Your 2009 Detroit Tigers: Season in Review

by john.kmiecik on Oct 10, 2009 6:00 PM EDT Comment 16 comments

As I stare at the 2009 MLB post-season in utter disbelief, the big question immediately after game 163 for me was what the hell just happened? and it's still in my head. In order to answer that question, I'm doing a season review of the key players for the Tigers. I'm defining "key player" as a fielder that had played in at least 20 games or a pitcher that had logged at least 30 innings. Sorry folks, no full-blown Matt Treanor (hitless as a Tiger) or Chris Lambert (14.85 ERA in 2009) reviews.

The first Tiger up is the huge fan favorite, Brandon Inge. If there's anything you'd like to see covered, please post in the comments and I'll see if I can work it in.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Bless You Boys writing staff.

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If you need help with statistical analysis

I’d be happy to help. This is a pretty huge (and awesome) project.

President, Vice President and Secretary of the Casey Crosby Fanclub.

by demondeaconsbaseball on Oct 10, 2009 6:17 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Certainly couldn't hurt

I’m still trying to nail down exactly which offensive and defensive stats to use.

My big problem is with defensive stats. B-R.com only gives you some of the 2009 stats and leaves out the ones I really want to use. Fangraphs doesn’t even provide 2009 numbers yet. I’m doing a monthly breakdown of offense, but I’ve got no resource on that sort of breakdown by month for defense.

2100 Woodward and Twitter

by john.kmiecik on Oct 10, 2009 6:28 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

For offense

I’d use the slash stats- AVG/OBP/SLG and maybe something like VORP or EqA. For defense… hmm. Fangraphs has some UZR numbers out right now- those would be pretty useful. I dunno about using monthly breakdowns for defense- defensive numbers are erratic even on a year-to-year basis.

President, Vice President and Secretary of the Casey Crosby Fanclub.

by demondeaconsbaseball on Oct 10, 2009 8:37 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I’m using RBI, average, OBP and slugging in the offensive stat table. At the end of the review I plan on looking at things like VORP and use Fangraphs like Kurt did below to see if the player is someone we should keep around.

And yeah, monthly defensive numbers are pretty much out.

2100 Woodward and Twitter

by john.kmiecik on Oct 11, 2009 2:56 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

There are some other great stats out there

Take a look at the work done by Ron Shandler and his staff at BaseballHQ.com. The research analysts there produce some fantastic regressions using simple and advanced metrics, which you can sit back with and look at in all its color-coded goodness and say “wow – I didn’t realize!”.

by TigerFanInCleveland on Oct 11, 2009 10:17 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Looking forward to reading your reviews...

But you sure have your work cut out for you!

I’d really be curious to find out out just how many wins Inge’s defense is worth, compared to his hitting. You’d think his glove might make up for his hitting deficiencies when calculating his value, but by how much? Would one cancel out the other?

Good luck with the project!

The Wayne Fontes Experience

by BigAl on Oct 10, 2009 6:45 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

At first brush with the numbers...

…that used to be true, but his season numbers make that argument increasingly difficult to make for rabid Inge fans (which I count myself among). You have to look at the other potential 3B in the organization to try and figure out if we have a ready-to-go replacement or if it’d be worth spending the big bucks on an upgrade. Already I’m finding Inge very sobering to review, as it’s really grounding my BINGE fever.

2100 Woodward and Twitter

by john.kmiecik on Oct 10, 2009 6:52 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Well, Al, Fangraphs puts his hitting at 7.9 runs below average , fielding at 8.5 runs above average, and his wins above replacement is 2.4 for a value of $11M based on the going rate of free agents. He was actually paid $6.3M. So he was a pretty good bargain.

The question, of course, is whether you buy into that method of valuing players.

Mack Avenue Tigers

by Kurt Mensching on Oct 10, 2009 7:14 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Kurt has graciously volunteered to do all my research

Thanks, Kurt!

(kidding on the all of the research part, but thanks for digging that up for me!)

2100 Woodward and Twitter

by john.kmiecik on Oct 10, 2009 7:22 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I'm not 100% saber like some bloggers, but I speak the language well

and generally know where to find stuff.

if you have any questions feel free to fire them at me

Mack Avenue Tigers

by Kurt Mensching on Oct 10, 2009 7:33 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Will do

Thanks again

2100 Woodward and Twitter

by john.kmiecik on Oct 10, 2009 7:37 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

You know...

If there’s enough demand for this type of thing, I might do it with a couple prospects (like the top 10 candidates or some of the new draftees).

President, Vice President and Secretary of the Casey Crosby Fanclub.

by demondeaconsbaseball on Oct 10, 2009 8:46 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I would read that.

by explosivo2k2 on Oct 10, 2009 11:14 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I'd totally read that

Kurt’s been doing a similar thing with his Down on the Farm All-Star posts, and I’ve really liked reading those.

2100 Woodward and Twitter

by john.kmiecik on Oct 11, 2009 2:57 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

JayRC writes those

I don’t have internet pseudonyms or anything. He lives in Lakeland and goes to a lot of the games and really enjoys following the players he sees go through the system there.

He offered to write the series for me. It’s a nice feature, so I’m glad people like it.

Mack Avenue Tigers

by Kurt Mensching on Oct 11, 2009 11:35 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs