Detroit Tigers June Splits

By Daniel Shoptaw
Updated: June 6, 2009

Every season is a different season, however there are trends in baseball. So today we’ll take a look at the career split stats for the current group of Detroit Tigers for the month of June and see at least on some level, what we might expect.

Let’s start with the hitters. As you would expect Magglio Ordonez and Placido Polanco lead the pack in most categories, as they have the most at-bats in the month of June historically. There are some surprises though, such as Marcus Thames having the highest slugging percentage of any current Tiger for the month of June. I’ve excluded Wilkin Ramirez and Matt Treanor as Ramirez has zero career June AB’s and Treanor will definitely not be playing this month. I included Guillen and Thames as both could return this month. Leaders are in bold text.

Player	At-Bats	Hits	HR	RBI	Runs	SB	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
Placido Polanco	893	286	15	101	153	17	0.320	0.357	0.422	0.779
Magglio Ordonez	886	303	42	186	151	20	0.342	0.416	0.560	0.976
Carlos Guillen	597	166	21	111	98	11	0.278	0.349	0.461	0.810
Miguel Cabrera	546	165	26	93	84	2	0.302	0.368	0.520	0.888
Brandon Inge	485	128	20	70	70	4	0.264	0.340	0.466	0.806
Adam Everett	357	96	4	34	43	7	0.269	0.306	0.359	0.665
Curtis Granderson	316	102	9	40	68	9	0.323	0.379	0.532	0.910
Marcus Thames	248	64	22	47	42	1	0.258	0.299	0.581	0.880
Ramon Santiago	202	42	4	9	28	5	0.208	0.289	0.317	0.606
Gerald Laird	158	49	4	21	27	3	0.310	0.331	0.494	0.825
Ryan Raburn	33	8	2	5	6	1	0.242	0.306	0.485	0.790
Jeff Larish	32	7	1	6	3	0	0.219	0.306	0.344	0.650
Clete Thomas	23	10	0	2	3	0	0.435	0.536	0.609	1.144
Josh Anderson	19	6	0	2	3	1	0.316	0.381	0.421	0.802
Dane Sardinha	11	1	0	2	0	0	0.091	0.091	0.273	0.364
TOTALS	4806	1433	170	729	779	81	0.298

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Several Tigers have seen their highest single month batting average numbers in June, including Adam Everett (.269), Maggs (.342), Curtis Granderson (.323) and Gerald Laird (.310), the only month Laird has ever hit .300 or better. Placido Polanco hits in June better than any month save August and has more RBI’s and runs scored in June than any other month of the season. Marcus Thames has hit more home runs in June (22) than any other month. The news isn’t all good though, as Carlos Guillen’s June batting average (.278) and OBP (.349) are the lowest and 2nd lowest of any month of his career historically.

It’s hard to discern any reliable data from Ryan Raburn, Jeff Larish, Clete Thomas, Josh Anderson and Dane Sardinha from this exercise as none of them have more than 33 career at-bats in June. Thomas is 10 for 23 in June and Anderson is 6 for 19, good starts I suppose.

Based on his play so far this season I would expect Ramon Santiago to considerably outpace his .208 career June average. Miguel Cabrera is a .302 hitter in June with an .888 OPS – I expect he’ll be even better this time around. Placido Polanco will need another strong June effort to get his 2009 average back in the neighborhood we are accustomed to.

Now let’s take a look at the pitchers. I have excluded Rick Porcello and Ryan Perry for the obvious reason, no career June MLB experience. I included Jeremy Bonderman as I expect he’ll be back, in some capacity, soon. Leaders and worst offenders (depending on category) are in bold.

Player	IP	Wins	Losses	Saves	Blown Saves	Hits	Walks	K’s	Earned Runs	ERA	WHIP
Edwin Jackson	66.1	3	4	0	0	75	33	39	43	5.83	1.63
Joel Zumaya	20.2	1	1	2	1	16	13	21	4	1.74	1.40
Fernando Rodney	35.1	2	4	1	4	40	18	35	28	7.13	1.64
Justin Verlander	103.2	9	3	0	0	80	44	100	37	3.21	1.20
Nate Robertson	150.1	10	5	0	0	145	48	114	62	3.71	1.28
Zach Miner	47.2	6	1	0	1	44	17	24	11	2.08	1.28
Armando Galarraga	32.1	3	0	0	0	32	8	22	12	3.34	1.24
Bobby Seay	23	1	1	0	0	24	8	19	12	4.70	1.39
Dontrelle Willis	194.1	14	9	0	0	206	57	133	71	3.29	1.35
Brandon Lyon	69.1	5	6	8	5	78	20	53	39	5.06	1.41
Jeremy Bonderman	170.2	11	10	0	0	181	49	152	87	4.59	1.35
TOTALS	913.2	65	44	11	11	921	315	712	406	4.00	1.35

TAMPA, FL - MARCH 5: Justin Verlander #35 of ...

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Dontrelle paces the team in Wins, hits allowed and walks allowed, largely on the strength of the 194.1 innings he’s thrown, the most of any Tiger in the month of June. Joel Zumaya owns the best June ERA (1.74), although over a much smaller sample of 20.2 innings pitched.

Brandon Lyon has mediocre June numbers to put it gently, something that will need to change if the Tig’s hope to stay in contention. Note that the struggling Armando Galarraga boasts a 3.34 June ERA, something that will need to fall in line if he hopes to stay in the rotation going forward.

Who would have guessed that Nate Robertson had a 10-5 June record with a 3.71 ERA and a K:BB ratio of better than 2 to 1? Not me, but alas it’s true, historically speaking. In the case of Edwin Jackson we can only hope his dazzling ’09 start leaves his previous June disasters behind.

So there you have it, the associated split statistics for the Detroit Tigers in the month of June. Some of these numbers are encouraging, some worrisome, others likely irrelevant considering the development players have seen and the current roles on the ball club.

Until next time kiddies….

Hazaa

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