No Really, Brandon Inge Should Be Your Tiger
Miguel Cabrera and Curtis Granderson are probably both shoe-ins to be representing Detroit in the All Star Game, but believe it or not, Brandon Inge is the guy who deserves to be in St. Louis the most. Inge is having the season of his life, with a .382 wOBA to go along with some very good defense. Pretty impressive for someone who struggled to find regular work the season prior.
A former catcher turned third baseman, Inge evidently has worked his behind off to make himself an effective defender at the hot corner. When Ivan Rodriguez came to Detroit, Inge was asked to move to third base. He scuffled in his first season to the tune of a -18 UZR per 150 games in his first season at the position, but the following seasons Inge improved to +6, +13, +9 and +8. This season he’s been a +13 per 150 games.
Being the lesser bat than Miguel Cabrera and Carlos Guillen, Inge was tagged with the super-utility role last season, but was less than super. Spending most of his playing time as Ivan Rodriguez’s backup, he also played third on occasion and even…wait for it…center field. Yep, Inge was the Tigers 2008 Opening Day center fielder while Granderson was on the shelf. When Pudge was traded to the Yankees, Inge took over as the Tigers’ everyday catching job once again, but for the season he posted a .297 wOBA, his worst season since 2003, that fateful year the Tigers lost 119 games.
After watching a $135 million + payroll tank it last year, Dave Dombrowski remembered that defense is important, went out and got Adam Everett and Gerald Laird this past winter, and reinstalled Inge at the hot corner. Now thanks to defense and good starting pitching, the Tigers find themselves in 1st place, and Inge is having his finest season to date.
Inge has been improving upon his patience at the plate, walking now in 11% of his plate appearances two seasons running. What’s really boosted his value is his career-high .249 isolated power. Inge has always had average power, but this is quite out of line with what he’s done, and it’s not likely that one of every five of his fly balls he hits will continue to clear the fence.
Inge is projected to hit for a .338 wOBA the rest of the season, which is respectable when you can pick it like he can. Because of that skill, Inge was a over a 3 win player two years in a row in 2005-2006, and thanks to a hot start is well on his way to being the quietest 5 win player of the season.
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“Miguel Cabrera and Curtis Granderson are probably both shoe-ins to be representing Detroit in the All Star Game, but believe it or not, Brandon Inge is the guy who deserves to be in St. Louis the most.”
That depends entirely on how you pick your all-stars. If you go by one half of the season then yes, but if you go on total body of work, which to me at least makes a heck of a lot more sense, then no way. I’m voting for the best players, not the players who happened to string together a good 2.5 months at the right time.
So Jimmy Rollins is your starting NL shortstop in the 2009 All Star Game since he won the 2007 NL MVP?
And that’s how millions of casual fans across the nation vote, you’ll fit right in.
Hello Ken Griffey Jr., your starting left fielder.
There are plenty of non-casual fans who are unwilling to anoint someone an All-Star based on less than half a season. Some people are, and that’s fine. It’s up to the fans. Personally, I vote for the guys I think are the best baseball players. So I won’t be voting for Griffey, but I also won’t be voting for Marco Scutaro. Neither of them is truly among the best at his position.
Thanks, twinsfan. That’s exactly what I was talking about. I’m not voting for Babe Ruth, but picking a player on the basis of a two month hot streak is straight dumb if you ask me. Just my opinion.
I agree. I pick them as if I was managing and wanted the best players. So, someone enjoying a flukish start (Scutaro or maybe Inge) is out, but so is a player mired in an awful slump (Rollins). There’s a balance between submitting a lifetime achievement ballot and paying attention to the recent couple of months of play, a subtlety lost on a couple of posters here.
Curtis Granderson is a shoe-in? Really?
AL outfielders having better years:
Jason Bay
Torii Hunter
Ichiro Suzuki
Carl Crawford
T-Nelson Cruz
Josh Hamilton is set to return from abdominal surgery soon, but let’s say he sits out the ASG. The starting 3 will be Bay, Ichiro, and (presumably) Hunter.
As far as reserves go, Carl Crawford is pretty much a lock since Maddon is the manager. Baltimore needs a rep, so Maddon will probably pick Adam Jones.
Considering there are only 4-5 outfielders each year, and I’d say Adam Jones and Carl Crawford are pretty locked in, I wouldn’t bet on Granderson, especially since the Tigers will already be represented (most likely) by Miguel Cabrera and Justin Verlander, and possibly Brandon Inge.
Aside from Evan Longoria, what AL 3B is having a better season than Inge? No one.
Among AL 3B, he’s…
3rd in runs scored (46)
1st in home runs (18)
2nd in RBIs (51)
2nd in slugging % (.525)
2nd in OPS (.894)
1st in WPA (2.19)
4th in UZR (6.8)
Listen, I’m a Detroit Tigers fan (and admittedly biased towards them). But before this season I HATED Brandon Inge. He drove me nuts. He was an automatic out at the bottom of the lineup. But I’ve watched almost every game this season, and I’m telling you there is NO WAY the Tigers are in first place without him.
What other AL 3B should make the team ahead of him besides Evan Almighty? Rolen? A Rod? Figgins? Lowell? Young? I don’t think you could make a compelling argument for any of them.
Maximus,
“But before this season I HATED Brandon Inge. He drove me nuts. He was an automatic out at the bottom of the lineup.”
He had a pretty good decent walk rate last year too, but the bigger picture is that in his time with Detroit he’s almost always been a net win when you factor in his defense. I find that people who say they’ve hated Inge up until this season tend to forget there’s two sides (off/def) to being an infielder. Don’t get me wrong, it’s very nice to see him contributing at the plate in addition to the field, but he was making up for his awful bat with his glove all those years you hated him.
Enjoy Inge ‘09 vintage.
Granderson will most likely be in.
the al has taken atleast 6 outfielders in the last 5 years including 8 in 2007.
Inge was a shortstop at Virginia Commonwealth, so more remarkable than his return to the left side infield was his switch to catcher.
By the way, the term is “shoo-in”, not “shoe-in”. And Inge shouldn’t be a shoo-in for an all-star game until he has a full all-star season, not an all-star 3 months. Current year’s performance should count to some extent, in the tiebreaker sense, but someone who has no track record of all-star caliber play except for the last 3 months has no business playing in an all-star game.
If Inge keeps it up for the rest of the season, and then is among the best 3B in the first half of next season, by all means put him on the 2010 AL all-star team.
Wouldn’t your logic exclude players like Justin Upton and Adam Jones, though?
And Carlos Quentin last year?
Inge (among third basemen):
1st in HR, 7th in AVG, 2nd in SLG, 5th in OBP, 4th in Range Factor in the field, and 2nd in ErrR.
I’ll concede he shouldn’t start, but there’s no WAY that doesn’t qualify him as a reserve.
Yes it would. If J.Upton and A.Jones are truly all-stars, then we’ll be seeing them next year and for years to come in the ASG. I still don’t see how three months with no previous track record of all-star play makes one an all-star.
I always thought not reading too much into a small sample size was Baseball Analysis 101. I’m not sure why we throw that out the window when it comes to the all-star game.