Tag Archives: rod allen

Death, Taxes, and the Detroit Tigers in the 2025 MLB Playoffs?

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You serious, Clark? Yes. As basically first reported by ALDLAND.com months ago, the Detroit Tigers have clinched a spot in the 2025 MLB playoffs. Look for yourself:

If that isn’t surprising to you, I am projecting with 100% certainty that’s so because you are an ALDLAND reader. Before the current season even started, we told you that Baseball Prospectus told you that Detroit had close to no shot– 19.9%!– at returning to the playoffs. At the same time, we also told you why that was very wrong. For their part, the Tigers immediately began proving us very right and Baseball Prospectus very wrong. And now, at last, Baseball Prospectus has thrown in the towel: Rob Manfred himself cannot stop this team.

Arrange your affairs accordingly. We’ll see you in October.

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Previously
More Likely Than Not: The 2025 Detroit Tigers are winning, and winning matters
Maximum Tork: How Spencer Torkelson is cranking up his hot start in 2025
Before you accuse me, take a look at Jake Rogers
Is it Tiger Time? Tarik Skubal says so

Flying Tigers: Victor Martinez, Professional Hitter

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vmart

Tigers fans chuckle to themselves whenever they hear announcer Rod Allen proclaim with his special gravitas that Victor Martinez is a “professional hitter.” After watching Victor this season, though, I began to notice that Detroit’s DH seemed to be doing an especially good job not just of putting the ball in play, but of extending his plate appearances, forcing pitchers to display their arsenal for the benefit of Martinez and his teammates. As the chart below shows, few batters are seeing more pitches per plate appearance than Victor this season.

pitches per plate appearance

There are a few things to note about this chart. First and most importantly, because the season remains young, the rankings are subject to great fluctuation on a pitch-by-pitch basis. (Click the image to see the latest data.) A second observation is that the American League, and the AL Central in particular, and the Minnesota Twins in even more particular, find strong representation here. Or at least they did when I grabbed that screenshot. Again, probably too early to read too much into the positioning here.

Wherever he stands with respect to the rest of Major League Baseball, Victor’s seeing more pitches than his fellow Tigers. I like to think that’s a small piece of evidence showing that he’s fully embracing the role of designated hitter.

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Previously
Flying Tigers: Actually Mad Max – 4/29
Flying Tigers: Waiting for Takeoff – 4/28

Major League Basebrawl, Round 4,700

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On Friday night in San Francisco, the Giants’ pitcher, Ramon Martinez, hit Phillies CF Shane Victorino, which, in short order, caused a bench-clearing brawl for the forty-seven-thousandth time in MLB history. Martinez’s pitch apparently was no accident; rather, it was some sort of response to the decision by Philly’s previous batter, Jimmy Rollins, to steal second after his two-RBI single put the visitors up 8-2 in the sixth.

I don’t know whether this episode is dumber than the Angels-Tigers spat about which I wrote last week. It’s a tough call: benches didn’t clear in the Detroit incident (hardly an “incident” by that town’s standards), but the unwritten rules supposedly violated– admiring a home run and bunting during a no hitter– were much tougher to justify in the circumstances; in SF, benches did clear, but stealing second up six in the sixth at least is closer to jerk-move territory.  Keep reading…