tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-179077762013-05-23T16:31:45.399-04:00Lee Panashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17148118898954670307noreply@blogger.comBlogger1868110tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17907776.post-17436182857102986892013-05-21T11:48:00.002-04:002013-05-21T11:48:14.591-04:002013-05-21T11:48:14.591-04:00

When Tigers slugger Miguel Cabrera won the Triple Crown last year by leading the league in batting average, home runs and Runs Batted In, he became the first to do so since Red Sox outfielder Carl Yatrzemski in 1967.  It was also the first time the Triple Crown winner was broadly questioned by statistical analysts who now use different statistics to evaluate hitters.  It was clearly a memorable

Lee Panashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17148118898954670307noreply@blogger.com4http://www.detroittigertales.com/2013/05/revisiting-alternative-triple-crown.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17907776.post-62678443249203128142013-05-18T14:56:00.002-04:002013-05-18T14:56:42.621-04:002013-05-18T14:56:42.621-04:00

After seeing ace Justin Verlander allow eight runs in less than three innings to the powerful Texas Rangers on Thursday, Tigers fans feared the worst when Rick Porcello took the mound last night.  Porcello silenced doubters with a strong performance against a tough line-up allowing just one run while striking out six in 5 2/3 innings.  This was Porcello's fourth solid game since his first-inning

Lee Panashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17148118898954670307noreply@blogger.com0http://www.detroittigertales.com/2013/05/does-rick-porcello-finally-have.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17907776.post-80825752352229994412013-05-16T23:04:00.001-04:002013-05-16T23:04:21.566-04:002013-05-16T23:04:21.566-04:00

Tonight's pitching duel between aces Yu Darvish and Justin Velander did not live up to its' advance billing as Darvish was mediocre and Verlander was awful.  So, instead of admiring a masterpiece, Tigers fan discussed on Twitter whether this was Verlander's worst game ever.   Everybody had their own opinion on Verlander's worst game, but this game was certainly among them.  One way to measure

Lee Panashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17148118898954670307noreply@blogger.com0http://www.detroittigertales.com/2013/05/verlanders-worst-game-ever.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17907776.post-17860290596121703742013-05-15T22:37:00.001-04:002013-05-15T22:40:02.785-04:002013-05-15T22:40:02.785-04:00

Today, I'll take my first look at some of my favorite sabermetrics pitching leaders.  Most readers of this blog are aware of the limitations of ERA in evaluating pitcher performance.  Two of the biggest issues are: ERA gives pitchers full credit/blame for results of batted balls in play despite the fact that they share that responsibility with fielders.  For example, a pitcher with a

Lee Panashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17148118898954670307noreply@blogger.com0http://www.detroittigertales.com/2013/05/anibal-sanchez-among-early-pitching.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17907776.post-14093472508948966062013-05-12T13:01:00.003-04:002013-05-12T13:03:54.688-04:002013-05-12T13:03:54.688-04:00

In my previous post, I examined the performance of major league pitchers on ground balls from 2010-2012  and learned that the Tigers had the highest Batting Average Against (BAA) on grounders during the period.  My theory was that their generally immobile infield defense was giving up a lot of hits, but I also noticed that not all their pitchers were affected similarly.  In fact, Doug Fister (in

Lee Panashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17148118898954670307noreply@blogger.com0http://www.detroittigertales.com/2013/05/the-best-ground-ball-pitchers-in.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17907776.post-11132808405316455562013-04-28T15:44:00.001-04:002013-04-28T15:49:21.125-04:002013-04-28T15:49:21.125-04:00

As often happens in a Rick Porcello start, a discussion about Tigers infield defense broke out on Twitter yesterday afternoon.  The Tigers defense was not terrible behind Porcello Saturday, but there were a couple of seeing-eye singles, which may or may not have been converted into outs by better infielders.  The theory is that, because Porcello does not strike out many batters out and induces a

Lee Panashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17148118898954670307noreply@blogger.com4http://www.detroittigertales.com/2013/04/what-happens-to-ground-balls-hit-off.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17907776.post-1562731497197915172013-04-26T22:36:00.003-04:002013-04-26T22:39:45.597-04:002013-04-26T22:39:45.597-04:00

It didn't look too promising when the struggling Tigers went into the weekend series versus the sizzling  Braves, without ace right hander.Justin Verlander.  We were reminded tonight though that Verlander is not the only Tigers starter capable of pitching a dominant game.  Anibal Sanchez set a franchise record by striking out 17 Atlanta batters in eight innings.  That broke a record set by Mickey

Lee Panashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17148118898954670307noreply@blogger.com0http://www.detroittigertales.com/2013/04/anibal-sanchez-breaks-tigers-k-record.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17907776.post-34860062163586806982013-04-23T20:20:00.003-04:002013-04-23T20:35:36.354-04:002013-04-23T20:35:36.354-04:00

The Tigers game with the Royals has been postponed tonight, but they were busy off the field today.  First, the team announced that rookie reliever Bruce Rondon has been recalled from Triple-A Toledo to replace Octavio Dotel who was placed on the 15-day disabled list with an inflamed elbow.  Later, they signed former closer Jose Valverde to a major league contract and optioned Brayan Villarreal

Lee Panashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17148118898954670307noreply@blogger.com1http://www.detroittigertales.com/2013/04/the-new-tigers-closer-isjose-valverde.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17907776.post-31434127532752129582013-04-21T21:23:00.000-04:002013-04-22T23:33:00.446-04:002013-04-22T23:33:00.446-04:00

The concept of similarity scores for both batters and pitchers has been around for a while.  Bill James first introduced them in 1986 in his annual abstract and Baseball Prospectus uses them as part of their PECOTA system.  The idea is that players are compared according to their career statistics and each pair of players gets a score which tells how similar they are.  For pitchers, the

Lee Panashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17148118898954670307noreply@blogger.com2http://www.detroittigertales.com/2013/04/tigers-pitcher-similarity-scores.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17907776.post-1234947371432218442013-04-19T14:52:00.000-04:002013-04-19T14:52:07.991-04:002013-04-19T14:52:07.991-04:00

This post has nothing to do with the Tigers or Baseball, but I found this story kind of amusing on a day when not much funny is happening in Massachusetts.   My soon to be 89-year old father got up this morning for a hearing aid appointment at the Veteran's Administration in Jamaica Plain, a neighborhood of Boston.  His television was not working, so he initially was totally oblivious that the

Lee Panashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17148118898954670307noreply@blogger.com4http://www.detroittigertales.com/2013/04/my-fathers-trip-to-boston.html