Long time readers of this site remember a feature called the Inning Report. Reader Sam Hoff would break down the season into 18 game segments or “innings.” Why 18 game? Because there are 9 18 game segments in a season. Wednesday’s game against the Angels completed the seventh inning. Sam is still putting these together, but he’s posting them on his site this season. So click through to read The 7th Inning is Over with games through Wednesday.
The Tigers played .500 ball in this most recent 18 game stretch. What really stands out to me this season is the consistency on the run prevention side of things. In 5 of the 7 18 game segments so far the the Tigers have allowed between 84 and 86 runs.
The Tigers overall slash line was 250/321/423 despite having 5 guys with OPS’s north of .900. Unfortunately, Clete Thomas, Brandon Inge, Aubrey Huff, and Gerald Laird are OPSing on the wrong side of .500 and are really, really dragging things down.
Still, the team managed to lengthen it’s division lead despite playing even ball so thanks to the struggles of the White Sox and Twins the Tigers are in a better place than they were 18 games ago.
Its nice that Sam spends time on this but, some of it is pretty sloppy/unedited. He makes the reader “work” when trying to understand some of the stuff he put on his page.
For one, how in the heck does he organize players? For anyone trying to read these charts it’s a child’s nightmare. You’d think they’d(pitcher’s stats for example) be done by ERA or wins or IP or even alphabetically, but sadly no. Same with the hitters – there is no apparent means of organizing the data (not AB or batting average or RBI – nothing .) It’s strew out all over the place like a train wreck. Also why is saves(S) listed as category for starters and then left blank?
Finally the analysis leaves something to be desired. For example – “Guillen, Granderson, and Polanco all get passing offensive grades for the 7th inning.”
Wait… According to his data, Guillen has a slugging% 75 points higher with an OBP 67 points higher and 6 more RBIs in 10 fewer AB in this same short span. Both are given “passing offensive grades”????? UMMMMMMMMMMM…. hmmmmmmmmmmm Don’t quite comprehend that. Maybe he can explain to his audience why he thought that, because that sure as heck doesn’t seem the same type of performance to me.
Those are basically the major qualms I had. I don’t mean to bash him, I just think these errors were all too evident and should be pointed out as constructive criticism. If this is too harsh – oh well – it’s meant to be helpful.
I list the players from most valuable to least for the period (my opinion).
A passing grade (when I was in college) was a C or Better.
So Granderson’s performance (let’s say C) and Guillen’s performance (let’s say B) are both passing.
I try not to get too long winded, so I will sometimes be brief in my analysis.
-Sam