why this is not a bad thing: Cabrera is batting .400 with a 1.086 OPS on 1st pitch hitting.

Try these numbers also: .480/1.519 (Inge), .407/1.407 (Granderson).
Well why in the world don’t they swing at 1st pitches more? Because they are the Pitch-Count Duo, doing what they think is best for the team.

A noble effort; but also I think a doomed one. Two guys can’t do enough to make a difference. The difference between DET being worst and way worst in PPA I think is minimal–you need a lot more pitches to affect the game (look at Tampa Bay for a good example of how this works–almost the entire team is above league average, and they go through opposing pitchers quickly).

It may not matter much for Inge at this point, but I think Granderson may as well swing away and stop worrying about working pitchers; I think moving him to 5th in the order will make this easier on him. Forget the pitch count, let’s see a few more of those 1.407 OPS ABs!!

Also what most people fail to realize is that Magglio is hitting lefty pitchers quite well. He has a .316 avg, .505 SLG, and a .874 OPS vs Lefties.

I suppose you could wait until he retires, look at a large sample size, and say, hmm, I guess maybe he should’ve been batting 5th…

Not to say that I don’t think Granderson shouldn’t be leading off – he really isn’t a leadoff hitter. Too bad he is the best we have, kind of, this year.

His leadoff “speed” if any has been of small use. Again, in 1st innings, he has stolen only 4 bases in 6 attempts, while being on the front end of the Polanco GIDP 6 times (considering which you have to wonder why Leyland doesn’t have him running more often, but that’s another story).

While I agree Granderson needs a day off right now, I wouldn’t mind seeing him come back in the middle of the order, which I think would benefit him, and Cabrera, with the only downside being several fewer ABs.

I am not saying Ramirez is the proto-typical leadoff hitter, I’m saying he’s not a worse option than Granderson.

EDIT: There’s no guarantee that Ramirez’ AAA numbers will translate to the majors, but he has at least exhibited an acceptable skillset to serve as a leadoff hitter. To dismiss him as a leadoff hitter without citing any particular reason why doesn’t make sense to me.

If speed/stolen bases is your thing, Ramirez was 30/39 in steals at Toledo (77%) while Curtis is 19/25 (76%).

What is it that Curtis posseses that makes him a better option to lead off over Ramirez (aside from experience)?