Category Archives: Players

2006 Season, Defense, Offense, Players

Verlander, Granderson, Maybin and More

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Justin Verlander Thwarts Running Game

One of my favorite baseball columns is Dave Studemund’s “Ten Things I Didn’t Know Last Week” piece he writes for Hardball Times. This week’s column highlights just how hard it is to run on Justin Verlander. We know about his lightning quick pick-off move that has gunned down 5 victims. You may not know that only 1 base has successfully been stolen off of Verlander. What may be even more impressive is that only 4 runners have tried. So he has more pickoffs than attempted steals, which my intuition tells me is rare. What makes it all the more incredible is that he is doing it right handed. Those numbers are what you expect from the top southpaws.

Curtis is the clutchiest

Another tidbit from the same column points to a blog that looks at WPA data from Fangraphs and regular batting data to determine who has been “clutch” this year. It essentially looks at what a batter’s line would typically contribute in terms of wins, and compares it to WPA wins.

For the Tigers Curtis Granderson has contributed 1.462 wins more than his batting line would indicate making him the clutchiest Tiger so far. At -1.2 Chris Shelton has been least clutch. In a strange twist, Placido Polanco has been the second clutchest Tiger. While his WPA total is only .329 wins, his overall poor offensive contributions are good for -.618 wins. So Polanco is making the most of the offense he has provided.

Cameron Maybin likes the opposite field

The website FirstInning.com has batted ball charts for minor league players. I took a look at Cameron Maybin’s and noticed some interesting trends.

First, he pulls the ball less than the average right handed hitter, and less than he hits it to right field. On balls hit in the air, only 7% have gone to left or left center while 15% have gone to right or right center.

Second, he is really putting his speed to work. He is hitting .422 on ground balls hit to the left side where the average right hander hits .258. In Maybin’s case that is an additional 7 hits more than the typical player.

Third, the man hasn’t bunted yet this year.

The Tigers don’t need a position player

Nate Silver wrote a very interesting piece at Baseball Prospectus that took a look at the big 3 bats available (Bobby Abreu, Alfonso Soriano, Carlos Lee) and the 7 teams that would have a shot at acquiring them. The piece is premium so I’ll just give you cliff notes (but really a subscription to BP is something you should consider).

Silver looked at what the incremental gain would be of adding said player over what that player would be replacing. The Tigers are expected to get more production from Monroe/Thames/Young than any of the other contenders are getting in their current situations. This means that while any of the 3 would be an upgrade, it would be less of an upgrade for the Tigers (who are actually getting slightly above average production).

Second, he took a look to see which teams had the most to gain in terms of securing a playoff spot. Because the Tigers are already at 95% to make the playoffs, the incremental value of adding anyone is pretty small.

The bottom line is that from this analysis the Tigers have very little to gain by acquiring one of these players – at least in terms of making it to the playoffs.

Now this is just one analysis and is dependent on players performing like they would be expected to perform, and it doesn’t take into account the psychological aspects of adding or not adding to a team. But it is interesting nonetheless.

2006 Season, Offense, Players

Inge on the Offensive

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Way back all of 18 days ago I took a look at Brandon Inge’s offensive contributions. Based on what he’d done so far in 2006, the conclusion was Inge had become focused on the flyball. His line drive percentage was only 10.8%, or nearly half of what a decent hitter should have. The result was an improved home run total, but it came at the expense of his batting average and on base percentage. But all that looks to be changing now.

Since writing that Inge has hit 326/396/543. In that time his line drive percentage has been 31.6% raising his season total to 14%.

In looking at his game-by-game log you can see that his hot streak really started in full effect with the resumption of play after the All Star Break. Over that time he’s hitting 406/474/594 and the most impressive aspect may be that he only fanned 4 times during the 10 game homestand. Not surprisingly his improved numbers come as he hit 41% of his balls in play for line drives.

Now it’s unreasonable to expect Inge to continue getting on base in nearly half of his plate appearances, but if he can carry at least some of this performance into the rest of the season the Tigers offense definitely stands to benefit. And with his first inning opposite field homer tonight, the shift in venue hasn’t seemed to effect him yet.

2006 Season, Pitching, Players

Jamie Walker is Good

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During his entire career as a Tiger, Jamie Walker has been quite solid in his role as a lefty specialist. Coming into this year, since 2002 he’s posted a 3.45 ERA while striking out 3.3 batters for every walk allowed. He gave up 1.3 homers per 9, which is a little more than you’d hope for, but it wasn’t bad. Over that time period, Walker held left handed batters to a .217/.263/.374 line.

Walker has provided considerable, if not dominant consistency, in a role that is extremly volatile. Jon Weisman created a table of the relief pitchers who were in the top 100 in adjusted runs prevented each of the last 5 years. Walker made this list in 4 of the last 5 years, which if you scan the list you can see is a pretty impressive feat.

But this year, at the ripe old age of 34, Jamie Walker is having a break through season. After pitching 2 scoreless innings tonight, he has lowered his ERA to 0.95. In 28 1/3 innings he has allowed only 19 hits and 3 runs. Those 3 runs came on 3 solo homers. The most amazing stat though may be his 23/2 strikeout to walk ratio.

What’s interesting is that in looking at Jamie’s splits, he has actually faced more right handers than left handers. Right handed batters have only managed 145/175/164 against Walker. Surprsingly all 3 homers he’s allowed have been to lefties, and as a result his slugging percentage against is .571.

