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 (10^th in BA, 24^th in EOBP and 37^th 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 (28^th in BA) and Placido Polanco (38^th in BA) who excelled only in batting average while falling below average in EOBP and ISO. Brandon Inge (33^rd in ISO) and Craig Monroe (20^th in ISO) performed above average in power only while ranking poorly in BA and EOBP.

Another thing you may notice is that Marcus Thames (41^st in EOBP and a very impressive 7^th 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