At the Quarter Pole: Tigers Outfielders Mediocre at Best

Hey….it’s report card time or um progress report time! Either way, I’ve been assigned the duties of grading the Tigers outfielders. So those of you die-hard Brandon Inge and Brad Thomas fans can relax. You won’t have to listen to me rant about how terrible they both are.

Earlier Matt tackled the infielders, Zac told us how awesome our starters have been, John graded the ‘pen and Chris took on the management. Damn, that was a long sentence with a lot of links!

Without further adieu here is my evaluation of the Tigers outfielders at the quarter pole…

Ryan Raburn
GRADE: D

In 131 at-bats, Ryan Reighbourne boasts a less than stellar .214 batting average. When he has hit he’s made it count, racking up 10 extra base hits. Hell, he even got an assist on a Miguel Olivo homer last month. The defense is still suspect and he’s struck out 46 times. Sound familiar? Yep, it’s a typical first quarter for Raburn.

Magglio Ordoñez
GRADE: D

Maggs has just four extra base hits in 99 at-bats and is hitting just .172 this season! The Tigers did the right thing placing him on the DL as it’s clear that he’s not 100% yet. I still have a feeling that Maggs and his career .310 average will find a way to finish the season batting around .300.

Casper Wells
GRADE: C (ish)

It’s pretty hard to grade someone that only has 46 at-bats. At any rate, Casper has played solid defense and his twitter game has been on point. The friendly ghost has just 4 extra base hits to accompany his .239 average though.

Don Kelly
GRADE: C (ish)

Kelly is batting .268 in 41 at-bats on the season. The jack of all trades, master of none has actually played decent defense too. Seriously though–despite his production–how pumped up are you when you see the String Bean hitting third in Leyland’s random lineups?

Brennan Boesch
GRADE: B+

Boesch has hit .290 with 9 doubles, 2 homers and 18 RBI in 131 at-bats this season. The walk/strikeout ratio has also slightly improved. When V-Mart hit the DL, Boesch stepped his game up big time! Hopefully this continues and he doesn’t tank in the second half again.

OF Austin Jackson
GRADE: C+

A-Jax is hitting .361 with 3 doubles and 2 homers in his last 8 games, raising his average to .233 this season. He’s still striking out a ton (51 times) but his defense is amazing. I’m still not sold on him in the lead-off spot but I guess he’s our best option. Until of course we release (CR)Inge, shift Peralta to third and trade for Jose Reyes!  Ahhhh, fiction can be fun!