From the category archives:

Managing & Strategy

Todd Jones out as closer

27.07.2008 91 comments

Jim Leyland hasn’t been shy about making changes to established roles this season. He quietly announced a big one on the radio pre-game show with Dan Dickerson when he said that Todd Jones is out as closer and Fernando Rodney would primarily assume the role. It had become clear over the last couple weeks that [...]

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Willis being mixed into rotation

31.05.2008 7 comments

It’s been a couple weeks since Dontrelle Willis came off the disabled list. He’s made all of one appearance. That will change this week when he splits a start with splits a start with Armando Galarraga. Willis will pitch the first 4 to 5 innings and Galarraga will pitch the rest. It’s an unorthodox move [...]

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McClendon- “batting average is the most overrated statistic”

31.05.2008

Hitting philosophy Hitting coach Lloyd McClendon said runs scored, followed by on-base percentage, are the most important statistics. “Batting average is the most overrated statistic in baseball,” McClendon said. “Pete Rose told me, ‘When you are scoring runs, you are doing the job.’ I don’t have a lot to comment on here, but I thought [...]

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Shuffling the deck and rehab news

31.05.2008 10 comments

A cornucopia of Tigers news that has come out today. Jim Leyland is prepared to make some changes, even if it means hurting some feelings. The skip says: “So I’m going to change some things around here and see what happens. I think that’s important. As I said, I don’t know if it’s going to [...]

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Unintentional Consequences

29.05.2008 14 comments

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 issued (that’s [...]

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Thoughts on Jones and the lineup shuffle

05.05.2008 45 comments

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 days later on May [...]

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Leyland to make drastic change to lineup

04.05.2008 68 comments

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 drastic that Leyland [...]

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When managers attack: Part II

13.04.2008 39 comments

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 is real and [...]

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One lineup question answered

24.02.2008 17 comments

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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Where should Cabrera play?

06.12.2007 131 comments

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 Brandon Inge. [...]

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Leveraging Todd Jones

06.10.2007 22 comments

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. [...]

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Tigers extend Leyland

02.10.2007 13 comments

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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