A full baseball season can be broken into Nine 18-game segments. I have termed these 18-game segments as an “inning” of a season. In the past I have provided analysis of each “inning” at www.detroittigersweblog.com. For 2009, I am going to post the analysis on my own blog www.samhoff.com.

Let’s compare the first inning of 2009 to the first inning from the last 3 years.

                                                                              Starters:         Bullpen:

       W-L  RS –RA     HR-SB-AVG/OBA/SLG    W-L- IP-  ERA     W-L-S-ERA

2009: 10-8  102-84     21-12-276/349/432    7-6-103.1-4.62    3-2-4-3.96

2008:  6-12 74 -112    15-10-262/345/404    3-9- 96.2-5.96    3-3-3-5.28

2007: 10-8  86 -79     17- 9-235/313/380    5-2-110.2-3.66    5-6-8-4.68

2006: 11-7  89 -69     30- 5-281/332/496   10-7-107.2-4.01    1-0-5-3.10

 

The start of the 2009 season was much better than 2008 and compares favorably with 2007 and 2006. The team scored 102 runs (more than they did in 8 innings last year) and 12 steals was the most since 2007. The pitching has been improved over 2008 and Rick Knapp is having a positive effect with his “throw strikes philosophy.” The team is ranked 3rd in the league in issuing walks (after ranking 13th in 2008).

 

One interesting thing about this team is that they have the second oldest hitters in the league (avg age 30.5, behind the Yankees 30.7), but have the second youngest pitching staff (avg age 26.7, behind Oakland at 26.4). The season is young and there are still question marks surrounding this team including shortstop, starting pitching, and a recent history of late season collapses. In the last three seasons:

  • 2006: The team had a 76-36 record and a 10-game lead on August 7th, they then went 19-31 the rest of the year and lost the division.  
  • 2007: The Team had a 59-38 record which was the best record in baseball and a 2-game lead on July 23rd. They got swept at Chicago in a double header the next day on route to a 29-36 finish. 
  • 2008: After a horrible start, the team climbs back to a 52-49 record on July 23rd. They were within 5 games of the White Sox. A blown save by Todd Jones against the White Sox starts a 22-39 run to end the season.

Onto the Analysis of the First Inning:

 

Starting Pitching: Justin Verlander is the real riddle here. His strike out rate is off the chart with 25 strikeouts in 21 innings. He has had some bad defense behind him and I think has been a victim of some really bad luck. Armando Galarraga is doing his best to prove that his breakout performance in 2008 as a 26 year old was not a fluke. Edwin Jackson has been superb in two of his four starts. Rick Porcello has been hurt by the HR ball, as he has given up 5 in 18 innings of work. Zach Miner has given up a ton of base runners and it is doubtful as to how serviceable he will be as a 5th starter.

 

 

Name G IP W L S K ERA WHIP
Galarraga 4 24 1/3 3 0   24 1.85 1.23
Jackson 4 26    1 1   17 2.77 1.04
Porcello 3 18    1 2   11 4.50 1.17
Miner 3 14    2 1   7 6.00 1.86
Verlander 4 21    0 2   25 9.00 1.71

 

Bullpen: The back end of the bullpen (Seay, Perry, and Rodney) has been terrific. Nate Robertson is upset that he isn’t starting and is showing his frustration by pitching very well out of the bullpen. Lyon has lost 2 games, but has not been horrible, and a healthy Zumaya could make this a real solid pen. Bonine was sent down and you have to think Rincon is the next one out of town. 

 

 

Name G IP W L S K ERA WHIP
Seay 9 6 1/3 0 0 0 3 0.00 0.47
Rodney 7 7    0 0 4 4 3.86 0.86
Perry 8 6 1/3 0 0 0 7 1.42 1.26
Robertson 5 5 2/3 1 0 0 4 3.18 0.88
Lyon 7 9 2/3 1 2 0 4 3.72 1.34
Zumaya 1 1    0 0 0 0 0.00 2.00
Miner 1 1    0 0 0 1 0.00 1.00
Rincon 4 7 1/3 1 0 0 9 6.14 2.05
Bonine 4 8    0 0 0 5 9.00 2.25

 

Offense: Many people (including myself) thought the Tigers were nuts to announce at the end of last year that Brandon Inge would be the everyday 3B man when he struggled in 2008 to keep his average above .200. Inge has had a nice start and so far and the Tiger’s management look like geniuses for that move. With the release of Gary Sheffield, the team has used the DH position to rest some of their veteran ball players, Ordonez and Cabrerra have made starts there while Guillen has filled the role 8 times. The performance of the DH’s to this point has been disappointing as performance from that position has been 1 HR, 6 RBI, 243/299/314 BA/OBP/SLG.

 

Miguel Cabrerra is flat out raking! Josh Anderson and Gerald Laird have Dombrowski looking like he has his groove back. Magglio Ordonez is traditionally a very slow starter. Guillen has me worried somewhat in that he is looking like a very old 33. The shortstops (Everett and Santiago) have hit better than expected, though Everett’s defense has not been as good as advertized so far.  

 

 

 

Name G AB HR RBI SB BA OBP SLG
Cabrera 18 68 4 13 1 .382 .455 .588
Inge 18 62 7 17 1 .323 .432 .694
Anderson 14 33 0 6 6 .364 .417 .515
Laird 14 47 1 5 1 .340 .426 .489
Granderson 18 76 6 12 2 .250 .310 .500
Polanco 17 74 0 12 0 .257 .304 .378
Thames 6 18 0 2 0 .222 .250 .389
Everett 11 36 0 5 0 .278 .350 .361
Santiago 9 32 1 11 0 .250 .294 .375
Ordonez 18 70 1 7 0 .257 .350 .300
Guillen 17 63 0 5 1 .222 .315 .270
Larish 8 17 1 1 0 .176 .222 .353
Treanor 4 13 0 0 0 .000 .071 .000
Raburn 2 2 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000
Sardinha 1 2 0 1 0 .000 .000 .000

 

This team has me excited. They are in a division where there are no really good teams, and you could legitimately make a case for any of the five teams winning the division. It should make for an interesting year downtown at the Copa.