Friday, December 01, 2006

Tiger Run Production in 2006

Earlier in the week, I discussed team run production using batting average (BA), isolated power (ISO) and extra on base percentage (EOBP). Today, I’ll look at the individual Tiger hitters. Table1 below presents these statistics for Tiger players in 2006. Table 2 table shows how the Tigers ranked in each category among 126 American League players with 300 or more plate appearances (PA).


We can see from the tables that Carlos Guillen was by far the most well rounded hitter on the team being the only Tiger to finish in the top third of the league in all 3 categories (10th in BA, 24th in EOBP and 37th in ISO). My rule of thumb is that a player should rank above average in 2 of the 3 categories to be considered a really solid hitter. Several Tiger regulars did well in only one category while falling below average in the other two categories. This includes Ivan Rodriguez (28th in BA) and Placido Polanco (38th in BA) who excelled only in batting average while falling below average in EOBP and ISO. Brandon Inge (33rd in ISO) and Craig Monroe (20th in ISO) performed above average in power only while ranking poorly in BA and EOBP.


Another thing you may notice is that Marcus Thames (41st in EOBP and a very impressive 7th in ISO) and Chris Shelton (ranking average or above in all 3 categories) were two of their more productive hitters in 2006. Now, we all know that Shelton did all of his hitting in the first month and Thames in the first three months but that’s 4 months of excellent production which will not be in the starting line-up and may not even be on the team at the beginning of next year.


Thames is being replaced by Gary Sheffield who is capable of finishing in the top third in all three categories. In fact, he does that pretty much every year when healthy. Shelton was replaced by Casey who did not do very well in any of the 3 categories this year. In the past, Casey has done very well in BA, average in EOBP and not very well in ISO. My hope is that the two of them can combine to give the Tigers at least league average production in all three areas in 2007.


Table 1: Detroit Tigers Run Production in 2006


Player

PA

BA

EOBP

ISO

RC/G

Guillen

622

.320

.121

.199

7.51

Thames

390

.256

.105

.293

6.87

Ordonez

646

.298

.076

.179

5.99

Shelton

412

.273

.092

.193

5.48

Granderson

679

.260

.103

.178

5.40

Rodriguez

580

.300

.047

.137

5.06

Inge

601

.253

.083

.210

4.96

Monroe

585

.255

.065

.227

4.91

Gomez

111

.272

.063

.117

4.87

Infante

245

.277

.069

.138

4.72

Wilson

168

.283

.030

.158

4.23

Young

184

.250

.060

.157

4.12

Polanco

495

.295

.048

.069

3.95

Casey

196

.245

.056

.120

3.49


Table 2: Detroit Tigers Run Production Ranks in 2006


Player

BA Rank

EOBP Rank

ISO Rank

RC/G Rank

Guillen

10

24

37

12

Thames

101

41

7

18

Ordonez

30

95

54

41

Shelton

83

58

44

55

Granderson

98

44

56

59

Rodriguez

28

119

87

80

Inge

106

81

33

82

Monroe

103

102

20

85

Polanco

38

118

125

113

3 comments:

  1. Allow me to complain. I can't believe the Tigers picked up Sheffield. He has been a pain in the ass in the clubhouse for other teams and he is ancient and has been injured.

    If we were going to get a Yankee, we should have been pushing for Rodriguez. He has always wanted to go back to playing shortstop. Guillen should be shifted to first and someone else needs to replace him. Guillen was one of the worst fielding shortstops last year.

    Sheffield, he'll get his hits..but Thames is a man who will get stronger. If they were going to offer up someone I would just have soon seen Maglio leave the team or Casey.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I don't think Sheffield's injury is a major concern. It was not a chronic "old age" injury. His wrist was injured in a collision and is supposedly 100% again. I expect him to hit like he did in 2005. Can he do that for 3 more years? I'm not sure but elite hitters like usually last longer than others. I'm not worried about the clubhouse stuff at all. He's outspoken but he excels on the field and his team's have done well too.

    I doubt Rodriguez is available and they would probably have to give up Verlander/Bonderman as part of a package to obtain a player like that. I don't think that's something they can afford to do.

    I like Sheffield but I wished they had picked up a first baseman rather than a DH. I'm not sure who was available but they needed an upgrade at first more than DH. They could have had Thames and a platoon partner at DH.

    They could not trade Casey because he was a free agent. It would also be hard to move Ordonez because of his contract and injury history.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Winning creates chemistry. Losing creates a mess. It's is simple as that.

    I agree that it would have been nice to pick up a first baseman of high quality instead of a DH, but I have a feeling the asking price was just too high.

    ReplyDelete

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