Anatomy of a Player: Placido Polanco

Given the slow amount of news that trickles out at this time of the baseball season for non-playoff teams, I figured that it'd be the best time to take a break from toying around in Excel and posting about the Tigers. But, I'm back now and here to continue my Anatomy of a Player series (which can be found in the right side bar).

Below the jump, you'll find graphs on the value that Placido Polanco has brought to the table since his first full season in Detroit, 2006. . .

Anatomy of a Player: Miguel Cabrera

Update: I had to change some of the graphs as I had the data in the wrong chronological order. It should be fixed now.

I had stared a series I was going to call Graphic Value but I've decided to change the way I'm going to attack breaking down the Tigers. I'm going to start on an individual basis in something I'm tentatively calling Anatomy of a Player and you will be able to find the series in the sidebar to the right.

My first player will be Miguel Cabrera. I was going to start with catchers, but I don't have multiple-year catcher defensive data at the ready, so I can't go with Gerald Laird.

Below the jump you'll find graphs galore. I'm trying to make the value each player has more visual. However, I'm stuck with Excel 2003 (yeah, I know.) and until I upgrade and check out different graphing features, the only way that seemed right to me was a lot of stacked bar graphs. You'll see what I mean as I show where Miguel Cabrera's value comes from and how much value he has over the average (and replacement-level) player at his positions over the last four seasons after the jump. . .

Scouting Andrew Oliver with PITCHf/x

The Arizona Fall League started up and there will be PITCHf/x cameras turned on in Surprise and Peoria, ARI. Tigers 2009 draft pick, and one part of the Big Four they signed to over-slot deals, Andrew Oliver has made his debut under the bright, uh, lens of the cameras. Before that though...

Andrew Oliver is probably best known for his battle with the NCAA over representation and the MLB draft. On the diamond, he's a lefty with a good breaking ball and low-to-mid 90's fastball. From the left side, what more can you want, really?

PITCHf/x data and graphs abound, after the jump.

Graphic Value: Offense

This off season, one of the things I've got planned is a break down of the components of each aspect of the game as they relate to the Tigers players. My plan is separate as many components apart and graph them to make them easier to understand. I've never had a problem looking at a set of numbers and picking out what part of that player's game drives most of their value. This will be a series I'll be calling Graphic Value because, well, I'm not that creative when it comes to names.

First up, we've got offense. My offensive statistic of choice is Weighted On Base Average (wOBA), as created by Tom Tango in The Book. You can find the formula here. What's great about this, is that it's based in Linear Weights which has proven to be the most accurate way to measure offense. It is scaled to mirror On Base Percentage (OBP), so .335 is right around average, .360 is good, .380 is great and .400+ is elite level offensive ability. wOBA properly weights the ability to get on base with the ability to hit for power.

After some help from Steve over at STL Sports Scene, where I first saw these graphs and got the idea from, I've got a stacked bar graph displaying the value of each component as they relate to each player. Click the graph to enlarge.

Here we see all of the components that go into the wOBA formula and how much each player gets out of their skill set. These are only players with 100+ plate appearances with the Tigers, except for Alex Avila who had just 72 PA's. I knew someone would probably inquire about him so I've included him despite the incredibly small sample, of which, you can't fully conclude anything.

wOBA rewards the home run as the best hit (and event) that a hitter can have. Therefore, they're mostly the biggest component of a players offensive value.

Some quick hits about the graph:

-Look how big the 1B (singles) bar is in Magglio Ordonez's graph is. He was a singles machine. Unfortunately, his HR section is just about as big as Placido Polanco's.

-Alex Avila's bar is just 72 PA's, but his incredibly limited sampling showed a well-rounded offensive game. However, I don't expect that to be his true talent level at all.

-In case you didn't notice, these are all summed and the top of each bar is the total wOBA of each player. Aubrey Huff is in last, and that is only his wOBA from his time in Detroit. To be positive about a trade I did not like, Huff walked at a decent clip. So, there's that.

-There are some players that provided negative value with the stolen base, however these were very, very small. They were Raburn, Thames, Guillen, Inge and Santiago. The most negative value from the stolen base of the players I've looked at was Guillen at -0.004. To say it's a tiny impact is an understatement. The best, by the way, was Josh Anderson at 0.012.

Exploring Milton Bradley's Potential

Over at MLive, Patrick Hayes has his thoughts on how the Tigers should be fixed. It's a lot of stuff that I plan to be covering in the future (tentative plans, I should say) but here's his Right Field solution:

Right Field: The outfield needs a makeover, and it's going to start here. Trade Jeremy Bonderman to the Cubs for Milton Bradley. Both make roughly $10 million per year. Bradley is signed for one more year than Bonderman, but the Cubs are desperate to get rid of him, so it's conceivable they'd pay that final year if the Tigers take him.

Jim Leyland is known for working well with head cases. Gary Sheffield didn't produce in Detroit, but he didn't make waves either. So what you say? Well, in NY he was calling Derek Jeter "not all the way black" and Joe Torre a slave master. He's had nothing negative to say about his Detroit tenure. Bradley is not as crazy as Sheff, this can work.

Before signing with the Cubs, Bradley had a career-year in Texas, with a .999 OPS. Once he escapes the racism in Wrigleyville and comes to the more laid back environment in Detroit, he'll be just fine.

And for those who think Bonderman's still young and can bounce back? You might be right. But it's time to get some of the Seay/Lyon/Bonderman radio-controlled car driving crowd out of here, you know? The Starter: Milton Bradley

It's interesting and outside the box, for sure. I know the Cubs are anxious to get rid of the PR Nightmare that has been the I-won't-bite-my-tongue and contract that comes with Bradley, but I'm not sure they'll deal for another terrible contract of a guy who can't stay healthy and is making minor improvements.

Quick thought without doing any math on it: I like the deal and if it's on the table, Detroit should take it and run.

Now, let's do some back-of-the-envelope math after the jump . . .

Andy Van Slyke's Impact on the Tigers

So, Andy Van Slyke has been asked not to return or is going to explore other opportunities. Who knows what the real reasoning is and who initiated the parting of ways, but the only coach leaving the coaching staff is Van Slyke.

As the Tigers 1st base coach, he handled the base running and the outfield positioning and defense. So, what has Detroit done under Van Slyke in those two categories? Let's find out, after the jump. . .

Miguel Cabrera's Interesting Weekend

Ian, Kurt, J. Ellet have all discussed the Miguel Cabrera incident(s) over the weekend. I think there are some key things to keep in mind when discussing this:

1) The incident with his wife is of no business to us, the fans/public. The only information on it that we are "entitled" to (for the lack of a better term) is the public information that is known through the police. It's his home, his marriage, his problems that we shouldn't be privy to really knowing. I'm not even comfortable reading things like his gold chain was broken and both him and his wife were roughed up.

(more after the jump...)

Joe Mauer: Cheater

And I love it. I have zero problems about this and wish it was always this obvious. It's these cat-and-mouse games that make baseball so fascinating.