From the category archives:

Defense

Thumbnail image for The Tigers are a good defensive team

The Tigers are a good defensive team

27.06.2010 20 comments

I hear it all the time, people citing fielding percentage and errors as an example of Detroit’s ineptitude with the glove. They have the 9th most errors in MLB and only two AL teams have more (the Indians and the Angels) and their fielding percentage ranks 23rd overall. Those numbers aren’t great, but what is more troubling is the fact that so many are still using those stats when there are so many betters ones easily available.

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Thumbnail image for Thinking more about the roster shuffle

Thinking more about the roster shuffle

16.05.2010 2 comments

I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know how Carlos Guillen moving to second base will work. However I like the move and I like what the Tigers are trying to do.

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Tigers good at catching the ball

20.04.2009 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

26.01.2009 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

28.12.2008 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

07.12.2008 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 [...]

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Hitting em where they ain’t

29.11.2008 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

15.11.2008 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

27.10.2008 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 data available [...]

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Tango’s Scouting Report By the Fans

21.08.2008 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

09.06.2008 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 catcher anyways. Plus [...]

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Guillen to left field?

31.05.2008 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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