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jep
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2001 Detroit Tigers
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Apr 20 18:39 UTC 2001 |
It's the middle of April, and the start of another bad early part of the
season for the Tigers. Phil Garner, in his 2nd year with the Tigers, is
a proponent of the sound principle of on-base percentage, by which he
means that a walk is just about as good as a hit, and a lot better than
a strikeout or a double play. Deivi Cruz, light-hitting shortstop, is
not listening and hasn't taken a walk yet this year. He might not take
one in April. Cruz actually has a lower on-base percentage than batting
average.
Have you been down to the ballpark yet this year? Are you going to?
Did you make it last year? What did you think? Does Tiger Stadium look
as sad and lonely to you when you drive by as it does to me? I like
Comerica Park, but I liked Tiger Stadium, too.
What will the Tigers record be this year? I say 70-92. It's hard to
get undedicated fans motivated to be interested in the Tigers when
they're bad year after year. But they were a great franchise once, and
they will be again.
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| 27 responses total. |
jep
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response 1 of 27:
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Apr 20 20:41 UTC 2001 |
If you want to access Tiger games via RealAudio, use the following link:
http://play.rbn.com/?url=mlb/mlb/tigers2001/live/detlive.rm&proto=rtsp
This will connect you directly to the Tigers broadcast of their game
(with Ernie Harwell and company) if the game is in progress. If no game
is in progress, RealAudio returns an error message.
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albaugh
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response 2 of 27:
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Apr 21 05:53 UTC 2001 |
It's not right to characterize Deivi Cruz as "light hitting", not any more.
Not taking walks is a different matter. I challenge you to demonstrate how
it is mathematically possible to have a lower on-base percentage than batting
average.
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jep
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response 3 of 27:
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Apr 21 15:36 UTC 2001 |
Heh. I can do that.
Batting average is hits divided by at-bats.
OBA = (Times On Base)/(Plate Apps.) = (H+BB+HBP)/(AB+BB+HBP+SF)
So if you have more sac flies than HBP+walks (HBP is hit by pitch) then
you have a lower OBA than batting average.
(I thought it was impossible, too, when I saw Cruz's stats, so I found
out how it could happen.)
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albaugh
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response 4 of 27:
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Apr 21 23:52 UTC 2001 |
And you have proof that sac flies and sac bunts count as plate appearances?
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jep
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response 5 of 27:
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Apr 22 03:04 UTC 2001 |
Umm. Have you seen Deivi's stats listed anywhere at all? They list his
OBA as being lower than his batting average. On every single site I've
seen.
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jep
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response 6 of 27:
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Apr 23 02:09 UTC 2001 |
The Tigers got swept by Cleveland. Today they lost 11-3; the other two
games they got beat at the end of the game, in the last at-bat. I can't
bear to look up their season record yet. I have to sleep tonight.
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jep
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response 7 of 27:
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Apr 25 13:02 UTC 2001 |
The Tigers lost once again, their 6th in a row, this time to Baltimore.
They now have the worst record in baseball, 5-13, and they cannot have a
.500 record in April. It's been since 1993 that the Tigers had a
winning April.
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jep
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response 8 of 27:
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Apr 25 13:07 UTC 2001 |
Tonight, the Tigers will celebrate the 100th anniversary of their first
American League game. That game was on April 25, 1901, against the team
from Milwaukee who since moved and became the Baltimore Orioles. The
Tigers won 14-13, scoring 10 runs in the 9th inning.
Tonight the Tigers will commemorate that game with a pre-game parade
starting at about 6:30.
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jep
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response 9 of 27:
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Apr 25 13:26 UTC 2001 |
All right, so why do the Tigers lose so much in April?
I don't know. I don't know the cure for this perennial problem. I have
some opinions, of course.
I think the manager, Phil Garner, is good. I think the Tigers should
stick with him. He's a knowledgeable man about baseball.
I think Randy Smith, the general manager, has not made any improvement
in the Tigers in his several years with the organization. The minor
league system is bad. The Tigers have very rarely gotten any
substantial help from anyone Smith has traded for, though they've made
lots of trades every year. You have to have talent to play at the
higher levels of the game. Randy Smith doesn't seem to have a good idea
of how to put talent together into a baseball team. I'm very much
surprised he's still with the team.
