30th
May
2007
Bunt Singles: May 30
posted in 2007 season, bunt singles |Tigers news, views and stats
- Marcus Thames seems to be growing some sort of facial hair.
- The second coming of Jim Leyland? Maybe. Former Tiger/current Oriole Jamie Walker named his son Jim Leyland Walker. He claims this is not in honor of his former manager. Seeing as he’s from Tennessee, I guess that beats Jim Beam Walker.
- The Tigers offense in May? Muy Caliente. The month was so impressive, it helped Detroit become the top scoring offense in the big leagues by 13 runs with 289 to Boston’s 276. Hard to believe there was a time we were all sighing about all the two or three run games.
- The FSN Detroit broadcast touched on how productive the month was. Most offensive stats you can think of, the Tigers lead in May. Runs? 162. Just ahead of Cleveland. On base percentage? .367, statistically even with Boston. Slugging? .539. No other team in the majors is even in the .500s.
- They’re led by a fantastic top of the order. Curtis Granderson tripled in tonight’s game, moving him ahead of Jose Reyes of the Mets for the most in baseball. Polanco slowed down a bit, but does a terrific job getting on base and being productive with his at-bat when he doesn’t. As I touched on yesterday, Magglio Ordonez is on a record-pace for doubles. He leads the AL in RBIs and is .002 away from New York’s Jorge Posada for best AL average. Sheffield is nearly at the top of the league in May home runs. No. 5 in the batting order Carlos Guillen and his May OPS of .966 is only fourth best on this Detroit team. It’s a tremendous top of the order, and not a fluke among them.
- It’s a pleasure to watch.
- So maybe we’re all a bit spoiled and that’s why we’re able to bellyache about the bullpen. Which still isn’t very good, thank you.
- Tim Cowlishaw of ESPN fame apparently really does write for a newspaper. But laughably, he suggested Detroit so needed Rangers first baseman Mark Teixeira that they could give up Andrew Miller and/or Cameron Maybin. I laughed heartily.
- Yes, we could use an upgrade over Sean Casey. Marcus Thames can swing the bat for power and does OK. But he still hasn’t learned the position well enough to give you confidence in him every day. Guillen to first is not even an option.
- So I suggest if a move was to be made, check out Chris Shelton and his .422 on base percentage in Toledo. He stopped hitting those homers that made him so famous, but he keeps finding ways to get on base. Plus his glove was pretty good.
- Any of the above would be a better idea than a very strong batting team giving up prospect for more batting, when what they need is some help in the bullpen to get them through June and July.
- Speaking of all the stars, the first All-Star voting numbers are out. The Tigers are doing pretty well for themselves, though only Pudge Rodriguez is on deck for a spot from the voters. Maggs is getting quite overlooked, while Guillen is, too. Polanco is in second, near the mundane Yankee Robinson Cano.
- Brandon Inge broke his toe. Omar Infante looks like he’ll get a chance to prove his worth by playing daily through the Indians series. Good luck, Omar! If you can’t do it… Neifi might have to.
Around the Tigers blogosphere
- Samara, aka, the blogger with the funny illustrations, used her senior art thesis to promote the game of baseball among beetles. She wrote a pretty entertaining essay and included quite a few pretty cool illustrations. Definitely go check it out. However, she failed to include whether the lady bugs liked to
stare longingly atwatch Inge as much as she does. - Eric at DTown looks at offensive production by position. Sorry Eric! Suddenly that sounds so dry after beetles battling for crumbs.
- Lee at Tiger Tales looks at RBIs and RBI%, a stat I do like to look at, you may have noticed.
- Nothing in particular at The Daily Fungo, but they’ve been posting a whole lot recently, so stop by if you haven’t lately.
- Big Al thinks we’re all worry mongers. As the protector of The Panic Button, I would expect nothing less.