22 Responses to “Three Tigers at .300 BA/.500 SLG – no, FOUR Tigers!”

1. Two Observations - Page 2 - MotownSports.com Message Board Says:
   June 17th, 2011 at 2:51 pm

   [...] Slightly off topic, but a cool story from baseball reference about how the Tigers currently have 3 hitters with a 300ba/500 slugging and a 4th with a 298ba/500slg... and the significance of that. Three Tigers at .300 BA/.500 SLG Baseball-Reference Blog Blog Archive [...]

2. Jeff Says:
   June 17th, 2011 at 3:24 pm

   Another way to say how phenomenal Mike Piazza was as a hitter!

3. Chuck Says:
   June 17th, 2011 at 3:38 pm

   Joe Torre played 161 games in 1971.

   All of them at third base.

4. John Autin Says:
   June 17th, 2011 at 3:44 pm

   @4, Chuck -- You're right about Torre, of course. I might have messed up a two-layer Play Index search there. I'll retrace my steps....

5. John Autin Says:
   June 17th, 2011 at 3:56 pm

   OK, I had to delete the table of .300/.500 catchers. It turned out to be impossible to do the two-layer search and still exclude those who "qualified" by the old 100-games standard, but not the 3.1 PA standard.

6. John Autin Says:
   June 17th, 2011 at 4:13 pm

   I have restored the catchers table, using a standard of 425 PAs. "Let us never speak of it again."

   P.S. A challenge for you Play Index wizards: I wanted to get a table of the most .300/.500 seasons by a catcher, using a the modern qualifying standard of 3.1 PA per team game. This cannot be done directly, since none of the playing time options fits just so. ("Qualified for the batting title" lets in those who met the old standard of 100 games played; any specific # of PAs would either include or exclude some players incorrectly due to length of schedule.)

   I thought I could do it in two steps, by first finding all "qualified for the batting title" years, then manually deleting the ones that didn't meet 3.1 PAs, saving that report, and then doing a "most seasons" search using that saved report. But it seems that the saved report only creates a list of players, not of specific seasons.

   Can you think of a way to get the filtered report I was after?

7. Birds and Tigers and Yankees, oh my! | The Humidor Conspiracists Says:
   June 17th, 2011 at 4:22 pm

   [...] prowess.  There are 16 players in the Majors right now with at least a .300 BA and .500 SLG.  Three of them are on the Tigers and if you round up .002, there’s 4. But hey, Seth Smith and Todd Helton are both on that list too (and if Tulo’s BABIP would [...]

8. Detroit Michael Says:
   June 17th, 2011 at 4:29 pm

   Nice to see a reminder of Carlos Guillen's 2006 season. He should have been in the MVP conversation that year, playing for a surprisingly good Tigers team in a year when there was not a clear winner, but he didn't really get the necessary press attention and wasn't quite durable enough. We now can see he was tied for 4th in rWAR with the official MVP Justin Morneau not in the top 10.

   You may have seen this note, but Jim Leyland said he's thinking of playing Alex Avila at 3B during some interleague games to get both his bat and Victor Martinez' bat in the line-up at the same time.

9. Dukeofflatbush Says:
   June 17th, 2011 at 4:32 pm

   '93, year of the catcher?

10. pm Says:
    June 17th, 2011 at 4:47 pm

    Where is Michael Morse on the list? He has a .300/.500 season this year.

11. Atom Says:
    June 17th, 2011 at 4:48 pm

    The 04' Cards famously had three players who hit .300/.400/.500 (it would have been .300/.400/.600, but Rolen slugged a mere .598!) with 100 runs, 30 homers and 100 RBIs

    What never gets talked about is the Cardinals trading JD Drew that offseason (and netting Jason Marquis, Ray King, and a young pitcher named Adam Wainwright). Drew hit .305/.436/.569 in 2004.

    Can you imagine facing a team with the heart of the order, healthy, with OPS of 1.072, 1.007, 1.061 and 1.006?

12. John Autin Says:
    June 17th, 2011 at 5:09 pm

    @10, Pm -- Mike Morse is just shy of qualifying for the batting title. He has 211 PAs; since Washington has played 69 games, he needs 214 PAs to qualify.

