The same day that Sean Douglass was named to the AAA All-Star team, his contract was purchased by the Tigers. Matt Ginter meanwhile was outrighted to Toledo. Douglass should get his first start on Saturday.

Douglass has been very solid for Toledo this year, striking out nearly a batter an inning and a K/BB ratio of 2.8. Douglass made 14 appearances (including 3 starts) for the Blue Jays last year. Control was his biggest struggle as he walked 28 batters in only 38 innings.

Douglass was a non roster invitee to spring training, and he eventually signed as a minor league free agent.

What will be interesting is how Douglass is used in the rotation. Will he be a regular part of the rotation, or will he be a swingman used to keep guys on 4 days rest? Part of it will probably depend on his perforance, and part will depend on how the schedule sets up.

During the telecast of Sunday’s game, Rod Allen indicated that Bob Cluck favors the 4 man rotation. His reasoning was that there are usually enough off days that by and large 4 guys can still pitch on 4 days rest. Looking at the Tigers schedule until the AS break, there is only one off day – which is Monday.

Starting with Douglass’ start on Saturday, here is how the pitching might lineup:

June 25    Douglass
June 26    Bonderman   4
June 28    Robertson   5
June 29    Johnson     5
June 30    Maroth      5
July  1    Bonderman   4*
July  2    Douglass    6
July  3    Robertson   4
July  4    Johnson     4
July  5    Maroth      4
July  6    Bonderman   4
July  7    Douglass    4
July  8    Robertson   4
July  9    Johnson     4
July 10    Maroth      4

On July 1st, it will be a matter of whether they keep Bonderman on 4 days rest. I’m not sure what they’ll do, because there aren’t really implications on whether or not Bonderman or Douglass starts that game. Considering its a Friday night game against the Yankees, and I have tickets, I’m hoping to see Bonderman.

After the break, the Tigers play 14 straight games so they will need to utilize a 5th starter for the forseeable future.

Future’s Game Selections
Justin Verlander and Joel Zumaya will be making their Comerica Park debut on July 10th during the Futures Game. Former Tiger prospect Scott Moore, who was part of the Kyle Farnsworth trade will also be playing.

The .500 mark has been a glass ceiling, or kevlar roof, for the Tigers this season. Finally, with a great all around effort against the Twins the Tigers are one game over .500.

Jeremy Bonderman had his best outing of the year throwing 80 strikes and only 27 balls in his first complete game effort of the season. When Bonderman did get into jams, his defense helped him out with a couple of great double plays and Pudge chipped in a pick-off and caught stealing.

While Bonderman was efficiently mowing down the Twins, Tiger hitters were making Kyle Loshe work. Loshe threw 105 pitches and didn’t make it through the 5th inning. Loshe averaged 4.6 pitches per batter.

Placido Polanco didn’t seemed phased by American League pitching as he picked up another 3 hits. As for tomorrow night, he has faced Joe Mays 3 times and has 3 singles.

More Good News
Justin Verlander made his AA debut, and he didn’t do to badly. For the night he threw 7 innings of one-hit ball striking out 11 hitters.

Even More Good News
Going even deeper in the Tigers organization, sort of, 5th round selection Jeff Larish tied a College World Series record by hitting 3 homers. He had an opposite field shot, a blast to right, and the 9th inning game-tying shot went to straight away centerfield.

Sports Talk Radio Caller in the top of the 9th inning:
Troy Percival is awful! There is no way that we should have ever traded Ugueth Urbina. He was the only reliever worth anything in the bullpen, and what do we have now? A slap hitting second baseman. Yeah, Polanco’s been pretty good but it doesn’t mean anything if your bullpen is blowing the games. But part of this has to go on Trammell. Once again, he failed to take out a reliever before he gave up a home run. Everybody who was watching could tell Percival had nothing. I was watching the game with my buddy and I told him, here comes a change up that’s going to end up in the seats. It was so obvious. And look at the number of runners the offense left on base, this should have been a blowout. Once again, no clutch hitting whatsoever. Every time this team gets close to .500 they find a way to screw it up. This team sucks!

Sports Talk Radio Caller 20 minutes later:
Great win today! Yeah, Percival struggled, but his teammates picked him up. Where would we be without Polanco? Dombrowski continues to build this team into a winner. What a great trade. This team is really coming together. It was really nice to see some clutch hitting late in the game. We’ve gotta keep this going in Minnesota. Go Tigers!

The emotions of a sports fan – ya gotta love it.

