The Detroit Tiger Weblog

Author: billfer

  • More on first pitch swinging – runners on base

    While I dispelled some of my issues with the Tigers and first pitch swinging, I still had some questions. I think many Tiger fans can remember what seemed like all those times there were runners on base only to see Magglio Ordonez (or any host of other Tiger hitters) take a swing at the first pitch and pop out to first base. So did first pitch swing rates, as well as success, hinge on whether or not there are runners on base?

    First we’ll take a look at if the rate of first pitch swinging varies whether or not there are runners on base: (more…)

  • First pitch swinging

    There were a couple ways to describe the Tigers approach at the plate in 2006. The optimist might say they were aggressive, the pessimist might say they were hack-tastic. I guess one measure of this might be their propensity for swinging at the first pitch.

    Now with the first pitch, 4 things can happen. There are two take events, a called ball or a called strike. There are also two swinging states, the batter can have put the ball in play or be sitting with an 0-1 count. At various times during the season I saw stats on TV broadcasts or in the paper that show how well certain Tigers did when hitting the first pitch, but that data neglected to take into account the swings and misses (or fouls).
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  • Tigers sign Timo Perez, Bobby Seay

    Jon Paul Morosi reports that the Tigers have signed Timo Perez to a minor league contract.

    Perez will be 30 next season. He plays all out field positions and hits left handed. His major league career numbers are 262/301/373 with his best season coming in 2002 for the Mets when he hit 295/331/437. In part time big league duty since then he hasn’t topped an OBP of 301.

    He was productive at the AAA level last year hitting 295/349/515 so maybe he can help the Mud Hens win another International League Championship.

    Morosi also notes that Bobby Seay will be returning with a minor league contract as well.

  • Link fiesta

    • The Alexis Gomez era is over. He signs with Denver.
    • I’m remiss on this one, but Lee has a new stat called RPE (Run Preventing Event). It is simply a rate at which pitchers do the things that typically are favorable for the pitcher (K’s, ground balls, infield flies). I really like the stat for it’s simplicity. While DIPS and FIP are more analytical and provide more information, this seems to be more readily digested by the general public.
    • Cameron Maybin will get a Spring Training invite to hang out with the big club. This isn’t a big surprise. Everything I’ve heard has him starting at Lakeland and moving to Erie this summer.
    • The Wayne Fontes Experience turns 1 year old today.
    • The Replacement Level Yankee Weblog ran a Diamond Mind simulation using CHONE projections. It has the Twins as the favorites in the Central and the Tigers making the playoffs 21% of the time. The projections have the Tigers pitching staff regressing from awesome to decent. THT has more on regression to the mean.
    • Retrosheet has the files for 2006 available now. I’ve downloaded them and just begun to poke around. Hopefully I can come up with some interesting stuff in the next couple weeks. If you have anything you’d like me to check into, let me know. I won’t make promises, but if it is interesting and easy enough to do, and I have the time, I’ll give it a shot.
    • If you subscribe to the RSS feed, or get the email updates, you may have noticed something new the last few days. I’ve incorporated del.icio.us links. I find that often times I come across interesting stuff on the web, and I want to share it with you. If I can, I’ll usually include it in a post like this one. Often times though, that won’t happen for a couple days, and many times they never make it in. But now, each day you’ll get all the stuff I bookmarked from the previous day. Some days there wont’ be anything, other days there’ll be a lot. I’m able to do this conveniently through Feedburner, which is why it will only appear in the feed and not on the site. It won’t change what I post here, but it is just another way to give subscribers some fresh and interesting content.
    • The 2007 Bloggies are taking nominations. This year there is a sports blog category. If you feel so inclined you could nominate your favorite sports blogs.

  • Even more about lineups

    There’s a new Tiger blog, Dtown Baseball. It is authored by DTW commentor Eric Jackson. Eric did some further investigation into Tiger lineup configuration and examined the assertion that the Tigers used 120 different lineups.

