Brandon Inge Back Down to Earth: Detroit Tigers' Sad Stats

Just for kicks, I spent some time messing around on Baseball Reference to see if anything interesting popped up about the Tigers. Here are some sorry stats. Don’t kill the messenger.

• This is only mildly disappointing. Since his hot start, Brandon Inge has come back down to earth. From the start of the season through May 3, Inge hit .316 with eight HR in 24 games and struck out once every 5.7 plate appearances. Since then he’s hitting .254 with four HR in 33 games and has struck out once every 3.4 plate appearances. Inge is still having a very nice season, but he’s certainly come back down to earth a bit.
• Placido Polanco’s current OPS+ is 67 (100 is average). This is his lowest total since his rookie season with the Cardinals way back in 1998. His batting average is a career low, and almost all of his numbers have not been this low since that rookie season when he played in only 45 games. Not good. He’s hitting only .213 against right-handed pitching, and has a .205 average away from Comerica Park.
• Backup catcher Dane Sardinha is hitting .107 and has an OPS+ of -37. That’s right, NEGATIVE 37. Only one player in all of baseball has as many plate appearances as Sardinha AND has a lower OPS+. That one player is Randy Wolf, a pitcher for the Dodgers.
• Armando Galarraga has lost six straight decisions over a span of eight starts. During that period his ERA is 7.06 and opposing batters are hitting .310 off of him. In those eight starts he has given up at least one run in the first two innings of every single game, meaning that the Tigers often find themselves behind early in his starts.
• Pace Stats: Curtis Granderson is on pace for only six triples after hitting 36 of them the past two seasons. Magglio Ordonez is on pace for only six home runs and 64 RBI. Not bad for your No. 8 hitter, but hardly what you’d expect from a guy like Magglio.