In any case it was a great series and a great homestand. Let’s take a look at what happened and what might happen next:

Gettin’ on and Gettin’ in
Trammell used almost the same lineup in each game. The top 7 spots remained the same throughout the homestand, with Giarrantano, Infante, Gomez, and Logan alternating in the bottom two spots. Here’s what the top 7 in the lineup did:

      OBP    SLG
#1    429    720
#2    444    560
#3    231    217
#4    400    727
#5    417    522
#6    333    571
#7    333    609

That’s some pretty impressive balance and performance throughout the lineup – with one glaring exception. A slumping Dmitri Young probably kept the offense from being even more potent. Am I worried about Dmitri? Not really. Could he use a day off, or should he switch places with Pudge in the lineup? It might not be a bad idea.

The team still struck out 38 times against 16 walks, but they seemed to be in more hitters counts, and seemed to be hitting more line drives to all fields.

Wake up call
I don’t know if this was a case of a “wake-up call,” or simply a case of a player getting extra time to straighten things out, but Omar Infante looked like a different hitter. In two days he raised his OPS 58 points. Even he can sustain this against Minnesota, it may take the pressure off the Tigers to rush Carlos Guillen back (despite reports Guillen will be ready on Thursday).

Speed Differential
I don’t know what, if anything, this means but the Tigers had six stolen bases in six attempts. San Diego and San Francisco had 0 stolen bases on 1 attempt.

One Last Thing
This isn’t related to this weekend series, but Sam from Blue Cats and Red Sox will be covering the Tigers for the Most Valuable Network. She’ll be joining the current Tiger bloggers to provide some entertaining commentary (and regular updates I hope!).

The Tigeres signed 4 more players from this years draft. The most recent additions to the Tiger family include:

3rd Round: Chris Robinson
4th Round: Kevin Whelan
6th Round: Clete Thomas
26th Round: Schuyler Williamson

The Tigers have n ow signed 7 of their top 10 picks and 23 overall. Still remaining unsigned are first rounder Cameron Maybin, 5th Rounder Jeff Larrish (Boras), and 9th rounder Paul Coleman.

Reports are that Maybin is looking for bonus money in the $3 million range as one of the top rated talents in the draft. However, the players picked around Maybin have received bonus right around $2 million.

In the case of Williamson, the Tigers must have worked out an agreement with the military. Williamson is a West Point grad and owes the military some service time. Fortunately, it appears that the army is accomodating it’s athletes who sign professional contracts.

A couple of months ago when I was going through a box of stuff from my parents house, I came across four sheets of paper. They had yellowed a little bit, and the pencil marks had faded, but they still told their story. These sheets of paper were where I kept score for the 1984 World Series. It’s great looking back and seeing the old names, and my little kid writing, but that’s not what makes them so special.

You see, in 1984 I was all of ten years old, and of course the World Series takes place in October on school nights. My parents, while fully aware of my love for the Tigers, were also quite responsible so there was no way I was going to be allowed to stay up for those games. Now that didn’t stop me from writing down the lineups and keeping score for the first few innings. I was actually one of those “who are keeping score at home.” Below is an image from Game 2 (click for a larger image).

Now if you look closely you can see that in the bottom of the 4th inning, the handwriting went from my scribbles to something more legible. My Dad picked up the scoresheet each night after I went to bed so that when I woke up first thing in the morning I could know exactly what happened. In the process, the two of us together created a document that symbolizes our love for baseball and my Dad’s love of me.

My love for baseball came from my Dad, and it was always a common ground. No matter how busy he was at work, he always made it to my baseball games where he would be coaching first base. I could also count on him giving me a hard time whenever my favorite player, Lou Whitaker, made an error. Fortunately that hardly ever happened.

One year we had Tiger tickets on my birthday, and had a flat tire on the way to the game. It was about 88 that day and my Dad was soaked by the time the tire was changed, but we still made it to the game on time and had a wonderful day. It helped that my Dad was accommodating enough to head down to the stadium early enough for batting practice, and those extra hours ensured we’d make the first pitch. That game, like each we attended meant a new pennant for my bedroom. Back in the old days, like 1986, it used to be that the vendors would sell merchandise from the visiting team as well. The result was a felt triangle to commemorate the day.

My Dad taught me how to play the game – at least to the best of my limited ability. We played catch a couple times a week – including him squatting to give me a good target when I was pitching – despite arthritis that would leave him aching. He taught me about the history of the game. His baseball cards and autograph books let me see the game the way he saw it as a kid, when he’d take the bus to the stadium and wait outside the clubhouse until the players emerged hours after the game.

