Detroit Tigers: Statistical leaders from the first half

Detroit Tigers baseball returns on Friday. The team is back from the All-Star break after an up-and-down first half. Here are the team’s statistical leaders so far.

Detroit Tigers fans didn’t see the best first half of baseball in 2017.

The team stumbled to a 39-48 record. While there were some encouraging stretches, there were also some—how shall we say—not so encouraging stretches.

Detroit’s eight-game losing streak certainly didn’t help matters in the standings, but there have been some positives to help counterbalance the negatives.

Alex Avila, originally signed to compliment James McCann at the dish, is vastly out-producing his fellow backstop–not to mention most of the league.

In 227 plate appearances predominantly against right-handers, Avila is sporting a .958 OPS, a 156 wRC+ and a .235 ISO.

Elsewhere, Justin Upton (2.3 WAR, .227 ISO, .357 wOBA) is looking more like the batter who obliterated baseballs on a consistent basis down the stretch in 2016 than the one who notched a .578 OPS in his through June of last season.

Moving to the pitching side of things, Michael Fulmer looks to be making the ascent from rookie phenom to a standing place among the league’s elite rather quickly.

Armed with his power arsenal, Fulmer has accumulated a 3.1 WAR and 15—count ‘em 15—quality starts. He’s also allowed the fewest home runs per nine innings in the league, with just 0.54 allowed per nine frames.

The Tigers have also seemed to figure things out at the very back end of the bullpen, where Justin Wilson and Shane Greene provide manager Brad Ausmus with a source of quality innings and dynamic stuff.

Wilson currently paces all Detroit pitchers in strikeout percentage with a 36.6 number. He also leads all Detroit relievers in WAR (0.8), FIP (2.94) and xFIP (3.25).

Here’s a look at the Detroit Tigers other statistical leaders.