Patti Engineering Insight

Each 18 games represent 1 inning of a baseball season. The Tigers record for the first 7 innings in 2008:

 

        Starters:     Bullpen:

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

1:  6-12  74 -112    15-10-262/345/404    3-9- 96.2-5.96    3-3-3-5.28

2:  9-9   98 -87     21- 6-261/350/426    5-8-105.2-5.11    4-1-2-3.61

3:  8-10  89 -75     19- 2-275/326/442    8-5-109.2-4.19    0-5-4-3.83

4:  11-7  85 -74     19- 8-268/350/416    8-4-113.0-3.27    3-3-5-5.17

5:  12-6  86 -78     25- 6-297/347/476    6-4-106.1-4.23    6-2-6-3.43

6:  9-9   118-96     25- 8-299/368/483    8-6-105.0-5.49    1-3-2-4.03

7:  7-11  93- 103    26- 8-265/353/455    7-7-104.0-4.67    0-4-4-4.92

 

In the 7^th inning found the Tigers start the inning with a 5-game losing streak that seemed to drain the life and energy out of the team and their fans. The season thus far can be broken into 3 distinct segments: The abysmal 24-36 start that dug a huge hole, the 28-13 run that started June 7^th with a Thames’ lead comeback win against Cleveland that got the team to 52-49, and the most recent 10-15 run that was started July 25^th with Dye’s 2-run 9^th inning homerun off of Todd Jones.

 

The starting pitching improved as a unit from Horrible to Mediocre, the exception being Galarraga who was great. Displaying from best to worst:

 

Name	GS	IP	W	L	K	ERA	WHIP
A Galarraga	4	26 2/3	3	0	19	2.36	1.16
J Verlander	3	18	1	2	16	5.50	1.39
N Robertson	3	18	1	1	12	4.50	1.72
Z Miner	4	18 2/3	1	1	12	4.82	1.82
K Rogers	4	22 2/3	1	3	22	6.75	1.81

 

In the Bullpen, the emergence of Fernando Rodney as a closer was a bright spot. Bobby Seay continued to do well and Gary Glover provided 2.2 innings of perfect work. Other than those 3, it was pretty much like throwing gasoline on a fire. Displaying from best to worst:

 

Name	G	IP	W	L	S	K	ERA	WHIP
F  Rodney	7	9 2/3	0	1	4	14	1.86	0.83
B Seay	9	8	0	0	0	9	3.38	1.13
G Glover	2	2 1/3	0	0	0	2	0.00	0.00
F Dolsi	4	5 1/3	0	0	0	3	1.69	2.06
A Lopez	5	9 2/3	0	0	0	6	5.59	1.66
F Beltran	4	5 2/3	0	0	0	3	6.35	1.59
C Fossum	6	7 2/3	0	1	0	6	8.22	1.57
K Farnsworth	7	7 1/3	0	0	0	7	7.36	1.91
J Zumaya	5	4	0	2	0	4	9.00	2.75
T Jones	1	2/3	0	0	0	0	0.00	9.00

 

The offense did OK. The 93 runs do not match a 1,000 runs/season pace, but scoring over 5 runs per game should be sufficient. Overall, I would give the individual hitters in the 7^th inning a passing grade except our Catching tandem (Inge and Sardinha), and the extremely cold Marcus Thames. Displaying from best to worst:

 

Name	G	AB	HR	RBI	SB	BA	OBP	SLG
M Cabrera	18	71	6	17	0	.282	.362	.606
P Polanco	17	69	3	9	2	.319	.390	.565
C Granderson	18	74	4	11	2	.270	.372	.554
E Renteria	17	59	2	6	1	.322	.385	.508
C Guillen	12	48	1	3	1	.292	.393	.438
G Sheffield	17	63	5	13	1	.254	.347	.508
M Joyce	16	42	2	6	0	.262	.311	.476
M Ordonez	17	68	1	10	0	.279	.380	.368
R Santiago	7	15	0	0	0	.267	.389	.267
R Raburn	12	32	0	2	1	.281	.324	.312
B Inge	18	60	1	8	0	.200	.314	.333
M Thames	8	27	1	2	0	.111	.111	.222
D Sardinha	6	14	0	0	0	.071	.133	.071

 

 

Even if the Tigers were to go 28-8 over the remaining 36 games to get to 90 wins, both Chicago and Minnesota would have to play at or below .500 to win the division. The Wild card is even more daunting as the Tigers are 11 games back and would have to pass four teams. The last two innings should tell a lot about 2009 and what kind of direction the team will take in the off season. That is the only reason to keep watching this train wreck at this point.

 

 

I can’t believe it has been two months since I have posted here. I apologize to the handful of people that may actually check this site.

I will use the excuse that in Michigan we have all four seasons:  winter, June, July, and August.  With the disappearance of winter, Michaganders go outdoors at every free opportunity. That along with my passion for golf has made posting a low priority.

In the last two months, I have made two separate trips with my now-teenage daughter:

We went on a seventh grade field trip to Chicago. This trip was a two-day barnstorming tour of the Windy City. Chicago is absolutely my favorite city. It is clean, has friendly people, great restaurants, and is only about a 4.5 hour drive from my front door. I did the Wendella Boat Tour for the first time on the trip and highly recommend it. The history and focus on the city architecture was absolutely fascinating.

Our second trip was to the Olympic Swim Trials in Omaha. It was a great opportunity for her to see the best at her favorite sport in action. USA Swimming did a nice job of producing the event and the atmosphere was exciting and intense. One thousand, two hundred forty-three swimmers qualified to swim at the Olympic Trials, but only 43 made the team.

To give an example of the intensity of the Trials, take Hayley McGregory. She went from the high of setting a world record in the 100m backstroke prelims (which was subsequently broken twice by Natalie Coughlin), to the low of not making the Olympic team by finishing 3rd in the finals of both the 100m and 200m backstroke (top 2 make the team).

The Tigers are playing better and have their destiny in their own hands as almost 25% of their remaining schedule is against the two teams they are chasing in the Central Division. My golf game has improved as I have finally got the concept that the game is more about keeping the ball in play instead of trying to see how far you can hit it.

www.DetroitTigersWeblog.com

An Internet Friend of mine (aka Billfer) owns the Detroit Tigers Weblog. It is one of my favorite destinations on the World Wide Web. Billfer’s writing style is great. He keeps his site up to date on the latest Tiger News and he has lots of good comments posted by many Tiger Fans.

Starting last year I have been submitting a post to Billfer’s site. I take the 162-game Tiger Schedule and break it into 9 “innings” of a season. Each inning consist of 18 games. By breaking down the season in these even chunks you can evaluate how the offense, starting pitching, and bullpen are doing as a unit. You can also evaluate which players are hot and cold. A team that wins 100 games will average an 11-7 record. A 10-8 average will lead to 90 wins.

My latest post at Detroit Tiger Weblog recaps the 2008 Tigers after 2 innings.

Some other interesting inning by inning results:

1984 Tigers (WS Champs): 15-3, 16-2, 10-8, 12-6, 9-9, 10-8, 10-8, 10-8, 12-6 = 104-58

2003 Tigers (Historically Bad): 1-17, 7-11, 6-12, 4-14, 6-12, 5-13, 2-16, 6-12, 6-12 = 43-119

2006 Tigers: (AL Champs): 11-7, 12-6, 13-5, 12-6, 13-5, 11-7, 9-9, 5-13, 9-9 = 95-67

See you at Billfer’s site.

Last weekend, I attended the