From the category archives:

Defense

Tigers good at catching the ball

04.20.2009 21 comments

In 2008 Detroit’s pitching was awful, but it had some help in allowing runs to score. After being a stellar defensive team in 2006 and a pretty good one in 2007, the ‘08 Tigers were awful. The team ranked 26th in UZR (-39 runs) and 24th in defensive efficiency. An emphasis on run prevention was the theme this offseason. And it seems to be working in the early going.

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Henning on the Tigers left side defense

01.26.2009 22 comments

Lynn Henning writes today about the Tigers infield defensive improvements (emphasis mine):
Those plus-minus ratings are part of compelling research done by scouts and video analysts for John Dewan, president of Baseball Info Solutions, and author of The Fielding Bible, a data-rich evaluation of major league defense that is carried by such Web sites as [...]

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Tigers WAR Projections

12.28.2008 20 comments

It seems as if calculating wins above replacement, or WAR, has become the cool thing to do this offseason. We’ve delved into WAR here in the past when evaluating contracts. Now Fangraphs has made WAR available to the masses. Detroit Tiger Tales has already taken a look at the 08 Tigers numbers. And now a [...]

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Fangraphs now has UZR

12.07.2008 4 comments

Fangraphs continues to become the stat site for sabermetric player stats. Today they announce the addition of MGL’s UZR fielding system which is widely regarded as one of the most sophisticated fielding systems available.
UZR has been largely unavailable for the last several seasons because MGL has been consulting for big league teams. He’s posted leaders [...]

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Hitting em where they ain’t

11.29.2008 4 comments

We recently took a look at the Tigers team defense through the eyes of David Pinto’s Probabilistic Model of Range. As Pinto wraps up this season’s numbers, he calculated the PMR behind each pitcher. Not much went right for Nate Robertson this year, and it is little surprise that his woes were reflected in the [...]

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The Tigers according to PMR

11.15.2008 61 comments

The Tigers defense was the cause of much consternation this season, and rightly so. Now that David Pinto has released his PMR defensive metrics, we can take a detailed look at each position.
If you’re not familiar with PMR, it is a system that looks at each ball hit into play and the probability that [...]

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Defensive Projections

10.27.2008 1 comment

Chone Smith has compiled defensive projections for the 2009 season. He’s used 5 years of data (combination of Stats Zone Rating, Revised Zone Rating, and Total Zone), and weighted it such that the most current season receives the most weight. He also regresses the results and uses the Fans Scouting Report. The more [...]

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Tango’s Scouting Report By the Fans

08.21.2008 16 comments

Once again Tom Tango, aka Tangotiger, is conducting his scouting report by the fans, for the fans. I’ve linked to this in the past, but basically you the fan get to rate players defensively across several categories. Tom then compiles the data and makes it available to the masses.
He has instructions on his site, [...]

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Inge to catch more, Pudge to catch less

06.09.2008 13 comments

In today’s edition of what’s up Jimmy’s sleeve, we find an alternating catcher. The announcement came down today that Pudge isn’t the regular catcher any more. He and Brandon Inge will rotate behind the plate.

Neither are really hitting worth a lick and at this point Inge is probably the better defensive [...]

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Guillen to left field?

05.31.2008 42 comments

The Tigers new left fielder is Marcus Thames, except for when it’s Carlos Guillen? Guillen has been taking flyballs in left and it’s another way to keep his bat in the lineup while trying to find a place where his glove doesn’t hurt the defense too much – at least that’s the story.
Out of [...]

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Junkballing: riding the river of news

05.07.2008 6 comments

A startling amount of news from the beat writers and analysis from bloggers today. Inge likes catching, Cabrera at first base, and more.
Inge says catching is fun
Brandon Inge is just too fascinating to resist. The very different views of his defense, the despair over his offense, the sympathy and lack of sympathy over [...]

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Cabrera to first, Guillen to third

04.22.2008 67 comments

Huh. Wow. Huh.
That was pretty much my reaction when I heard the news on my drive home from the game that Miguel Cabrera is the new first baseman and Carlos Guillen will be moving to third. Color me surprised.
According to Beck Guillen saw it coming and Cabrera is okay with switching positions.
Granted, [...]

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