OT: Tigers Open Thread
Tigers taking on the Astros, looking to improve to 7-0 against them for the season. Scherzer gave up a homerun in the second, but Avisail Garcia hit his first big league home run and the Tigers put up a 4-spot in the bottom half of the second.
4-1 now, good guys in the lead.
The future is bright with Avisail!
Yea the Castellanos hype train is going strong though, but I agree Garcia seems much more polished at this point.
I wonder why the Tigers haven't been able to get it done so far against teams with big names on the roster, e.g. Angels and Nationals. However, they did take it to the Braves.
I was sitting here listening to the game and perusing StatSheet (fitting in some work around these things) and saw that the Tigers, as of today, are the top team in the MLB for batting average (.284), hits (385), runs (201), and RBIs (197) while being 17th in home runs. Interestingly, they are in the Top 10 for extra base hits too - 10th in doubles and 8th in triples.
They are also first in WHIP (1.19) and strikeouts (374) and 3rd in ERA (3.37).
I know that they have been getting good production from the end of the order. I hope Infante can keep that up. Although yesterday they had him batting 7th I think. I thought this season could be great if V. Martinez can return to his form before he got hurt last year. He started slow but it seems he is slowly getting back in shape.
Oh really? Pretty sure we made it to the World Series last year with the same bullpen. Please, tell me what you would do to majorly overhaul this bullpen. For reference, this is a list of the current relievers:
- Al Alburquerque - 14 IP, 2.57 ERA, 1.79 WHIP, 16.07 K/9, 7.71 BB/9, 84.6% LOB, 2.23 FIP
- Joaquin Benoit - 18 IP, 1.50 ERA, 0.94 WHIP, 12 K/9, 4 BB/9, 98.6% LOB, 3.13 FIP
- Phil Coke - 9.2 IP, 7.45 ERA, 1.34 WHIP, 9.31 K/9, 4.66 BB/9, 43.1 % LOB, 3.84 FIP
- Darin Downs - 17.2 IP, 2.55 ERA, 0.96 WHIP, 11.21 K/9, 2.55 BB/9, 85.5% LOB, 3.01 FIP
- Jose Ortega - 6.1 IP, 0.00 ERA, 0.47 WHIP, 8.53 K/9, 1.42 BB/9, 100% LOB, 2.07 FIP
- Drew Smyly - 23.1 IP, 1.93 ERA, 0.94 WHIP, 9.26 K/9, 2.31 BB/9, 77% LOB, 1.73 FIP
- Jose Valverde - 7 IP, 1.29 ERA, 0.57 WHIP, 9 K/9, 3.86 BB/9, 75% LOB, 2.30 FIP
So, who would you replace, and with whom? And a major overhaul would have to include at least half of those guys. Are there really four guys that you could reasonably replace? Maybe we should just fire Leyland?
Agreed. Though it is somewhat mitigated by his high K rate and solid strand rate. But yeah, the walks make me wonder how sustainable that is. I don't disagree with adding another arm, but who do you go for?
Tough to say this early in the year because most teams still think they have a legit shot at the playoffs, Marlins and Astros being the exception. Looking at DD's track record with certain teams I'd try and see what the Mariners want for Oliver Perez, maybe Mike Adams from the Phillies, Luke Gregorson from the Padres, or Joel Peralta from the Rays. This is all assuming these teams are out of contention by July so who knows. Regardless I think they'll need another arm along the way.
You're talking about 4 innings. 4 innings. 4. Innings. 4.
He had a month stretch last year where he was vulnerable to the long ball, but to say that trumps the rest of the good things he's done in a Tigs uniform is down right false. He's been a reliable set up man since he's been in Detroit and his numbers more than prove that.
http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=1437&position=P
You present a compelling argument. I feel inclined to be swayed by your sound rhetoric and statistical analysis. Well done, sirrah.
You do realize every team bases their roster decisions on statistical analysis, don't you?
And since every year, there is a world series winner, doesn't it stand to reason that statistical analysis does indeed, win you a world series? Or does the fact that the world series winner uses statistical analysis mean nothing?
No team makes any decision based on the statistics in a uselessly small sample size such as the playoffs.
People who look at playoff numbers as if they hold any weight are ignorant.
We're 6 weeks into the season and the pen has already cost the Tigers 5 or 6 wins. I know you can't win them all, but you can't afford to blow a save a week either.
Phil Coke always seems to be the pitcher who gives up the go ahead run...the run that gets charged to someone else, yet Coke still keeps his ERA somewhere about 10. Needless to say, Coke is horrible.
Was it a pinch hit or did he put him in outfield before that?
Most ballparks thats a walk off grandslam to opposite field from a right handed hitter. I don't like to play what ifs but its hard not to today.