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Managing & Strategy

Thumbnail image for “Slow Starts” in the Leyland Era

“Slow Starts” in the Leyland Era

15.04.2013 14 comments

(the following was contributed by poster Jeff Molby) There’s been a lot of talk about “slow starts” and “choking down the stretch” during the Leyland years. With 7 years of data points available, I figured it’s time to see if there’s anything to it. There’s not. I didn’t bother to weight the numbers based on [...]

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A Public Apology to Jim Leyland

23.10.2012 23 comments

I was wrong (again…so I think). On September 27th, prior to game 156, I posted that this would likely be Leyland’s last regular season game in Detroit. Now I’m certain he’ll be here next April. As intolerable as Leyland’s idiosyncrasies, tendancies and hunches are, it is these same foibles that have him in his 2nd WS [...]

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Quantifying Ol’ Smokey

21.03.2011 43 comments

Along with their player forecasts and team breakdowns, Baseball Prospectus publishes “stats” on managers long with a lengthy write-up…”Old Smokey remains one of the league’s better skippers…” Generally, I think that day in/day obsession with the team grants us better insight then whatever stats BP can come up with, though it is difficult to argue with [...]

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Postcard from LA

24.05.2010 35 comments

A collection of postcard sized thoughts on the Tigers weekend series against the LA Dodgers including: Armando Galarraga, Dontrelle Willis, NL strategy and more.

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The week that was

05.12.2009 5 comments

Things have been very quiet here at DTW lately. While it wasn’t my intention for things to go dark here, when it’s a one person gig sometimes life gets in the way. Fortunately life will be out of the way this coming week so my winter meetings coverage should be pretty robust and very timely. In the mean time I’ll use this post as a way of catching up on everything that got neglected including Placdio Polanco, Joel Zumaya, Cale Iorg, and Brian Peterson.

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Brookens returns to the big leagues

10.11.2009 2 comments

The Tigers announced yesterday that Tom Brookens would be the new first base and outfield and base running coach. Brookens is an organizational soldier and it’s nice to see him get the opportunity to don the Old English D again. But it does raise the question about the qualifications or importance of positional coaches.

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Junkballing: Pitchers, Playoffs, Plunkings

03.10.2009 24 comments

Debating Saturday’s starter, some news on a tiebreaker playoff game, and more from MLB’s punishment roulette wheel.

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Porcello’s 15 starts

19.07.2009 4 comments

Earlier in the week Jim Leyland made the announcement that Rick Porcello’s  next start would come July 21st and that he has 15 starts left. Porcello has been on inning and pitch restrictions as the Tigers try not to burn out one of the most promising young arms in the game. Through his first 16 [...]

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Maggs and Clete to platoon

08.07.2009 11 comments

The latest technique to milk productivity from Magglio Ordonez is to platoon him and only give him starts against left handers. Clete Thomas will form the other side of the platoon which means he’ll get the bulk of the starts, especially with the team facing more right handers. For his career, Ordonez has hit lefties [...]

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The Ordonez Kerfuffle

20.06.2009 9 comments

The Magglio Ordonez benching/non-benching is the story that just keeps on giving. At this point I think everybody except Barack Obama has had their say. Let’s put it all together and see what we can come up with: Thursday Jim Leyland announces that Ordonez wouldn’t be starting that night in St. Louis and that he [...]

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Tigers extend Jim Leyland

19.06.2009 45 comments

The Tigers today announced the extension of Jim Leyland’s contract through the 2011 season. “We are happy to announce a two-year contract extension for Jim Leyland today,” Tigers President, Chief Executive Officer and General Manager David Dombrowski said. “Jim is an outstanding manager and he has done a great job for the Tigers.  We look [...]

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Edwin Jackson’s 132 pitches

21.05.2009 26 comments

Edwin Jackson threw 132 pitches to help the Tigers complete a sweep of the Texas Rangers. Pitch counts and the hubbub around them are fodder for controversy. I tend to favor caution in these scenarios but am willing to consider each game on an individual basis. Who was the pitcher? What was the game state? Is there an off day coming up? How much rest is he pitching on? What is the pitcher’s injury history? And on and on. I don’t think there is a simple answer to the right number of pitches, but today Jim Leyland left Edwin Jackson in too long. I worry if this is going to be a pattern in 2009.

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