2009 Season

Tiger Striped All Stars

21 Comments

The Tigers are sending 3 representatives to the All Star game, and maybe one more. Justin Verlander, Edwin Jackson, and Curtis Granderson were all named to the AL All Star Game. Brandon Inge still has a chance ( a slim one) to get on the team if the fans vote him in.

Verlander and his MLB leading strikeout total was pretty much a lock for the squad and was likely voted in by the players. Jackson has had an exceptional first half, but a startling lack of run support has held him to 6 wins despite a sterling ERA. Still, the players thought enough of him to include him on the squad.

Granderson was a bit of a surprise. He’s had better seasons, but Lee points out that he is on pace for a 30-30 season and an argument could be made that he is the second best centerfielder in the AL. Granderson was also a player selection.

That brings us to Brandon Inge. I’ve stumped for Inge already and Jim Leyland opined that Inge should be backing up Evan Longoria. Instead that duty went to Michael Young who is on par with Inge offensively, but atrocious defensively. Defense doesn’t typically get you into the ASG though. But Inge does have a chance if he can beat out:

  • Chone Figgins (which he should)
  • Ian Kinsler (who has a beef that he should be starting at 2nd)
  • Carlos Pena (AL homer leader)
  • Adam Lind

So let’s see if we can get 4 Tigers to the All Star Game and Vote Inge. What works against him though is that he was the 2nd best third baseman, but it’s not as cut and dry that he’s the best of these 5.

21 thoughts on “Tiger Striped All Stars”

  1. I’m really excited about Inge’s half-season of excellence, but I’m pretty sure the baseball karma gods will conspire and remember his four seasons of. 205 or below and decide that he needs to have a full season of excellence before it is deemed right and just for Brandon Inge to make an all-star team.

    Yes, I know the voting is theoretically and technically based only on what a player did in the first half of the current season but there is an element of lifetime achievement to the equation for non-superstars having late career breakout performances. (Which is why I am positively ecstatic that Tim Wakefield made it this year).

    I’m stoked that Inge is finally hitting like a bonafide major league 3rd baseman, but good lord he’s made a ton of money in years where he was arguably the American League’s worst hitter so let’s give him the three day’s off. It’s better not to let the gods know he’s doing so well! If we send him to the all-star game someone’s gonna notice upstairs and Inge will spin into a 0-43.

  2. Michael Young is absolutely not atrocious defensively. You’re all wet on that point.

    I agree that Inge should be an All-Star. But he should replace Granderson, not Michael Young.

    2. No, he is awful. Dead last in UZR. Awful in +/-. Awful in revised zone rating. Even in fielding percentage he is only middle of the pack. He is an awful defender.

    3. Inge has a better fielding rating than Young at 3rd…and Catcher…and Left field…and Center Field…

  4. Leyland went out on a bit of a limb for Inge, and if Maddon wanted to leave Inge off the squad and yet make it seem like he was really considering him, he couldn’t have done a better job. There’s no way Inge does better than 4th in the voting; he only came out 5th in 3rd base voting, and behind Figgins who is in the last chance voting, along with the guy who should have won at 2nd and the AL HR leader.

    The avg fan thinks of Inge as a guy who had a bunch of HRs in April, strikes out a lot, and doesn’t know/care about how good a fielder he is. His only chance was getting named, not voted.

    1. I don’t think it was Maddon trying to leave him off the squad and making it look like he was being considered. The players selected Young at 3rd. And when the fans voted for Pedroia it ended up bumping Kinsler (the players voted Hill 1 and Kinsler 2). Maddon picked Zobrist, and there is nothing wrong with that. Inge (and Kinsler) got squeezed in the process.

  5. I find it pretty amazing that two of the top three hitters in the AL are NOT on the All Star roster…

    1. Depends on what you base the “Top Hitters” distinction. Cabrera just plays at a position where guys are having sick seasons so far. I’d have to look at Rolen more closely, but I would guess that his lack of power hurt him in comparison to other 3b in the league.

      Rolen should probably be getting some consideration at third, but he doesn’t stack up defensively withthe rest of the guys being considered

      1. 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…

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

  6. 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.

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  8. 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.

  9. I feel Lind deserves to be there waaay more than Grandrson but maybe not Inge (not enough anyways that I would vote Lind before Inge). I am probably going to vote twice for Inge,once for Lind … they both desreve this final spot IMO.

  11. INGE MADE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  12. look at mlb.com’s enhanced rosters

    under AL reserves!

    YES! VINDICATION FROM THE TIGER’S NATION!

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