Thursday, May 01, 2008

Climbing up -- an April review

The Tigers finished April 13-15, which is about as good as one could've hoped after starting 0-7. The offense, which was horrendous to begin the campaign, now ranks No. 1 in the AL in OBP, at .355, and No. 1 in SLG, at .436. Depsite getting shutout 4 times, they lead the AL with 142 runs. They are 1st in walks with 122 and 7th in strikeouts with 167.

Detroit's pitching ranks 13th in the AL with a 4.88 ERA, but that's still a pretty good improvement on the 5+ ERA the staff posted early on. The Tigers have allowed more walks (129) than any AL team other than Texas (131). They are 10th in strikeouts with 157. Their OPS allowed is .736, which places them in the middle of the pack.

(As a side note, I noticed Texas' OPS allowed is a mind-boggling .838, which happens to be Alex Rodriguez's OPS this season. So the Rangers, on average, turn teams into A-Rod.)

Detroit's DER is .716, which is above the average of .699 and another big improvement over the early part of the season. Moving Miguel Cabrera to 1B and getting back Curtis Granderson in CF helped, no doubt.

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