I think the Tigers have a few good players -- Tony Clark, Bobby
Higginson, maybe Damion Easley. They have a few players who contribute
in one area, but are not all-around good players. Deivi Cruz is the
prime example; he's very good defensively, but can't hit; his
replacements, Shane Halter and Jose Macias, are both bad hitters. Dean
Palmer is a terrible 3B defensively but a decent power hitter. Catcher
Brandon Inge is good defensively but an offensive liability; his
counterpart on the DL, Meluskey, is the opposite. (The pitchers are
glad to have him on the DL because he's not a good defensive catcher.)
In baseball, in order to score, you have to have a few guys in a row who
are likely to get hits, or else you need guys who can score all by
themselves with homers. Comerica Park is unsuited for homers; it's a
very large park. You can have one Deivi Cruz on such a team, but you
can't have 3 or 4 guys who cannot get on base.
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albaugh
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response 10 of 27:
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Apr 25 21:32 UTC 2001 |
> Deivi Cruz is the prime example; he's very good defensively, but can't
hit <
He may be in a slump this year, at this moment, but weren't you paying
attention to his offensive numbers last year?! As for Brandon Inge,
last I saw, he was hitting .289; he's young, needs a chance to develop.
Plus it's not his job right now to carry the offensive load: He needs
to concentrate on managing the pitching staff, which right now needs all
the help it can get.
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jep
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response 11 of 27:
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Apr 26 01:44 UTC 2001 |
Deivi Cruz hit .302 last year and got on base about .303. He hit a lot
of doubles and hit into a lot of double plays. He has a long way to go
before he'll be an average major league hitter; he's not there yet and
he wasn't there last year. Cruz is the problem, not the solution.
Do you really think he's a good hitter? *Why*? He took 14 walks all
year! He didn't get that many hits; certainly not enough to make up for
his lack of walks.
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jep
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response 12 of 27:
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Apr 26 01:46 UTC 2001 |
So as I write that, he gets a bounce to go over Cal Ripken and brings in
a run. Believe me, I'll take it. But it's a rarity that Cruz swinging
the bat doesn't cost the Tigers. Usually when Cruz comes to the plate,
if I could elect to just take an out and let the next guy bat, I'd take
the out and count it as being ahead.
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jep
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response 13 of 27:
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Apr 26 01:58 UTC 2001 |
I turned on the game on FSD just as the Tigers were giving up 5 runs in
the (4th?) inning. At first I had the sound off because my wife was
listening to the stereo, but she was in the next room, and so I turned
it on to listen for a little bit.
And there it was... George Kell... the voice of summer for my entire
childhood. He was in Detroit to help celebrate the 100th anniversary of
the Tigers in the American League, and they brought him onto Fox to let
him call a couple of innings.
He sounded about the same... butchered all of the Latin American names,
but had that slow, easy George Kell southern drawl. I caught him in his
2nd inning of doing the play by play; he only did two. But while he was
on, you can bet I sat in rapt attention. I never thought I'd hear that
beautiful sound again. Boy, that really made my day.
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albaugh
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response 14 of 27:
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Apr 29 15:39 UTC 2001 |
Before Al Kaline retired and joined the broadcast booth, it was Larry Osterman
beside George Kell.
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jep
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response 15 of 27:
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Apr 29 16:14 UTC 2001 |
I don't remember that. I do remember when Al Kaline went into the
broadcast booth.
Al Kaline, for me growing up, was very much the hero of the ball club.
Now, looking back at his stats and his career, you can kind of see why.
He didn't just have a great career; his accomplishments put him among
the very elite even amongst outfielders in the Hall of Fame. He was as
good as Mickey Mantle, and better than Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams.
Anyway, when he retired, the sun turned dark. Then when he turned up in
the broadcast booth, at least we got a big electric light in the sky as
a replacement.
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jep
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response 16 of 27:
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Apr 29 16:18 UTC 2001 |
I was at the ball game yesterday, along with my two boys.
I saw a pretty terrible game, featuring 16 walks between the two teams
(9 from the Tigers), 4 errors (only one from the Tigers), a 6 run 4th
inning against the Tigers, Bobby Higginson jumping in front of Juan
Encarcion to take any balls he could get to (a clear statement from
Higgy that he doesn't think Encarcion is trying very hard, and a very
poor example of how to play the game from Higginson).
I also saw the ferris wheel and carousel (the younger boy is going to be
5 in June). I saw those amusement park refugees entirely too much.
Whoever had that idea should have kept it to himself; it was not a
service to baeball-watching humanity.
Tigers lost 7-2.
