Detroit Tigers: Five Ugly Stats to Make You Cringe

Detroit Tigers Stat: 3

Jonathan Schoop was one of the Detroit Tigers’ most consistent performers last year. He played in just 44 games, but finished among the team leaders in hits, runs, RBIs, home runs, and batting average. It was a shortened season, but by one statistical measure, wRC+, it was the second best season of his career. Let’s head to FanGraphs one more time for a definition of wRC and wRC+

"Weighted Runs Created (wRC) is an improved version of Bill James’ Runs Created (RC) statistic, which attempted to quantify a player’s total offensive value and measure it by runs…Weighted Runs Created Plus (wRC+) measures how a player’s wRC compares with league average after controlling for park effects.  League average for position players is 100, and every point above 100 is a percentage point above league average."

Jonathan Schoop posted a 114 wRC+ last year. Not earth-shattering, but a solidly above-average offense performance. This year his wRC+ is 3, or 97% below average. It’s the second worst for a qualified hitter this season. That will likely change soon, but Schoop has been a streaky player throughout his career, and it probably doesn’t help much that’s he’s also learning to play first base.

There’s no shortage of blame to go around for the Detroit Tigers’ woeful offensive output this season. But it doesn’t help to see one of their top performers from 2020 begin the year just 8-for-49 with 0 extra-base hits, 3 walks, and 18 strikeouts.