Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Tiger Hitting Woes

With today’s 10 inning 5-4 loss to the Mariners, the Tigers have now gone 9-19 since August 8 and have seen a 10 game lead reduced to 3 ½ as I write this. What has been the problem? The injury to Polanco? The recent mediocre pitching by Bonderman? Less than stellar fielding after outstanding defense in the first 4 months? Those things have contributed to the prolonged slump but just about everybody knows the primary problem has been lack of offense. They have scored just 101 runs during the 28 game period. That’s an average of just 3.6 runs per game after averaging 5.3 runs in their first 112 games. That’a a big difference.


As illustrated by the table below, the inability to produce runs has been a team effort. Not including today’s game, their batting line for the period has been .246/.291/.381 which immediately explains why they aren’t scoring. The only regulars with an OPS above .710 are Carlos Guillen (.901) and Craig Monroe (.767) who,of course, has enhanced his value with his late inning heroics.


The rest of the starters have struggled mightily. Leadoff hitter and first half fan favorite Curtis Granderson has hit an anemic .181/.222/.309. Middle of the order hitters Dmitri Young (.232/.264/.348), Magglio Ordonez (.260/.295/.410) and Ivan Rodriguez (.234/.265/.298) have also contributed very little. Sean Casey (.265/.307/.349) and Neifi Perez (.156/.206/.156) have proven to be unproductive trade acquisitions. It has been a brutal team batting slump for sure.



Meanwhile, Jim Leyland has seemed reluctant to use two of the better hitters during the period - Omar Infante (.346/.382/.481) and Marcus Thames (not getting on base but leading the team in slugging at .524). Is the Tiger manager depending too much on proven veterans while ignoring some of younger players? With today’s release of Young, Thames will almost surely get more playing time. I would also like to not see Perez in the line-up anymore and I wouldn’t mind seeing Shelton get some at bats over Casey as well.


They’ve got a very big 4 game series coming up against the Twins at Minnesota this weekend. If they aren’t careful, they could come out of the series in second place. Guillen may be back which would be a boost but they need more than that. They need to get their offense going and it needs to happen fast.



Table: Tiger Batting Stats from August 8 – September 5


Player

AB

BA

OBP

SLG

Monroe

103

.243

.301

.466

Ordonez

100

.260

.295

.410

Rodriguez

94

.234

.265

.298

Granderson

94

.181

.222

.309

Guillen

86

.326

.389

.512

Casey

83

.265

.307

.349

Inge

81

.235

.311

.346

Young

69

.232

.264

.348

Infante

52

.346

.382

.481

Thames

42

.214

.283

.524

Perez

32

.156

.206

.156

Totals

911

.246

.291

.382

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