Walker will be a free agent after this year. Assuming he wants to stay in Detroit, I’m sure the Tigers would love to have him back. But the price will be steep. Walker is having a career year, and is left handed. If he can keep pitching like he has been he will be a rich man this winter.

2006 Season, Injuries, Players, Roster Management

Dmitri Young Activated

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There are reports on the local sports radio that Dmitri Young has been activated and is available for tonight’s game. I haven’t heard who was sent down to make room for Young.

UPDATE: via WXYT Young will be batting the DH and bat 7th tonight.

There will be a press conference at 4:30pm. If you’re not in the Detroit area you should be able to pick it up on the internet stream from 1270 or 1130.

UPDATE 2: As Kyle noted in the comments (thanks Kyle), Ramon Santiago was the odd man out. I’ve had a hard time finding a reason for Santiago to be on the team all along, so I’m on board with this decision. Sure the roster is a little slower and from a defensive perspective the DH situation has improved, but this was the right choice.

Offense, Players, Statistics

Inge’s Offense

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Brandon Inge’s offensive contributions the last few years have supplied me a ton of material. Iin the early years he was very, very bad. But then after a demotion to Toledo in 2003 he came back as a different hitter. He sustained that for 2 years into mid 2005 and had me declaring that he had transformed into an offensive threat. But then he swooned late last year, and this season he is once again a different hitter, an all or nothing masher.

Let’s start by looking at the various stages of Inge’s career, picked somewhat arbitrarily and summarized using the Day by Day Database:

		GS	AB	BA	OBA	Slug%	OPS	AB/HR	ISO	BB/K
pre 7/1/2003	148	677	.183	.242	.292	.534	61.5	.109	.241
7/1/03-7/1/05	232	869	.284	.350	.446	.796	36.2	.162	.489
> 7/1/05	163	598	.227	.281	.420	.701	23.9	.193	.313

While there was a definite shift in Inge’s career with his 2003 demotion, another change seems to be in progress. From his peak, he seems to have given up 50 points of batting average, and some additional OBP in exchange for 30 additional points of ISO (isolated power: Slugging-Batting average). And while not a huge number of at-bats, the totals are probably indicative of more than just luck. Continue reading Inge’s Offense →

2006 Season, Pitching, Players

Jeremy’s June

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Everybody has been waiting for Jeremy Bonderman’s “arrival” for the last few years. Early in the season Bonderman vacillated between really good, and well, not very good. For a spell in late April and early May he was arguably the worst pitcher in the Tigers rotation. But with the arrival of the month of June, he hasn’t only been the best pitcher on the league’s best staff, he was amongst the best in baseball.

Continue reading Jeremy’s June →

2006 Season, Pitching, Players

On the 6th Day…

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Justin Verlander had a dominating performance today throwing 8 shut out innings. He was making a start on 5 days rest, and it wasn’t the first time he seems to have benefited from an extra day of vacation. In fact, in his 4 top starts (ranked by Game Score) 3 have come when he’s had more than 4 days of rest.

In listening to today’s game, Jim & Dan indicated that Verlander seemed to be throwing free and easy with more bite and velocity than he had of late. So qualitatively he seemed to benefit from the extra rest, but what do the numbers show?
Continue reading On the 6th Day… →

2006 Season, Players, Roster Management

Dmitri to rehab (baseball)

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Dmitri Young is heading to Lakeland to begin a strength and conditioning program. Upon completion of the program he’ll head to AAA Toledo for a rehab assignment.

I’m actually quite surprised by this. I fully expected that Young’s career as a Tiger was over. I expected he’d stay on the DL throughout the season and then the Tigers would decline his option.

I know he was granted time away from the team to deal with personal issues, but to the best of my knowledge there is still an arrest warrant for Young and his being out of state is a violation of his bond.

I’d love to see Dmitri return as the player he once was and help the team. However given the circumstances I just don’t know that it is possible.

2006 Season, Injuries, Players

Dmitri Young to Betty Ford

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There are reports circulating that Dmitri Young has checked himself into the Betty Ford Clinic. This is certainly sad and disappointing news. Between the injuries of the last couple years, the domestic violence charge, and this news, Young’s Tiger career has certainly taken a wrong turn. At this point I’d be surprised if we saw him in the Olde English D again.

Young is making $8 million this year. I wonder if the Tigers can recoup any of that due to the nature of this illness, or through insurance.

2006 Season, Injuries, Players

Maroth to have surgery

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Tom Gage and Danny Knobler are both reporting that Mike Maroth will undergo surgery to have bone chips removed from his elbow. This unfortunately means that what was looking to be Maroth’s most promising season will be derailed for a significant time period. According to today’s press notes, Maroth will have the surgery on Friday and it will be performed by Dr. Lewis Yocum.

I’m not sure of the timetable, but Baseball Prospectus’s injury guru Will Carroll notes that Kelvim Escobar came back from the same surgery in 6 weeks last summer. So it’s possible that Maroth could be back just after the All Star break.

Possible fill-in candidates, short of a trade, remain Roman Colon, Zach Miner, Jordan Tata, Wil Ledezma, Jason Grilli, and Humberto Sanchez.

UPDATE: Miner will get the start on Sunday.

2006 Season, Players

Justin Verlander named Player of the Week

Justin Verlander was named American League Player of the Week. He shares last weeks honor with Carl Crawford. Verlander allowed on run in 16 innings of work against the Royals and Indians.

He’s the second Tiger to win the award this season. Chris Shelton won it the first week of the season when everything he hit went out of the park.