Now, as a father I have the pleasure of sharing my love of baseball with my son (and daughter). My four year old boy has recently started T-ball and has attended his share of Tiger games (Nook Logan is his favorite player). As for those pennants that I got as a kid, they are currently decorating his room. And my two year old daughter, she says hi to each Tiger as they come up to bat.

I know I’ve gone all sentimental, and “baseball as a metaphor for life” has been done repeatedly. I also know that if my Dad wasn’t a great provider and loving man, that this baseball stuff wouldn’t mean anything. But on this day, and in this forum, I just wanted to say thanks to my Dad who taught me, and my Grandpa who taught him. Thanks for serving as great role models of fatherhood. Thanks for introducing me to baseball. And thanks for teaching me to keep score.

And if you’re interested, here are the scoresheets from game 1, game 3, and game 4 as well.

Fresh off a sweep of the first place San Diego Padres, let’s peruse some interesting splits.

Heating Up
I know that when it gets warmer, it can help offense. However, when we kept hearing that the Tiger bats would heat up when the weather got warmer I was a little skeptical. First, just because the temperature changes it won’t break someone out of a slump. And second, wouldn’t the same hold true for Tiger opponents. Well, then I did some checking. Below is a table of Tiger and opponent runs per game based on temperature as recorded in the box score (yes I am that geeky if you had any doubts).

Temp Det Runs  Opp Runs   Games
40s   3.1       5.1        7
50s   3.8       4.1       18
60s   4.4       3.4       11
70s   5.3       4.2       19
80s   5.4       6.4        8
Total 4.5       4.4       63

If the game time temperature is between 60 and 79, I like the Tigers chances. What’s amazing is that 25 of the 63 games have been played in sub 60 temperatures.

Home Cookin’
No wonder Brandon Inge isn’t complaining about Comerica. His OPS is 117 points higher at home than it is on the road. While he has a better batting average at home (and thus a better OBP), the biggest jump is in slugging percentage. He’s slugging 520 at home against 417 on the road with two thirds of his triples and homers coming at home.

As much as Inge has benefitted from Comerica, Carlos Guillen never wants to leave. With a OPS of 1110 at home and 659 on the road, I’d be surprised if Carlos ever got on the team plane again.

Craig Monroe, Dmitri Young, and Rondell White all hit for more power at home. However, Young and Monroe hit for a higher average on the road.

With all the fire power at home, and a pitching staff who’s ERA is a half run lower at home, it’s hard to believe the Tigers are struggling to play .500 in their own park.

Home Cooked Stew
So there must be enough Tigers who can’t figure out the park to keep the record down. Nook Logan much prefers to be, well anyplace but Detroit. His OPS is 992 on the road, and only 472 at home. It’s pretty ironic the one park the Tigers need his speed and defense the most, is the one park he can’t do anything offensively.

Switch Switch Hitting
Speaking of Nook, looking at his splits it might be time for him to stop switch hitting. Against left handers his OPS is 895 and against righties it’s 685. If he can hit lefties that well from the right side, I’d imagine that he could hit righties at least as well as the 685 he’s been posting. I know it may have bunt implications (being closer to first, drag bunting, etc.) but I don’t know that the current performance justifies switch hitting.

The Tigers other big lover of southpaws so far has been Pudge. His OPS of 1028 against lefties dwarfs his 676 against lefties. As I’ve talked about before, right handed hitters will generally have an OPS 9% better against lefties than righties. In Pudge’s case I’d expect both numbers to move towards the middle.

Downtime
I apologize for the site being unavailable this morning. As near as I can tell it was down from about 3am until a little after noon. Apparently the problem was with the hosting company. Thanks for your patience.

Verlander
It appears that Justin Verlander has the Florida State League figured out. His latest performance included 9 strike outs and 1 walk over 7 innings. He allowed seven hits and one run to lower his ERA to 1.67. He will surely be promoted to Erie within the next few weeks. After that, it wouldn’t surprise me to see in Detroit as a September call-up. He’s already on the big league roster, and already using an option year so there would be very little downside.

