Detroit Tigers Notes Featuring Adjusted Spring Training Batting Stats

Miguel Cabrera is on the Detroit Tigers. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

If I were to write some manner of daily links, news, and/or notes post, it might look something like the following.

Have you ever wondered what might happen if Phil Coke, the pitcher, met Phil Coke’s Brain, the Twitter account? Well, it happened down in Lakeland, and Chris Iott of MLive records the story for us.

"“I have people in camp asking me if it’s me. ‘How do you do it? How do you do it during the middle of the game? How do you do it when you’re in the bullpen? Where do you have your phone?’ ” Coke told The Brain during their meeting. “Really, the thing I’m most tired about is being asked if it’s really me. I’m annoyed about that. You’ve created a monster that I have to deal with every day.”"

Matt Wallace looks at the Kansas City Royals and concludes that, while they may finish as high as second in the AL Central, they probably won’t be beating the Tigers out for the division crown.

"Mix this all together and thinking of the Royals as a playoff contender requires the evaluation of a season-ticket holder on Opening Day. “Our new starters will pan out like we hope and everybody else will play as well or better than they did last year.” It sounds comically optimistic, but it really is what’s likely needed for the Royals to do more in 2013 than just “Come to Play”."

Jason Beck tracked down the likely landing spot of Miguel Cabrera’s mammoth blast. He estimates the ball traveled 450 feet and has a picture of how far away that is from home plate.

"The concourse looks to be about 50 feet wide, followed by another 50 feet to the fence. It’s 329 feet down the left-field line, but no other measurement between there and center field. Best guess is that it’s about 350 feet to the fence where he hit it. Add another 100 feet as explained above, and you have a (loosely, and perhaps conservatively) estimated 450-foot drive."

Jeff Sullivan rather enjoyed Cabrera’s home run off of Jonathan Papelbon, it seems. We actually all enjoyed it, but reading others’ enjoyment can make our personal enjoyment all that more enjoyable.

"It’s commonly said that, early on in spring training, the pitchers are ahead of the hitters, and the hitters have slow bats. That might be true, generally, but in this case, specifically, it wasn’t true. Miguel Cabrera applied a midseason swing and gave us all a glimpse of his superstardom. We needn’t wait for April to be amazed."

Adjusted Spring Batting Stats

I know that spring stats are meaningless, but I find myself looking through them all the same. With that in mind, I decided to keep track of players’ batting stats that occur only against an opposing player that has earned at least one major league appearance. That is to say,  I’m not counting at-bats versus minor league pitching. This doesn’t make the sample any more “real”, actually, and it’s not perfect — Bruce Rondon is more likely to be a major league pitcher this year than Casey Crosby, but I would only count the latter in my sample — but I find it entertaining at any rate.