    Eric raises a great point that there are many distinct lineups, but that there was still considerable consistency.

    He looked at the top 5 spots in the lineup and found that the sequence of Granderson-Polanco-Rodriguez-Ordonez-Guillen started 51 times and averaged 4.76 runs per game. He also found a bunch of other stuff and it’s definitely worth a read (plus there’s a graph).
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  • Happy New Year

    Happy New Year to everyone. Let’s hope that in a baseball sense, 2007 is just as prosperous as 2006.

    On another note, I’ve updated the Roster page (and added The Hardball Times) and the Organizational Tree. Both now reflect the current roster which should almost ensure a trade this week.

    Go Blue!

  • Fun with line ups

    This week Lynn Henning wrote an article speculating on the Tigers lineup for next season.

    Henning in addition to penning his own lineup, concluded the article with this:

    Much of the manager’s disposition there is a matter of what you think about the computer-generated wisdom that it’s better for a team to load the front end of its order with its best hitters.

    That, of course, can collide with a manager’s intuition, and even more, his experience.

    “I know a guy who did that one game,” Leyland said of one manager who followed the best-hitters-at-the-top formula. “And his team got shut out on two hits.”

    First of all, Jim Leyland citing that sample size of 1 is kind of nonsensical. On a day when your team manages 2 hits the order is irrelevant so it does nothing to refute the premise. Second, it almost makes it sound like Henning is on board with the intuition-over-science angle. But when you look at Henning’s line-up…
    (more…)

  • Tigers to FM Radio?

    It looks like the Tigers might be heading to FM radio. WKRK 97.1, which like WXYT is owned by CBS Radio, let their evening hosts Parker and the Man go. This could mean that the station is vying for the Red Wings and Tigers contracts.

    The story in the Freep speculates that the evening games would be simulcast on WKRK as well as 1270. The move would help those in metro Detroit who currently have issues picking up WXYT’s signal as it gets washed out by power lines. But those that are out-state will still be relying on the radio network and partner stations.

  • Quick Links

    • The New York Times takes a look at the Ilitch’s team and casino owernship.
    • My interview on the Daily Fungo Podcast is up. I listened to it, and it seems clear that I’m much more comfortable talking about the Tigers then myself. The um’s, and so’s seemed to go away as we went on.
    • Also notice that the Daily Fungo moved away from MLBlogs to http://dailyfungo.com. I guess everybody is redecorating or moving their blogs lately
    • Former Tiger Chris Brown (barely a Tiger) passed away a month after being injured in a house fire.
    • Repoz at Baseball Think Factory is tallying Hall of Fame ballots. Out of the 47 articles so far, Trammell isn’t doing well appearing on only a handful. Morris has picked up 12 votes.
    • The Feds are going to find out who tested positive for steroids in 2003. We can only hope that the Tigers magical 2003 season isn’t tainted by steroid use thus rendering their 43 wins meaningless.

  • Detroit Tigers Weblog 2006 Year in Review

    It’s that time year where it is time to take a look back at the year that was 2006. Fortunately for the Tigers, and their fans, this isn’t a painful experience this year.
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  • Sports Bloggers Live on the move

    Jamie Mottram, the face or voice of Sports Bloggers Live has a post detailing that the 2 year old show has come to an end, at least in its current version.

    I was fortunate enough to be asked by Jamie to appear twice during this past year. Once early in the season when he was speaking with bloggers of surprise teams, and then with Larry Borowsky during the World Series. Jamie also invited me to blog the World Series for AOL Sports. All three of these opportunities brought great exposure and were a large part of the growth DTW experienced this year. Of this I’m very grateful.

    Best of luck to Jamie and crew as they move on to their next endeavor(s).

  • DTW Housekeeping

    Just a few site-related items as we head into the holidays.

    Changes…maybe

    I’m always looking for ways to improve the site. With time off from my regular job, and lower visitor numbers, and quietness that is the baseball landscape, next week is one of my best opportunities to do this.
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