Monday, June 04, 2007

Number crunching

I decided to take a look at the Tigers’ pitching from 2006 and compare it to the pitching this season, through the same time period. Here are the results for opponents’ BA, OBA and SLG:

Staff 2006: .246 - .312 - .389
Staff 2007: .274 - .345 - .432

Starters 2006: .256 - .315 - .403
Starters 2007: .271 - .339 - .432

Relievers 2006: .222 - .308 - .357
Relievers 2007: .278 - .357 - .431

Staff with runners in scoring position
2006: .244 - .333 - .384
2007: .286 - .362 - .439

Staff with one-run lead
2006: .198 - .267 - .316
2007: .288 - .344 - .425

Obviously, the numbers in 2006 were outstanding. Of course, this season the Tigers have dealt with injuries to Kenny Rogers, Fernando Rodney and Joel Zumaya, plus losing Jamie Walker to free agency and not adequately replacing him in the pen (see: Mesa, Jose). Also, Mike Maroth was healthy for much of the 2006 time period while this year he is coming back from elbow trouble.

The surprising emergence of Chad Durbin has helped offset the loss of Rogers, and the starters’ numbers aren’t too far off from 2006. But the pen is going to need some help, it appears. The Tigers have 11 blown saves this season, compared to 16 for all of 2006. Rodney’s return, if he’s healthy now, will help.

Detroit is 32-24, so it’s nice to consider what the Tigs might do if they get improved pitching.

As far as the hitting, here are the numbers again for BA, OBA and SLG:

2006: .276 - .332 - .460
2007: .287 - .348 - .475

With runners in scoring position
2006: .260 - .337 - .413
2007: .321 - .403 - .510

Against starters
2006: .285 - .336 - .483
2007: .293 - .343 - .491

Against relievers
2006: .257 - .323 - .412
2007: .277 - .357 - .446

Strikeouts/Walks
2006: 391-148
2007: 345-179

So, the hitting is improved from last year, which we knew. Thanks to Baseball Musings for its database making this easy.

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