    Morse does meet the backdoor qualifying requirement -- his BA and SLG would still be high enough if we charged him with 3 hitless ABs -- but I can't do that sort of thing through the Play Index.

13. John Autin Says:
    June 17th, 2011 at 5:16 pm

    For the record ... This year's list of qualifying .300/.500 batters should include Seth Smith of Colorado. He has 213 PAs, and needs only 211 (68 Rox games x 3.1 PAs per game).

    I'll see if I can find out why the Play Index is missing Smith.

14. Tigers repping in new B-R blog post - MotownSports.com Message Board Says:
    June 17th, 2011 at 5:28 pm

    [...] repping in new B-R blog post Three Tigers at .300 BA/.500 SLG Baseball-Reference Blog Blog Archive __________________ 2011 AAT - Matt Hoffman My Batter Strikeout [...]

15. Col Says:
    June 17th, 2011 at 6:43 pm

    @ 11, Atom:

    I can't imagine it, but perhaps pitchers who faced the 1929 Cubs can. Pretty crazy.

    http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHN/CHN192906192.shtml

    http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/CHC/1929.shtml

16. Mac Says:
    June 17th, 2011 at 7:54 pm

    Just arbitrarily picked 425 PA for the reduced PA threshold? Had nothing to do with Buster Posey accumulating 443 PA last year?

17. Fourfirends1679 Says:
    June 17th, 2011 at 9:45 pm

    It's been said that if you have to rely on your SS and C for offense, you're in trouble. Considering that of these four guys, one is their SS, one is their C and one is the DH (and backup C,) you'd think they'd have a pretty smokin' offense. Unfortunately, other than Miggy, no one else is doing $#!t for them offensively.

    So... I guess it holds true!

18. John Autin Says:
    June 17th, 2011 at 10:44 pm

    @17, Fourfirends1679 -- Detroit does have another everyday player hitting well -- Brennan Boesch has a 130 OPS+ and 46 runs scored.

    And while their offense may not be smokin', thanks to big holes at 3B, LF and 2B, they rank 3rd in the AL in OPS+ and 5th in R/G.

    I think they can win the AL Central with this offense.

19. John Autin Says:
    June 17th, 2011 at 10:59 pm

    @16, Mac -- I didn't arbitrarily pick 425 PA for the catchers list, and I have no attachment at all to Buster Posey.

    I explained the reduced threshold for catchers @6 above, but to reiterate: (a) the search tool qualifying option is either "qualified for the batting title" (which applies the too-easy pre-1950s standard of 100 games played to players of that time), or a fixed # of PAs; (b) I hate the 100-games standard, which brings in some guys with 200-300 PAs; and (c) the fixed # of PAs runs afoul of different schedule lengths, plus it's not fair to the guys who play the most physically demanding position.

    Far fewer catchers meet the 3.1 PA standard than any other position.
    Last year, only 7 catchers qualified for the batting title -- compared to 14 at 2B, 21 at SS, 21 at 3B, 24 at 1B, and 56 in the OF.

    I actually think MLB should have a lower qualifying standard for catchers.

20. Fourfriends1679 Says:
    June 18th, 2011 at 11:18 am

    @18, John Austin - Oh, don't get me wrong, they've got a good, solid chance in the ALC. I'm hoping for a Tigers - Red Sox series this September myself. (Life-long Sox fan living in Michigan.) It's just that if you told me a team had a productive Miguel Cabrera, plus a SS, C, and C-DH that were hitting all over .300/.500? I'd have thought they'd be leading the MAJORS in runs, not just the AL Central. LOL.

    And why does Ryan Rayburn even have a JOB?! A .200 hitter who can't field? WTF?!

21. John Autin Says:
    June 18th, 2011 at 12:50 pm

    @20, Fourfriends1679 -- I hear ya. It might help to get Peralta and Avila into the top half of the lineup.

    About Ryan Raburn: He did hit darn well over the last 2 seasons combined -- 125 OPS+, 31 HRs and 107 RBI in 632 AB. And that's consistent with his long minor-league career. He's never had great K/BB data, but this year they've fallen off a cliff -- 8 walks and 69 Ks in 210 PAs, both far worse than his career rates. I have to think he's either hurt or in a serious mental funk.

22. Dvd Avins Says:
    June 18th, 2011 at 5:24 pm

    @15 And that was with Hartnett missing most of the season!