With the Tigers coasting along at 6 ½ games up in the AL Central, I thought this would be a good time to look at their ranks compared to leading contenders in the east and central divisions in various hitting, pitching and fielding categories. I left out the West because every team in the division is at least 14 games behind the Tigers and presumably not a threat to catch them even if the Tigers fall back to the wild card race. The Ranks of the 6 contenders in the AL East and Central are shown in the table below. Here are the highlights:
The Tigers lead the league in run prevention but are only 6th in run production. They are 3rd in the league in pitching (FIP) and 1st in fielding (DER). Offensively, they are 4th in the league in power but do not get on base that much (9th). Their biggest weakness offensively is drawing walks (13th in the league).
The White Sox rank 1st in run production but are 9th in run prevention. Their biggest weakness is pitching (11th) while their fielding ranks 3rd in the league. Offensively, they are better than average in every category.
The Yankees have the second best offense in the league and are 4th in run prevention. Their only relative weakness is power where they rank 8th. They make up for their lack of power with the second best OBP in the league. On the defensive side, they are 4th in pitching and 4th in fielding.
The Red Sox are 4th in offense and 6th in defense so it’s surprising that they are 2 ½ games ahead of the Yankees. They walk more than any team in the league and are 1st in OBP but are only 6th in power. Defensively, they are 7th in pitching and 8th in fielding.
The Blue Jays rank 5th in run production but 10th in run prevention. Since the Blue Jays rank better than 5th in batting average, walks and power, I can say that they have not been very efficient offensively. They rank 9th in pitching and 5th in fielding.
The Twins rank only 8th in run production but are 3rd in run prevention. They are 4th in batting average but are 9th in walks and 13th in power. Defensively, they are 1st in pitching but are last in the league in fielding.
Table: How the Top Contenders Rank among American League Teams
| Category | Det | Bos | Chi | NY | Min | Tor |
| Record | 65-32 | 59-37 | 58-38 | 56-39 | 55-41 | 54-43 |
| Runs | 6 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 8 | 5 |
| Runs Allowed | 1 | 6 | 9 | 4 | 3 | 10 |
| | | | | | | |
| BA | 8 | 5 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 1 |
| BB/PA | 13 | 1 | 6 | 2 | 9 | 4 |
| ISO | 4 | 6 | 2 | 8 | 13 | 1 |
| OBP | 9 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 6 | 3 |
| SLG | 4 | 5 | 2 | 7 | 9 | 1 |
| OPS | 7 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 8 | 1 |
| | | | | | | |
| FIP(Pitching) | 3 | 7 | 11 | 4 | 1 | 9 |
| DER(Fielding) | 1 | 8 | 3 | 4 | 14 | 5 |
| ERA | 1 | 7 | 10 | 4 | 5 | 8 |
Yikes, ninth in the league in OBP. That's been looming as a big issue since day one this year.
ReplyDeleteI have the impression that the Tigers get less offensive production, by a considerable margin, from the DH and 1B spots than the other contenders do. Is there anything empirical available to test that theory?
Well, all of the contenders except the Angels and Athletics are getting more production out of their first basemen than Shelton. It's harder to look at DHs since a lot of teams including the Tigers do not use regular DHs. I couldn't find any team stats by position.
ReplyDelete