Comments for The Detroit Tiger Weblog

Comment on Midseason Musings by Mark in Chicago

Mark in Chicago — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 21:00:14 +0000

Great writeup as always, billfer, but you are inviting the wrath of the Inge-haters. Completely agree he’s been pretty much the most consistent offensive player during the first half.

Comment on Midseason Musings by Skip

Skip — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 20:51:50 +0000

Seriously, the Tigers as a team are pretty much a big (and pleasant) surprise. All the sports pundits quickly wrote them off after a disappointing 2008 season. People all over the baseball world thought the Tigers would have a fire sale at the trade deadline (shipping off names such as Cabrera, Maggs, Verlander, etc.). This has been an up-and-down-and all-over type of season so far, but we are in first! (and three all-stars, including Edwin Jackson, who everyone thought that was another bad move by DD)
Go Tigers!

Comment on Midseason Musings by Ryan P.

Ryan P. — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 20:48:49 +0000

Yay, I attended the start of the year

Comment on Midseason Musings by Jerry the Tiger Fan

Jerry the Tiger Fan — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:15:58 +0000

I would nominate Adam Everett as on e of the surprises of 2009 based on his offense being pretty far above what was advertised for him. I basically expected him to hit about .209 and provide us with a steady defensive glove at SS. He has had a number of clutch hits for us and has been a pleasant surprise with the bat in his hands. I have been slightly disappointed by his glove, but he has made some poor defensive plays for a veteran SS (yesterday comes to mind), including booting a few routine groundballs.

Comment on Game 2009.081: Tigers at Twins by Jerry the Tiger Fan

Jerry the Tiger Fan — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:03:13 +0000

Mr. X, How about Don Kelly never batting higher than sixth in the lineup? Why can’t Inge go to the three hole and move Cabby back to cleanup? Inge is our leading RBI man, why not get him up higher in the lineup where he’ll get more RBI opportunties and more at-bats (over the long haul)? That batting order that Ol’ Smoky drew up yesterday was criminal. Its OK to play Kelly, just no valid reason to hit him fourth behind Cabby (or third in front of him either). Ol’ Smoky basically mailed it in yesterday when making out his lineup card. If Don Kelly is hitting fourth tonight I hope that Ilitch walks down to the dugout, fires Ol’ Smoky and manages the rest of the game himself. It couldn’t get any worse.

Comment on Midseason Musings by charlie

charlie — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:01:19 +0000

i’ve been a ramon santiago fan for a while now…always hoping he would get a chance to play more often. reading your sentence above “Ramon Santiago’s power surge gets honorable mention.” makes me wonder a little…how does a ball player go from weak and anemic to powerful all of a sudden?

Comment on Midseason Musings by Anson

Anson — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 18:53:48 +0000

Well seeing as it is the half way point do we have any players that fit the elusive ham sandwich tag since Edgar is no longer with us? I know its a hard spot to fill but there has to be someone on the Tigers you would be willing to trade for a ham sandwich.

Comment on Midseason Musings by Greg

Greg — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 18:35:29 +0000

Ryan Rayburn’s pich hit home run was against Kevin Gregg, not Ryan Dempster.

Comment on Midseason Musings by Craig

Craig — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 18:34:25 +0000

Inge-Lover

Comment on Tiger Striped All Stars by jb61973

jb61973 — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 18:19:16 +0000

Jeez, nice research. THanks for taking the time.

Comment on Tiger Striped All Stars by jb61973

jb61973 — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 18:17:30 +0000

Fair enough, I guess I meant defensively he doesn’t compare to inge and Longoria.

Comment on Tiger Striped All Stars by Mark in Chicago

Mark in Chicago — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:34:00 +0000

If anybody would have said a year ago at this time that Brandon Inge was in the conversation for an All-Star spot (which is overrated since it’s mostly a popularity contest, but I digress…), I would have said they were crazy. It’s impressive what Brandon has done the first half of the season, so he deserves to be considered. Hope he can keep it up.

Comment on Tiger Striped All Stars by Tiger Striped All Stars | Stars Library

Tiger Striped All Stars | Stars Library — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:21:25 +0000

[...] is the original post: Tiger Striped All Stars Related PostsTheRecord.com – CanadaWorld – Telescope hung from balloon records [...]

Comment on Tiger Striped All Stars by Coleman

Coleman — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:17:16 +0000

Well now that’s ironic…

I got tired of hearing Inge was coasting on a big beginning of the season (as well as the old, and incorrect, bit about how he’s useless in clutch situations) so I looked up how big an effect that had…fairly big, I suppose–his OPS drops from .874 to .792 if you throw out April (which is hardly a terrible OPS).

But then out of curiosity I looked at Longoria–and his drops even more with his April taken out. In fact, he’s declined each month:

April: Longoria 1.134 Inge 1.114
May: Longoria .937 Inge .709
June: Longoria .752 Inge .908
July: Longoria .268 Inge .607

In fact over the last 5 weeks Longoria has a grand total of 9 RBI.

And then I looked at Inge’s various situational stats, and then compared to Longoria–Inge was better in every single one:

RISP:
Longoria: .896 Inge: .915

Game within 1 run:
Longoria .807 Inge: .967

High Leverage:
Longoria: .864 Inge: .976

Runner 3rd Less than 2 out:
Longoria: .891 Inge: 1.667
This last one really stood out–Longoria with 37 PA, 18 RBI (7K 4 GIDP), vs Inge with 18 PA, 14 RBI (1K 1 GIDP): Longoria has had twice as many opportunities as Inge at easy RBI.

Then when you add to that he’s in the lineup that scores the most in the league, and has the highest PPA in the league (with DET at the bottom), and that he bats in front of the league’s HR leader, you realize he probably gets more PAs than Inge against relief pitchers (yep, 111-100, not to mention tiring starters), more PAs vs LHP (yep, 96-84), and all of a sudden I don’t feel it’s quite so obvious that Longoria is the best at 3rd offensively right now after all.

Comment on Tiger Striped All Stars by Coleman

Coleman — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:33:29 +0000

He stacks up fine against Figgins (not to mention Young), and to me looks like the 3rd best 3rd baseman after Longoria and Inge.

And as far as top hitters not being on the roster, besides Cabrera at 1st you’ve also got the league HR leader without a spot…it’s a rough year at 1st…