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An excellent piece by Beck around the Tigers impact on the region. I'm not big on the "the region really needs this, take pity on us" angle to sports that popped up around the Final 4 and Stanley Cup playoffs. This article didn't go all the way down that path thankfully. But I did love reading about the awareness on the part of the players and the role they play this summer. I think the Tigers do have quite a few "good guys." This comes from the way they conduct themselves at the park and around fans and a few brief personal encounters I've had. It could be crap, but I believe it. If the Tigers can do anything down the stretch the potential for the mutual lovefest that we experienced on a Saturday night against the Yankees in 2006 could come tumbling back – and boy would it be welcomed.
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Yet more support for Cabrera as a "hey, have you thought about Miguel Cabrera" candidate for the MVP
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A look at the best scooping first basemen
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I wonderfully in depth look at the ramifications of offering or not offering Placido Polanco arbitration. I think if he's a type b you offer him, type a and it gets really fuzzy. I still think many of the Tigers decisions will come down to how deep they play into October (and the $$ that comes with that).
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A look at what frustrates fans everywhere…
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This is a create-the-caption cornucopia of awesomeness
5 thoughts on “links for 2009-08-28”
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The link about hitting with a runner on 3rd and less than 2 outs is interesting. Tigers are basically an average team in this category. Roughly speaking, you have a 1/3 chance of the hitter getting on base, a 1/3 chance of an out that scores the runner, and a 1/3 chance of an unproductive out (slightly higher chance of the unproductive out than the productive one). We tend to remember the 3rd category a lot more than the first two.
Speaks, in my mind, to the weakness of the productive-out-move-the-runner-along theory of scoring runs. It’s harder to do than the commentators think it is, and you only get one run even if it works.
Actually I don’t read these stats as showing us avg at all. We’re 4th of 5 in the Central–and also happen to be 13th of 14th in the Al. Where we look avg is in runs/PA– again, Central avg, we’re well below AL avg–due to leading the division in HR/ PA.
With a runner on 1st and 3rd 1 out we’re among the least likely to get the runner in, the most likely to strike out, the most likely to hit into a GIDP, and the most likely to hit a 3-run HR…I’m not impressed…
It’s probably fair to say we’re below average, but we’re still within a normal range, right? How many runs are we actually talking about here? My guess is that the general conclusion still applies.
I’m thinking there isn’t going to be any baseball played tonight, doesn’t look like the rain is going to hold up. Sucks for the retiree trying to visit 30 parks in 30 days because tonight he is visiting Comerica.
If we were converting at the avg rate we would have 5 more runs–which isn’t nothing, considering all the 1-run losses. If we were converting at the rate of Tampa Bay we’d have 13 more runs, which is even more significant.
However a bigger problem is getting guys on 3rd, or even on base, in the first place. Because at our current rate of scoring runners from 3rd, if we had as many opportunities as Tampa Bay with a runner at 3rd less than 2 out, we’d have 30 more runs, which is VERY significant.
(overall Tampa Bay has scored 57 more runs than us just in runner on 3rd less than 2 out situations. Contemplate that!)