Inge (pronounced Inge)

Brandon Inge is a vexing player. He was barely a .200 during his years as a catcher, then was moved to 3B and blossomed with .287-13-64 in 408 AB in 2004. He hit .261 last season and had 16 HR and 72 RBI.

This year, he’s back around .220, although he has 13 HR and 39 RBI already. He is often mentioned as one of the Tigers’ best – if not the best – all-around athletes.

What’s really odd, to me, anyway, is that he’s got 39 RBI on just 48 hits. Among the top 50 players in the AL in RBI, there’s only one with more RBI than hits, and that’s Jason Giambi with 50 hits and 51 ribbies. So Inge is picking up 0.81 RBI per hit. For comparison, leaders like Vernon Wells and Vlad Guerrero are at 0.66 while Miguel Tejada is at 0.57.

So, you have to figure Inge is a demon with runners in scoring position, right? Wrong. He’s batting .234 with RISP.

I have no idea how he’s doing it. All I know is he appears to be too talented to be a .220 hitter, and too poor of a hitter right now to be driving in runs like he is. But I’m glad he is.