Signings
The Tigers announced the signing of 19 players. They are:

Rd Player          Position
7  P.J. Finigan       RHP
8  Brendan Wise       RHP
10 Kevin Ardoin       RHP
11 Anthony Clagget    RHP
12 Matt Joyce         RF
13 Louis Ott          SS
14 Casper Wells       RF
16 Michael Hollimon   SS
18 Agustin Guzman     2B
19 Burke Badenhop     RHP
22 Matthew Norfleet   RHP
23 Mark Haske         SS
25 Jake Baxter        RHP
27 William Rhymes     2B
30 Ryan Roberson      1B
31 Timothy Robertson  RHP
32 Christopher Torres C
33 Loren Fraser       RHP
35 Jeffrey Hahn       RHP

I know I said I’d have commentary on the roster moves last night, but I was tired and the moves weren’t that compelling. So here is the delayed and brief analysis:

Gomez up Thames down: The bottom line is that Marcus Thames wasn’t effective getting spot duty. His 4 strikeouts on Sunday certainly didn’t help. The hope is that Alexis Gomez will be better suited to the role.

Guillen to DL and Jason Smith up Fortunately Alan Trammell didn’t get a chance to use Carlos Guillen as a pinch hitter on Colorado. Otherwise, this DL move wouldn’t be retroactive to last Tuesday. Hopefully he’ll be able to come off the DL when he is eligible on June 23rd. As for Jason Smith, he can be effective in small doses. The bigger question is when will Omar Infante play again? Placido Polanco of course will be the starting second baseman, and without Tony Giarratano really dominating one would think that Infante would get some starts at shortstop – at least against left handers.

Roster Implications: Neither Gomez or Smith were on the 40 man roster. The Tigers had one spot open, and to create the other slot the Tigers put Gary Knotts on the 60 day DL. The Tigers will utimately need to make room for a 5th starter at some point. If that starter is Kenny Baugh it won’t be an issue because he’s already on the 40 man roster. If it’s Sean Douglass, chances are either Smith or Gomez will be DFA’d or Bobby Higginson moved to the 60 day DL.

Good Reading Yesterday the Tigers beat writers each had interesting pieces. Danny Knobler said it’s time for Tiger hitters to stop complaining about Comerica. Brandon Inge had this to say:

Inge then went out and knocked a homer to straight away centerfield.

The Freep had a piece on the Carlos Pena reclamation project in Toledo, and early reports are positive:

It also sounds like Larry Parrish and Leon Durham have figured out some of his problems.

John Lowe addressed the Tigers lack of offense citing a lack of patience and a failure to make adjustments among the many reasons.

Resting
Trammell has recieved a lot of criticism for resting players too much this year, some of it from me. But let’s look closer at the resting patterns. Ivan Rodgriguez has received considerable rest, and it may seem like too much. But if you look at innings caught in the AL, Pudge is 7th with 427 innings. Now 7th might not sound like much, but aside from Jason Kendall who has caught 483 innings, catchers 2nd through 7th have caught between 441 and 427 innings. Essentially, Pudge is catching as much as your typical AL starter.

In the case of Rondell White, as Jason pointed out in the comments, he’s an older player with a long injury history. Keep in mind his nickname when he signed here was RonDL White. What makes the rest tough to stomach is that he’s one of the few Tigers hitters producing.

Now if you look at the rest of Trammell’s resting patterns, guys are playing the bulk of the time. Dmitri Young is on pace to play 154 games. Craig Monroe is on pace to play 157. Since entering the starting lineup on April 17th, Nook Logan has started every game but two. And Brandon Inge has started every game but one this season.

In short, the guys that have been healthy and producing have been playing pretty much every day.

The Tigers bit the bullet and put Carlos Guillen on the 15 day disabled list. They also optioned Marcus Thames to Toledo. Replacing Thames is Alexis Gomez. Jason Smith will take Guillen’s place. To make room for Smith on the 40 man roster Gary Knotts was placed on the 60 day DL.

I’ll update this with commentary later tonight.

2nd inning, 0 outs, Runners on 1st and 2nd
Marcus Thames strikes out looking

2nd inning, 1 out, Runners on 1st and 3rd
Vance Wilson strikes out looking

3rd inning, 0 outs, Runners on 1st and 3rd
Brandon Inge strikes out swinging

3rd inning, 2 outs, Runners on 1st and 2nd
Marcus Thames strikes out swinging

Two early inning prime scoring chances in which the Tigers only managed 2 runs largely because hitters failed to put the ball in play.

The Tigers offensive woes continued this weekend as they managed to score a whopping 9 runs in 3 games, in the league’s most hitter friendly environment, against a team that just isn’t good. While the Tigers have lots of problems offensively, their biggest problem might be their propensity for striking out. More specifically, the problem is their propensity for striking out given that they don’t walk much nor do they hit for power.

