2008 MLB Season

[mrpologuy]

I now thin you have to consider the Tigers to be the AL and MLB favorites to win it all next year. Here is their starting lineup in the field


C-Pudge Rodriguez-Hall of Famer and one of the best of all time.
1B-Carlos Guillen-2006 All Star and lifetime 300 hitter. He can hit fromb oth sides of the plate.
2B-Placido Polanco-2006 All Star who hasn't made an error in over a year. He bats over 300 and has 200 hits a year.
SS-Edgar Renteria-A former All Star who has decent range and hit over 300 last year.
3B-Miguel Cabrera-A flat out baseball stud who can do it all. He is a future Hall of Famer if he keeps it up.
Rf-Magglio Ordonez-2006 AL batting champ. He is an All Star and lifetime 300 hitter.
CF-Curtis Granderson-He is young and talented and shoul dhave been an All Star last year. He has speed and power. He hit over 300, had over 20s teals, over 40 doubles, over 20 triples an dover 20 home runs. He has great range in centerfield in a huge ball park.
LF-Jacque Jones-A decent player with a lifetime 280 average.

We would have Justin Verlander, Kenny Rogers, Dontrelle Willis, Jeremy Bonderman and Nate Robertson as starters. I am a little worried about our bullpen but maybe we can make a trade during the season.

What do yo guys think? Who are your favs to win it all?

 

[Hawkeye]

Congratulations, that was an awesome trade. I like the Tigers a lot, probably my 2nd favorite team. The only questions I'd have would be Willis/Cabrera's transition to the AL and Sheff's decline, other than that, cant wait to go to some Yankee/Tigers games.

My fav to win it are the Red Sox, with or without Santana the starting rotation looks pretty damn good, if the deal dosent get done, Coco can go for a bullpen guy. Matsuzaka, Manny, Lester, Lugo and Drew should all have better seasons than 07, Ortiz also had successful surgery on his bad knee and if he is back in form... Tito learned how to manage Pap's workload this season and he will know how to manage Okajima's so he will be good down the stretch. I like our chances, can't wait for Feb. 14th!!!

 

[bcate3]

I love the hot stove league. my team just signed andruw jones, a good solid, albeit, high-priced move but it doesn't have the same impact as the detroit trade. I thought the tigers were going to be players for A-rod but this trade makes them & the red sox the two leading teams to win the AL, if not the WS. I would place the angels, Yankees & Indians a notch below. All 5 AL teams are superior to the best of the NL which is wide open. A colleague told me that detroit may flip dontrelle.

 

[Brian278]

The Tigers lineup is downright scary. Getting Miguel Cabrera was a serious move, especially for the fact that if they keep if for the next ten years they're likely to have one of the top 3 hitters in the game and will have kept him from their chief competitors (Yankees, Red Sox, and Angels) who had a decent shot at ending up with him now or down the road. Cabrera is 100% the next Manny Ramirez, down to his hitting stats and spotty defense. And assuming Willis (who was basically icing on the cake in this deal) becomes the old D-Train and Zumaya becomes the shutdown closer everyone hopes he'll be, they are the favorites.

But if the Sox or Yankees get Santana, I think they definitely pull even or pass them. Santana with the run support from either of those teams has got to win 20 every year. If the Sox though Beckett was an ace, they haven't seen anything yet.

 

[REKER]

When I got word of the highly possible Cabrera/Willis trade, it felt like I was given an early Christmas present.

The trade made out All-star batting line-up legendary and it is also good that we got another hard throwing lefty starter in the pitching line-up; However, our bullpen is still pretty weak. Zumaya is out until at least the middle of the season (at best). With Brandon Inge losing his spot to Cabrera, his VERY strong defense should be able to draw some type of decent trade for another arm in the bullpen.

And as for Granderson, Id hate to jinx him, but im confident he will have a more stellar year. I just hope he gets the recognition he has earned! He is compared to Sizemore, yet not given the same kudo's as Sizemore. He had a MUCH better season offensively compared to Sizemore, and an equally amazing season defensively.

 

[brimley]

Originally Posted by mrpologuy

I now thin you have to consider the Tigers to be the AL and MLB favorites to win it all next year. Here is their starting lineup in the field


C-Pudge Rodriguez-Hall of Famer and one of the best of all time.
1B-Carlos Guillen-2006 All Star and lifetime 300 hitter. He can hit fromb oth sides of the plate.
2B-Placido Polanco-2006 All Star who hasn't made an error in over a year. He bats over 300 and has 200 hits a year.
SS-Edgar Renteria-A former All Star who has decent range and hit over 300 last year.
3B-Miguel Cabrera-A flat out baseball stud who can do it all. He is a future Hall of Famer if he keeps it up.
Rf-Magglio Ordonez-2006 AL batting champ. He is an All Star and lifetime 300 hitter.
CF-Curtis Granderson-He is young and talented and shoul dhave been an All Star last year. He has speed and power. He hit over 300, had over 20s teals, over 40 doubles, over 20 triples an dover 20 home runs. He has great range in centerfield in a huge ball park.
LF-Jacque Jones-A decent player with a lifetime 280 average.

warning: long post

You have every right to be excited about the Tigers lineup next year, but come on, let's elevate your evaluations (may want to update your calendar too

). Batting average is a lousy way to evaluate a player. A banjo-hitting SS who hits .300 with one extra base hit is not as valuable as a SS who hits .270 but slugs over .500. Likewise, a SS who slugs .500 is far more valuable than a 1B who slugs .550.

OPS has become fairly well known as a statistic in the last few years--you just add up OBP and SLG. The advantage is that OPS correlates more highly to actual offensive value and run production than AVG. If you take an average of OPS by position for the entire league, you come up with a profile of league-average offensive production. If you scale OPS values by the league-average values (and also ballpark factors) you obtain OPS+.

OPS+ is an easy stat to read - 100 is league average and higher numbers are better. So let's look at the 2008 Tigers lineup by their 07 OPS+:

OF Magglio Ordonez 167
3B Miguel Cabrera 150
OF Curtis Granderson 136
SS Edgar Renteria 125
SS Carlos Guillen 123
2B Placido Polanco 122
DH Gary Sheffield 120
----league average----
1B Sean Casey 96
OF Jacque Jones 87
C Pudge Rodriguez 85
3B Brandon Inge 80
OF Craig Monroe 65

Thoughts:
-Cabrera CRUSHED Inge
-Renteria and Guillen were a wash last year.
-Ordonez was ridiculous but probably won't be that good next year (112,113,114 the years before)
-Jones was a little better than Monroe.
-Guillen looks at first glance to be much more valuable offensively than Casey, but takes a huge hit when you consider he's moving from SS to 1B (over their careers, Casey has a .816 OPS to an .808 OPS for Guillen)

In my opinion--the offense won't be drastically better. I expect decreased production from Ordonez (regression to the mean) and Guillen (age and position shift). Rodriguez and Sheffield are ancient. The Renteria pickup was good, but he won't be any better than Guillen was last year. Granderson will be a stud and Cabrera too.

That said, the Tigers were second in the AL in runs scored last year, so they should be all right.