tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-179077762009-11-08T01:24:34.211-05:00Lee Panashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17148118898954670307tiger337@comcast.netBlogger1154110tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17907776.post-75582116754880317002009-11-06T17:43:00.003-05:002009-11-06T18:06:28.253-05:002009-11-06T18:06:28.253-05:00

The Tigers kicked off the off-season by announcing several moves today. The biggest one being the removal of Marcus Thames from the 40 man roster. Catcher Matt Treanor, who spent most of the season on the disabled list after undergoing hip surgery, was also taken of the roster. Both will become free agents. In other moves reliever Joel Zumaya and first baseman Jeff Larish were reinstated

Lee Panashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17148118898954670307tiger337@comcast.net0http://www.detroittigertales.com/2009/11/thames-removed-from-roster.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17907776.post-55028130677696362362009-11-05T23:15:00.004-05:002009-11-05T23:48:54.431-05:002009-11-05T23:48:54.431-05:00

Earlier in the week, I listed the all-time top seven Tigers hitters by the WAR statistic. However, that also included playing time with other teams which confused a couple of readers. So, I purchased Sean Smith's WAR database and pulled player statistics only for their time with the Tigers. The top 20 are included in Table 1. There are no surprises at the top of the list with Ty Cobb way out

Lee Panashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17148118898954670307tiger337@comcast.net8http://www.detroittigertales.com/2009/11/all-time-top-twenty-tigers-hitters-by.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17907776.post-28283073607321118372009-11-03T20:51:00.004-05:002009-11-03T23:51:52.142-05:002009-11-03T23:51:52.142-05:00

Over at Mack Avenue Tigers, Kurt is peeking into the future using ZIPS projections from Baseball Think Factory. I'm going to look into past using historical WAR estimates from Sean Smith's Baseball Projection site. In a recent post, I looked at Runs Above Replacement (RAR) for the Tigers in 2008 and 2009. RAR is the estimated total number of runs each player contributed based on everything they

Lee Panashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17148118898954670307tiger337@comcast.net7http://www.detroittigertales.com/2009/11/fun-with-war.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17907776.post-28183582670577479192009-10-31T13:36:00.004-04:002009-10-31T18:05:15.043-04:002009-10-31T18:05:15.043-04:00

In previous posts, I looked at the Tigers offense and defense by position in 2009. Today, I will compare their offense and defense by position in 2008 and 2009. Table 1 below shows how their 2008 offense compared to their 2009 offense using the weighted runs above average statistic (wRAA) at FanGraphs. As a team they were 74 runs above average in 2008 and plummeted to 8 below average in 2009.

Lee Panashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17148118898954670307tiger337@comcast.net0http://www.detroittigertales.com/2009/10/tigers-total-runs-by-position-2008-vs.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17907776.post-23039648344191566592009-10-26T21:58:00.003-04:002009-10-26T22:45:03.495-04:002009-10-26T22:45:03.495-04:00

Yesterday, I covered the Tigers offense by position. Today, I'll run down the defense using the Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR) statistic. Ultimate Zone Rating tells us how many runs a fielder saved/cost his team above/below the MLB average player at his position. As a team, the Tigers were 45.1 above league average not including pitchers and catchers. Using UZR numbers from FanGraphs, the

Lee Panashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17148118898954670307tiger337@comcast.net0http://www.detroittigertales.com/2009/10/tigers-defense-by-position.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17907776.post-52579978181730362792009-10-25T20:25:00.007-04:002009-10-26T10:45:52.851-04:002009-10-26T10:45:52.851-04:00

Most Tigers fans are painfully aware that the Tigers offense was sub-par in 2009 and that improvements are needed during the off-season. The question is which positions should be upgraded? The answer to that question depends on how well they play defense at each position but let's start with the offense. The wRAA column in Table 1 below tells us how many runs the Tigers created at each

Lee Panashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17148118898954670307tiger337@comcast.net3http://www.detroittigertales.com/2009/10/tigers-offense-by-position.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17907776.post-57603015639466784692009-10-23T22:47:00.007-04:002009-10-25T10:33:57.886-04:002009-10-25T10:33:57.886-04:00

Update: Sizemore has a non-displaced fracture in his left ankle. That's relatively good news because it's the least serious kind of fracture and he is expected to be ready well ahead of spring training. Dombrowski said it will have no bearing on their off-season plans. Missing time in the competitive AFL is still not a good thing though.According to the Arizona Fall League Twitter account (via

Lee Panashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17148118898954670307tiger337@comcast.net0http://www.detroittigertales.com/2009/10/sizemore-breaks-leg.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17907776.post-62260613316919945972009-10-21T21:31:00.003-04:002009-10-21T22:46:57.046-04:002009-10-21T22:46:57.046-04:00

I haven't been writing here as much here lately as I'm trying finish up my sabermetrics book. I plan to publish it some time this winter. I'll have more details when it gets closer to completion.I do want to give my thoughts on what I expect to happen this off-season though.Contrary to popular belief, I think Dombrowski is usually pretty honest and open about his basic winter plan. Most years

Lee Panashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17148118898954670307tiger337@comcast.net0http://www.detroittigertales.com/2009/10/off-season-thoughts.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17907776.post-74349121566800414522009-10-20T23:34:00.002-04:002009-10-20T23:40:22.900-04:002009-10-20T23:40:22.900-04:00

If you have not yet submitted a ballot to Tom Tango's fan scouting report, he his accepting ballots through the end of the World Series. The sample size for the Tigers could use a little boost so I encourage you to participate. Details below.For the seventh year, Tom Tango is conducting his fan scouting report on fielding skills. The results of this survey are a very valuable resource so I'm

Lee Panashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17148118898954670307tiger337@comcast.net0http://www.detroittigertales.com/2009/10/fan-scouting-report-reminder.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17907776.post-70213609670980259312009-10-17T17:08:00.003-04:002009-10-17T18:21:12.616-04:002009-10-17T18:21:12.616-04:00

The Tigers were not very good at scoring runs in 2009 but they were pretty good at preventing runs. Their 745 runs allowed was 5th lowest in the league and only 13 runs more than the second lowest team (7 more if you subtract game 163). They also allowed 112 runs (or 0.7 runs per game) fewer than they did in 2008 when their staff surrendered 857 runs. Where did that improvement come from?

Lee Panashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17148118898954670307tiger337@comcast.net7http://www.detroittigertales.com/2009/10/tigers-pitching-and-defense-improved-in.html