Brandon Inge. An objective look

Much has been said recently about Brandon Inge's hope of playing 2nd base for the Detroit Tigers this coming year. Some defended Inge's right to at least give it a "shot", while others would just as soon see him leave town -- permanently. Now that all the hoopla's died down, at least until the Tigers start playing their spring training games and sorting out who's who, let's take an objective look at Inge.

Here's what I know I know. I neither like nor dislike Inge. He is, and has been, a highly paid pro athlete and, as such, should be rightfully judged on his performance. No other sport cooks up more statistics than major league baseball to keep track of such things. Here's a few: Inge has played for the Detroit Tigers for 11 years. 139 home runs, 587 RBIS, 1183 strike outs, and a career batting average of .235.

Here's what I think I know. Inge being a shortstop in college is totally irrelevant over a decade later. It doesn't matter whether he was a middle linebacker, a point guard, or a goalie. When the Tigers got him, they tried to make him a catcher. He was OK behind the plate, but he couldn't hit a lick.

After a few years he got a shot at third base. Besides doing spot duty here and there in the outfield, as the occasion arose, Inge performed reasonably well there defensively. Over the long haul, he wasn't spectacular, but probably above average. Yet he still couldn't hit much.

No doubt his best season was 2009. Inge hit 27 home runs, had 84 RBIs, and was selected to the All-Star team, likely because he was very popular in Detroit at that time. He even entered the Home Run Derby contest, where he proceeded to embarrass himself by not hitting any. Ouch.

Inge struck out 170 times that year. And his batting average? .230. Then he got a contract extension somewhere in the neighborhood of $5,500,000 a year -- guaranteed money.

Last year his batting average was so bad (around the .150  mark) the Tigers sent him down to the minors. But he still got his money. At that point, Inge basically had two choices. He could go to Toledo and hope for another shot in the "bigs", or go home and STILL collect the millions. Yet, had he chosen the latter, it likely would have spelled the end of his career in the big leagues. Not that he should ever need the money because, after all, Inge has made upwards of $35 million dollars playing pro baseball, and if that isn't enough to get by on for a lifetime, then he's been whiffing on his finances even worse than he did standing in the batter's box. I dare say in today's economy, most of us would gladly take just one measly little million and be happy as clams foreverafter.

But with Inge, there always seems to be a "kicker". Sure enough, last year, when the rosters expanded in September, he got called back up from Toledo. Many looking for something -- anything -- to bolster Inge have recently said he batted .324 in September, and .318 in the post-season. They throw out stats like Inge having an OPS of around .900 for that time. I for one, had no idea what OPS was, so I looked it up. It follows.....

The basic formula is

where OBP is on-base percentage and SLG is slugging average. These averages are defined

and

where:

• H = Hits
• BB = Base on balls
• HBP = Times hit by pitch
• AB = At bats
• SF = Sacrifice flies
• TB = Total bases

Now, if you can decipher all of that, you're way ahead of me, but evidently .900 is supposed to be a really good number.

Me being one that always tries to cut through the "bull", I see Inge's proponents saying he hit really well for about a month and a half at the end of last year. Further, they say he's always been accessible to the media, as if that should matter. (If I'm a fan, give me a guy hitting .300, that shuns the press, over a .230 guy flapping his gums any day). Good for them, and they can cheer him on if they wish, but given the bigger picture, along with his history -- if that's all they have to bring to the table -- their argument is very weak. It might be interesting to look back and see if those same people thought Matt Millen was a "great hire" for the Detroit Lions when it first happened. 

My take?  If I was Inge, I'd try to hang on too. Even for the same money, private charter flights and 5-star motels beat the hell out of buses and sleazy easies.

But nice guy or not, .235 over 11 years is what it is. Maybe a really slick fielding shortstop could get away with Inge's offensive stats, but somebody playing catcher and/or 3rd base in the major leagues is expected to put up bigger numbers. How Inge has hung on for this long is a total mystery to me.