The Tigers are striking out every 5.69 plate appearances, which is more frequently than any other team in the American League. Now that in itself isn’t necessarily bad. Texas strikes out the next most at 5.8 PA’s/K and yet they lead the league in run scoring. The difference is that Texas is a power hitting team, and the strikeouts are a byproduct of that power hitting. Texas leads the league in homers per game, and is second in the AL in team slugging percentage.

Detroit on the other hand is 10th in homers per game and 8th in team slugging percentage. Now the power game isn’t the only way to score runs, but it is an effective way. Because the Tigers aren’t a power hitting team, they rely on stringing hits together. Stringing hits together and advancing runners is tough when you fail to put the ball in play.

Placido Polanco should help to fix the situation as he is a contact hitter who only strikes out once every 46 at-bats 13.8 plate appearances (EDIT: I goofed, sorry). Unfortunately, he only gets to bat once every 9 times. The following table has the team’s PA/K:

NAME             PA/K
Marcus Thames     2.9
Carlos Pena       3.7
M. Ordonez        3.7
T. Giarratano     4.1
Jason Smith       4.4
Brandon Inge      5.0
Chris Shelton     5.3
B. Higginson      5.4
Dmitri Young      5.4
I. Rodriguez      5.6
Vance Wilson      6.0
Omar Infante      6.1
Craig Monroe      6.7
Nook Logan        6.8
C. Guillen        7.2
Rondell White     9.6
P. Polanco       14.0
R. Martinez      15.5

Marcus Thames is probably the most offensive rate on the team, and he furthered that number by striking out 4 times in 4 plate appearances today.

Until the Tigers can start putting the ball in play, or hitting a ton of home runs, or at least start walking a lot, the Tigers are going to have a hard time scoring runs. As was demonstrated this weekend when the Tigers struck out 23 times, it doesn’t matter how great of a hitter’s park you’re in when you swing and miss.

Other Stuff

• In case you don’t read the Detroit News, each Sunday Lynn Henning has been running a series called Baseball 101. Earlier editions have focused mostly on the intricacies of MLB contracts (options, free agency, arbitration, etc.). Today was the first stat focused one with an introduction of OPS. It was a well written primer and I’m happy to see the mainstream media embracing some of these “new-fangled” stats and educating the broader public.
• Saturday Ivan Rodriguez earned his first unintentional walk since May 6th. True, he swung and fouled off 3 other pitches that would have been ball four, but he made it to first.
• Justin Verlander had another specatcular outing yesterday. He picked up his 8th win and pitched 7 innings allowing only six hits and one walk while striking out 10. Let’ hope he can avoid the fate that befell 2003’s first rounder Kyle Sleeth who underwent Tommy John surgery last week.

So the Urbina-Polanco trade took a very interesting twist today with Danny Knobler’s report that Urbina was part of an alcohol fueled altercation on the team’s flight to LA on Sunday night. Knobler isn’t saying which player Urbina was fighting with, just that it wasn’t just one player. Jayson Stark further reports

Knobler points out that this deal, or one similar to it, would probably have gone down without the incident. The altercation just expedited the process.

What’s interesting is this is the first clubhouse incident that we’ve heard about during Alan Trammell’s tenure. Now it’s possible other things have occured and they’ve just been kept quiet. Even if that’s true, it is a credit to Trammell and his coaches that the team kept it in the family and it didn’t become a public issue. As for the information coming out in this case, it was done intentionally. If this was a leak or somebody having a grudge it would have been reported on Monday or Tuesday. Instead, it was kept underwraps until after the trade was completed.

Other thoughts on the trade and some responses to concerns:

• Some are concerned that Troy Percival, while once a great closer, doesn’t have what it takes to finish games anymore. While this may be true, the Tigers certainly don’t think this is the case. If they had doubts about Percival, they wouldn’t have signed him in the first place. Given that they have faith in him, and Franklyn German, Chris Spurling, and Kyle Farnsworth have all pitched well, Urbina became very expendable.
• The open roster spot will go to Fernando Rodney who came off the disabled list today. The Tigers roster is now back at 25, and they only have 4 starters. While they are over a week from needing a fifth starter, I’m curious to see who gets sent down. Will it be Doug Creek, Chris Spurling, Tony Giarratano, Omar Infante?
• Speaking of Infante, his status is still uncertain. I don’t think the Tigers are giving up on him (he’s only 22 years old), but a utility/sporadic bench role isn’t going to help him at all.
• One of the benefits of holding on to Urbina is that they could offer arbitration, and with Urbina wanting to close they would be assured of him turning it down. While the same scenario could play out with Polanco, keep in mind he was only available because the surprised the Phillies last year by accepting arbitration even though the plan was for Chase Utley to start.
• Check out Balls Sticks and Stuff to see what Philly bloggers are saying about the deal. Or at least what they were saying before the information about the fight came out. And before Urbina gave up two hits (one a homer), and two walks in a third of an inning.

