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 two innings of 2009:

                                                                              Starters:         Bullpen:

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

1st:  10-8  102-84     21-12-276/349/432    7-6-103.1-4.62    3-2-4-3.96

2nd:  10-8   99-86     20- 6-265/342/436    8-5-104.0-3.63    2-3-3-5.68

 

The second inning of 2009 featured an identical 10-8 record to the first inning. They have now matched the number of winning innings from last year. What may be even more encouraging is the consistent performance of the team for the first two innings. There have been some bullpen issues and beyond the first three starters, there are lots of questions. But as we stand on this off Monday, the Tigers are in first place in the AL Central on a pace to win 90 games. Based on the weakness of the division, winning 90 games should ensure the playoff baseball in Motown.

  

Starting Pitching: Justin Verlander had a 9.00 era in the first inning, and came back with a sub one run era in the second. Edwin Jackson has continued to make Dombrowski look smart for his at the time unpopular trade of Matt Joyce. Rick Porcello seems to be settling in and is holding his own for being the youngest player in the Majors. Armando Galaragga had a sub 2.00 era in the first inning, but in the second he was killed by giving up crooked numbers early in games. He gave up two 5-run first innings (one he didn’t make it out of) and a 4-run second inning. If you eliminated those 3 innings, his era would have been 4.40 for the inning. Zach Miner had one start where he gave up 5 runs but all became unearned a day later when MLB correctly revised an official scorer’s error. Dontrelle Willis had one start where his control and velocity were much more encouraging than his results.

Name G IP W L S K ERA WHIP
Justin Verlander 4 29 1/3 3 0   44 0.92 0.82
Edwin Jackson 4 26    2 1   24 2.08 1.00
Rick Porcello 4 21 2/3 3 1   14 3.32 1.29
A Galarraga 4 17 1/3 0 3   9 10.90 2.08
Zach Miner 1 5    0 0   5 0.00 1.60
Dontrelle Willis 1 4 2/3 0 0   0 7.71 2.14
 

 

 

Bullpen: Joel Zumaya is back and is pitching great. Fernando Rodney has been given few save opportunities, but has yet to blow a game though he has made a couple 4-run leads too interesting. Ryan Perry is walking way too many people, but has not embarrassed himself. Bobby Seay has been in a slump and is getting smoked pretty bad and was a key reason the Tigers got swept in Minnesota. Brandon Lyon continues to be a free agent disappointment. Rodney, Zumaya, and Perry create a pretty nice 8th and 9th inning combo. The question presently is who can bridge the gap from the starter to the back end guys.

Name G IP W L S K ERA WHIP
Joel Zumaya 6 9 1/3 1 0 0 5 1.93 0.64
F Rodney 8 8    0 0 2 7 4.50 1.38
Ryan Keith Perry 8 10    0 1 0 9 3.60 1.60
Lucas French 2 3    0 0 0 3 0.00 1.00
Juan Rincon 3 3    0 0 0 1 3.00 1.00
Zach Miner 4 7 1/3 1 0 0 8 4.91 2.05
Clay Rapada 2 2 1/3 0 0 0 2 7.71 2.57
Bobby Seay 7 5 1/3 0 1 0 4 11.81 2.06
Brandon Lyon 6 6    0 1 0 1 12.00 2.33
Nate Robertson 3 4 1/3 0 0 0 3 10.38 2.54

Offense: The offense continues to produce. 99 runs in the 2nd inning keeps the team on pace to score over 900 runs. Miguel Cabrera is still producing great numbers and Curtis Granderson continues to hit with power. Ramon Santiago and Adam Everett are helping the Tiger Shortstops lead the league in RBI (who saw that coming?). Jeff Larish was sent to Toledo for a week and has scorched the ball since his return. Clete Thomas is filling in for Carlos Guillen and is showing that he has potential to have a very good career. Brandon Inge is still getting on base and hitting with power.

One the other side of things, Magglio is continues to struggle and will be missing the beginning part of the 3rd inning for personal issues. Gerald Laird, who slumped horribly, and Dane Sardina, who is known for his glove, helped Tiger catchers combine to hit under .100 with 0 HRs. Ryan Raburn had a nice weekend series against the A’s after struggling since his recall.

 

Name G AB HR RBI SB BA OBP SLG
Miguel Cabrera 18 68 4 17 0 .368 .434 .618
C Granderson 18 71 4 12 3 .268 .381 .507
Ramon Santiago 9 22 2 8 0 .500 .522 .955
Jeff Larish 9 19 3 4 0 .368 .538 .947
Clete Thomas 11 45 0 5 1 .311 .392 .422
Adam Everett 14 49 1 11 2 .327 .320 .469
Magglio Ordonez 17 63 1 10 0 .254 .329 .381
Brandon Inge 18 60 3 10 0 .233 .343 .417
Placido Polanco 16 66 0 3 0 .273 .319 .364
Ryan Raburn 11 28 2 9 0 .179 .281 .429
Josh Anderson 13 31 0 3 0 .226 .250 .290
Gerald Laird 16 49 0 4 0 .102 .211 .143
Carlos Guillen 7 27 0 1 0 .148 .143 .185
Dane Sardinha 4 14 0 0 0 .071 .071 .143

 

I still very much like the prospects of this team. They now have the 3rd best offense (5.58 Runs per Game) and the 5th best Pitching Staff (4.38 ERA) in the American League. Their defensive efficiency Rating (.702) also ranks 3rd in the league. The black cloud looming on the horizon is the tendency under Leyland the last 3 years to collapse around the end of July. Hopefully, that will not be the case in 2009.