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jep
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response 17 of 27:
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Apr 30 14:05 UTC 2001 |
The Tigers won yesterday, 6-1, behind a good pitching performance by
Jeff Weaver. Weaver is 2-4 for the season, with an ERA of 4.36.
But that wasn't the story of the game. Deivi Cruz took a walk! He's
taken two in a week! Our OBP (on base percentage) man! Cruz also went
3-3 with a double yesterday, raising his batting average to .215. His
on base percentage is .232. (That's 89th best in the AL. And some say
Deivi Cruz isn't contributing...)
The Tigers finished April with an 8-15 record, less losses than they'd
had in any April but one since the strike-shortened 1995 season. Tampa
Bay and Oakland had worse records (both were 8-17), and the Chicago
White Sox had the same record as the Tigers. All of these teams are
American League teams; no NL team had a record as bad as the Tigers.
The Tigers are 9 back of the division leading Minnesota Twins.
They're off today; they visit Irvine to play the Texas Rangers
Tuesday-Thursday.
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jep
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response 18 of 27:
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Apr 30 14:09 UTC 2001 |
Wow -- what about Seattle? Four years ago, they lost Randy Johnson.
Two years ago, they couldn't sign Ken Griffey Jr., and after last year
they lost Alex Rodriguez. Naturally they're in a commanding lead in the
AL West, 9 games ahead of the competition, the Texas Rangers. They're
20-5!
Too bad the Tigers don't have two of the very best players in baseball
to give up; I'm sure Randy Smith would love to duplicate the success of
the Mariners.
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albaugh
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response 19 of 27:
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May 1 17:38 UTC 2001 |
Another thought on Deivi Cruz and his 2000 season: He hit .302 with career
highs in homers and RBI. From your shortstop position, I found that
production a fair tradeoff against lower on-base percentage. I certainly
would not trade 34 hits for 34 walks!
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jep
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response 20 of 27:
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May 2 14:41 UTC 2001 |
Yeah, but would you trade 34 at bats ending with hit balls (including
ground outs, pop-ups, homers, double plays, *all* of the balls that get
hit) for 34 walks? I would. Every time you take a walk, you get on
base, advance any runners on 1st base and possibly other bases, and let
the next guy have a turn at the plate. It's a team game. Deivi Cruz
tries to do it all himself. So do a lot of other players, but Cruz is
not as successful as most of them
Every time you *take a pitch*, even if it's a strike, the pitcher uses a
little of his energy. On the other hand, every time a Deivi Cruz swings
at a ball over his head, in the dirt, a foot outside, etc., the pitcher
gets a free strike. And if the batter hits into a double play, it's two
free outs.
Every time you hit the ball, you have a chance for something good or
something bad. Deivi Cruz does not get a hit every time he doesn't take
a walk.
If his on-base percentage is .350, that's pretty good, regardless of
how he gets it. I'm not arguing a .350 batting average is *bad*.
If his batting average is .320 and his on-base percentage is .320,
that's not good at all. In that situation -- which would be a big
career year for Deivi, a big improvement over last year -- he'd be a
near or below average contributing offensive ball player.
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jep
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response 21 of 27:
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May 3 15:27 UTC 2001 |
The Tigers won their 5th game in 6 tries last night, beating the Rangers
8-4. The Tigers got out to a 7 run lead, then Matt Anderson held on,
pitching 3 innings for the save. The Tigers are now 10-15 and in
3rd place in the AL Central. They play today at 3:00.
Go Tigers!
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albaugh
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response 22 of 27:
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May 4 05:37 UTC 2001 |
Tigers won 5th in a row today (Thurs May 3), sweeping at Texas.
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jep
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response 23 of 27:
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May 10 02:24 UTC 2001 |
In the last week, the Tigers won 4 of 6 on the road, and have won
2 in a row at home. They're now 14-17, still in 3rd. Cleveland
has won 10 in a row, and tied Minnesota for 1st place tonight.
The Tigers are 8 games behind those two teams.
That doesn't matter much. They're playing good ball.
1) If they keep it up, they'll catch up in time.
2) Enjoy it while it lasts; it's better than anyone could have
expected.
3) Go Tigers!
The score tonight was 3-2.
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albaugh
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response 24 of 27:
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May 16 05:36 UTC 2001 |
Tigers reached .500 mark during last home stand. Last time that happened to
Los Tigres in May was 1995, I believe. But as long as Minnesota doesn't
collapse, Detroit has no chance at the wild card. Looks like Frank Thomas
is gone for the season, so the White Sox season might be in the tank.
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