Let’s start with the facts and move on to the analysis. The Tigers have sent closer Ugueth Urbina, their most tradeable commodity, along with Ramon Martinez for Phillies infielder Placido Polanco, the Phillies most tradeable commodity.

The Tigers have definitely improved their second base position which has been an offensive blackhole this year. Tigers second basemen have hit 231/271/347, with Omar Infante providing most of the plate apperances. Polanco is a career 295/339/410 hitter and excellent defender.

The Tigers traded from a position of stregth, their bullpen, to strengthen an area of weakness. The tenous thing is that the closer duties now fall squarely on Troy Percival’s shoulders, which support an arm that recently caused him to go on the disabled list. Tigers bullpen depth with Franklyn German, Jamie Walker, and Kyle Farnsworth will still be a plus.

The biggest question is whether or not this is the right direction for the Tigers. They are 11 games out of first place, and Urbina could have delivered a couple of top prospects (or draft picks if offered arbitration). Latroy Hawkins, a lesser closer netted the Cubs Jerome Williams and Dave Aardsma last month. That the Tigers are making a move to compete now means either 1. they are delusional, or 2. there is yet another move coming to help them compete now. By all accounts, Magglio Ordonez won’t be ready for another month, which won’t make Rondell White expendable for quite some time, so I’m not sure what else is coming.

In terms of contracts, the Tigers it will pretty much be a wash. Ubrina and Martinez were slated to make $5 million and Polanco is being paid $4.6 million (plus the Tigers will be paying someone else to take Martinez’s spot). All 3 players will be free agents after this season.

Other questions this trade raises that I don’t know the answer to:

• The Tigers only have 24 men on the big league roster, and they’re in National League parks this week, and Carlos Guillen is day-to-day. They could use everybody they can so who is the other player to join the team?
• Is Carlos Guillen only day-to-day or is he facing extended DL time? Was this part of the motivation for the trade?
• What happens to Omar Infante? Being a backup won’t help in his development, and I don’t imagine the Tigers are willing to give up on him. Will he move to shortstop, or will Tony Giarratano continue to back up Guillen?

There are too many questions still unanswered to know if I like this deal or not. I think the value is fair, I’m just not sure if I agree with the philosophy.

Just a short post today as I peruse various stats:

• Last night’s 8-4 win over the Dodgers was the first game the Tigers have won by more than two runs since May 8th.
• With Pudge’s 4 for 5 night he appears to be returning to the Pudge of old – with one exception – he’s still not walking. His last walk came on May 17th, and that was intentional. His last non-intentional walk was May 6th.
• Nate Robertson once again walked more hitters than he struck-out. He now has 32 walks against 30 strikeouts. Using the Day by Day Database one can see Nate is one of only 9 pitchers in the majors to pitch at least 50 innings this year and offer more free passes than K’s. That is part of what makes his 3.48 ERA so surprising. The overall ERA among these 9 pitchers is 5.10. Surprisingly, Nate’s ERA isn’t even the best among the group. Tomo Ohka’s 3.33 is tops among the group.
• So who is has struckout more than any other Tiger this year? Suprisingly Brandon Inge with 51. Carlos Pena is second with 41 and Dmitri Young is 3rd at 40.
• Of course Inge also leads the team in walks with 30, and is once again followed by Pena with 21 and then Craig Monroe at 20.
• Speaking of Craig Monroe’s walks, he walked once every 16.7 plate apperances his first two seasons. This year he’s walking once every 10.6. He’s also striking out less with a K every 7.6 PA’s this year against once every 5.6 his first two years.
• There has been discussion that the Tigers aren’t doing a good job of driving runners home. This is only partially true. The Tigers are actually pretty average with runners on base. They are hitting 290/347/434 with runners on base, and the resulting OPS ranks them tied for 7th in the AL. Essentially they are average. The problem is that the Tigers haven’t had enough at-bats with runners on base in the first place. In terms of at-bats with runners on, the Tigers rank 11th in the AL.
• This means nothing, but the Tigers are 13th out of 14 teams in being hit by a pitch.
• However if you combine that with the fact the Tigers are 12th in walks, and 13th in non-intentional walks and it’s pretty clear that if the Tigers aren’t hitting, they aren’t getting on base.