Managing & Strategy

As I watched intentional walks by Tigers pitchers lead to runs on both Sunday and Monday this week, it seemed to be an all to familiar story. It seemed that the Tigers strategy of intentional walks was failing with remarkable regularity. So I went back to each of the 19 IBB’s the Tigers [...]

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Isn’t it something that we waited and waited to get the anticipated lineup together. First Granderson was injured, and then Sheffield and Polanco. And then everyone was set to come back and Carlos Guillen missed a couple games. Finally, on April 27th the 1000 run lineup took the field. And 8 [...]

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Following last night’s game a frustrated Jim Leyland suggested that he “might shake up the lineup a little bit” for Sunday’s game. He did just that with Sheffield getting the day off and Miguel Cabrera assuming the third spot in the order. But more changes are a-coming starting on Monday. Changes so [...]

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With the Tigers struggling the first two weeks, there has been a lot of grumbling that manager Jim Leyland needs to light into the team. Well, Mount Leyland erupted following today’s game.
Leyland had previously downplayed such a tactic saying that it can’t be a show. It has to be something that [...]

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One of the few mysteries for Tigers fans to debate this spring is the batting order. The players that will comprise that lineup have long been identified, but their positioning has a few questions. One of those was answered today with the announcement that Ivan Rodriguez will bat 8th. Does that make sense for the Tigers, or does it even matter. We’ll turn to the lineup optimizer to see what we can find out.

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Jim Leyland was quoted yesterday talking about how this deal and the players they acquired were like a presents under the tree. Well, now that we can open up the presents, it’s time to play with them. The common refrain is that the Tigers should play Miguel Cabrera at third base and move [...]

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WPA Leaders

Rank
Name
WPA

1
J.J. Putz
6.17

2
R. Betancourt
5.38

3
Takashi Saito
4.27

4
Heath Bell
4.12

5
Joakim Soria
3.85

6
J. Papelbon
3.72

7
Joe Nathan
3.63

8
F. Rodriguez
2.95

9
Hideki Okajima
2.93

10
Pat Neshek
2.83

11
Carlos Marmol
2.8

12
Brandon Lyon
2.8

13
J. Isringhausen
2.75

14
Manuel Corpas
2.71

15
Tony Pena
2.56

39
Todd Jones
1.57

WPA or win probability added tracks a teams chances of winning over the course of a game and the measure for an individual player is the difference in win probability when a player enters the game compared [...]

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The Detroit Tigers made it official today and announced a one year contract extension that will keep Jim Leyland managing the club through the 2009 season. No real surprise here.

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The Tigers have set their rotation and Jason Beck has it:

This Fri-Sun at Minnesota: Robertson, Bazardo and Jurrjens
Next Mon-Wed at Cleveland: Rogers, Verlander and Robertson
Next Fri-Sun vs. KC: Jurrjens, Rogers, Verlander
Sept. 24-26 vs. Minnesota: Robertson, TBA, Jurrjens
Sept. 28-30 at Chicago: Rogers, Verlander, Robertson
Notable is that Jair Jurrjens stays in the rotation after feeling fine after [...]

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Jim Leyland answered questions about one of the most inexplicable managing decisions he’s made this year, batting Timo Perez 3rd. I’m not going to continue to harp on this past this post, but even the thought process for batting Perez third is broken. Here is what Leyland told the Free Press
Leyland gave several [...]

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A mishmash of things I’ve been meaning to comment on…
Craig Monroe
I’ve read and heard much lamenting that Leyland is being too loyal to Craig Monroe. That was called for at the end of June, but it’s not really called for now. Monroe had lost his starting job prior to the Marcus Thames [...]

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