I had let my subscription to Baseball Reference’s Play Index lapse and I renewed today so I started messing around with it.  The first thing I did was ran the “by pitcher” numbers for Brandon Inge and some interesting things popped up.

With pitcher’s who he’s faced at least 30 times, Inge has a 1.000+ OPS against three different pitchers.  One of those is new Tigers hurler Jarrod Washburn, who Inge has a .300/.382/.633 line against.  Oddly, the guy he’s had the most success against is Zach Greinke (although Greinke had that tough run so maybe it’s not too surprising).  He has three home runs against Greinke (tied with Jeff Weaver, another familiar name) and he’s hit .385/.455/641.  That’s down from last year though because this year, Inge is one for seven against him.

Then I ran the numbers on Washburn and Inge is the best current hitter against him.  Gary Sheffield is a ,429 hitter against Washburn and Ivan Rodriguez hit .436 against him.  Rounding the hitters with more then 25 PAs and a 1.000+ OPS is Craig Monroe with a 1.028 OPS.

Other interesting and mundane tidbits on Washburn include…

1)  Washburn is terribly consistent between his first and second half splits.  His OPS against in the second half (.748) is just 15 points higher then his first half OPS (.733).
2)  He’s served up more first pitch fastballs (47) then any other count.
3) Washburn typically gets worse as the game goes one.  His OPS against in the first three innings is .683, then it goes to .759 in innings four through six and ends with a .914 in the final three frames. 
4)  He’s 12-3 (most wins) against the Rays but then he’s 8-15 (most losses) against the Athletics.
5) He’s 15-5 with a .643 OPS against on artificial turf

Permalink | Posted in 2009 Tigers