The Wild & Unexpected Batting Turn Around
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00:00But the pitching has been very good in July to this point.
00:05The second best month that they've had, and it's impressive.
00:10But that's not nearly as impressive as what the Bats have done in the month of July.
00:17In the 17 games, the Tigers are hitting .268 as a team.
00:24Their OPS is .823 in the month of July.
00:30Now, just so people understand, that's on-base percentage plus slugging percentage,
00:33and it's kind of the new hotness where people gauge how a team is hitting.
00:37Used to be batting average was the big thing.
00:39Well, batting average is great, but it doesn't account for how much, you know, bang you're getting for your hits.
00:44That's where slugging percentage comes in.
00:46When you add it all together with the on-base percentage, you get OPS.
00:50And that's what people look at, more so than the batting average.
00:54So the average OPS in Major League Baseball is right around .700.
00:59I think it's just a tick over, like .702.
01:02So for the Tigers right now to be at .823 for the month is staggering.
01:09And I say it's staggering because back in April when the team went 14-13,
01:15their OPS was .661.
01:19In May, they went 11-16, the bat started to come alive a little bit,
01:23and the OPS was .703, but they were five games below .500.
01:28Last month, the month of June, not a good month for the Tigers, they were 10-17 that month.
01:33Their OPS was .617.
01:37And now here in July, it's 17 games, they're 12-5, and the OPS is .823.
01:46That's 120 points higher than at any other time, any other month, I should say, this season for the Tigers.
01:54Not only that, a team that has struggled to hit home runs
02:00is now no longer struggling.
02:03The previous three months, they played 27 games each month.
02:07In April, they hit 23 homers.
02:10May, they hit 25 homers.
02:12June, they hit 24 homers.
02:15For an average of 24 home runs in 27 games.
02:18It's pretty consistent there, and it's consistently below average.
02:23Here it is July, they've only played 17 games, so 10 games less, but they've hit 29 home runs,
02:30which is four more than any other previous month, and they still have
02:35eight games before the month is done.
02:39They're getting contributions from everyone right now on this team,
02:44and it's fun to watch when you're seeing guys like Wenzel Perez
02:50go through his rookie season, and he doesn't look out of place at the plate.
02:57He's a guy whose OPS is well above league average at .721.
03:03He's doing a really nice job. His batting average at .261, that's well above average as well.
03:09And he's got some pop in the bat. There's a lot to like with Wenzel Perez.
03:13He's got good speed. He's learning to play the outfield a little bit.
03:17He's more of a middle infielder by trade, but they're trying to find the versatility
03:21and using him in the outfield, and he doesn't look terribly out of place there.
03:24He's only going to get better, but like to see what he has done.
03:28Then you've got the story of Justin Henry Malloy,
03:32and how he is starting to come into his own.
03:34His batting average is, this is where I talk about the difference between batting average
03:38and OPS. The batting average is terrible when you look at it.
03:41It's .217, that's below average.
03:43But his OPS is at .770, which is almost 70 points above the league average.
03:49He has pop in the bat. Watch him last night.
03:52If you found a way to watch it, which is always difficult,
03:55or if you listen to it right here on your own for Tigers Baseball,
03:5897 won the ticket, you would have heard a monster shot that he hit the left field.
04:04Maybe not monster shot, but it was a home run. It was no doubt home run.
04:07Boom, there it goes. Left field, that's gone.
04:09Left field turns around. Kwon says, yeah, I got nothing. It's gone.
04:13And Justin Henry Malloy launched his seventh home run of the season.
04:18Seven home runs and 106 at bats in his rookie season.
04:23These are reasons to get a little excited.
04:26Then you watch Colt Keith, and Colt Keith has been really good for this team since May 1st.
04:33His OPS is over 800 since May 1st.
04:35It's like over 1,000 in July.
04:38And he's starting to get the power swing.
04:41Early in the season, watching Colt Keith, he had some great at bats.
04:44He wasn't striking out much, but he was just hitting base hits,
04:48and they weren't done with a whole lot of authority.
04:51The hard hit rate really wasn't there.
04:54But as the season's going on, he started to hit the ball a little bit harder,
04:58but still wasn't yielding the results that you'd like to see.
05:01Then he started getting results.
05:02And now he's got 10 home runs, and the home run he hit last night,
05:05again, a no-doubter, slider thrown to him.
05:08He just turned on it, whammo, there it goes into right center field,
05:12and kiss it goodbye, and he's rounding the bases
05:14for his 10th round tripper of the season in 303 at bats.
05:20He has built his OPS up.
05:22Now it's just at league average, just above it at 705.
05:25But what he's done over the last couple months,
05:27last three months, two and a half months of the season,
05:29has been well above average.
05:32Those are three rookies thrown into a situation this year.
05:36And this is where you go back to what Scott Harris said
05:38about not wanting to block the younger players,
05:40and that's why they didn't go after some of the bigger free agents.
05:44Now, you can like that, you can not like that,
05:46but what you can't deny is that now that these guys
05:48have gotten this opportunity, they're running with it.
05:51And these are guys that you didn't want to block.
05:54You certainly didn't want to block Colt Keith.
05:56He was given the opportunity to do that.
05:58Colt Keith, he was given the starting job right out of spring training.
06:02And they gave him a contract too, which was kind of unheard of.
06:06Perez was, I don't think that was going to be the first choice to be brought up,
06:09but it just happened to be by happenstance
06:11because other guys got hurt right away in the start of the season,
06:14and they found a place for him, and he's been good.
06:18Justin Henry Malloy earned the promotion
06:20because he was hitting very well at Toledo.
06:23He gets his chance, and these guys are staying.
06:26You know, like if somebody gets healthy,
06:29if Parker Meadows gets healthy, you know who's not going to go down?
06:32It's not going to be Justin Henry Malloy.
06:34It's not going to be Wenzel Perez.
06:37Probably going to be Bly Madras, and that's fine.
06:40If he's ready to play Parker Meadows,
06:43bring him back up, and I'm excited what can happen.
06:46They're starting to build this core.
06:48Are you believing in this core?
06:50Is this the core you think that is legit?
06:53248-539-9797 is the telephone number.
06:56Same number to text.
06:57If you want to get to the phones, we're going to do that.
06:59I see Mark and Richard and others are hanging on.
07:01We'll get to your ticket texts as well.
07:03Talking tigers when they're winning is fun.
07:06There's hope in the air right now,
07:08and maybe someone's going to take a pin to this balloon
07:11that we're starting to launch here,
07:13and that'll happen soon enough, and if it does, okay.
07:16But right now, I want the license
07:19to be reasonably intrigued by what's going on.
07:2211 out of 14 wins.
07:24This team might be the hottest team in all of baseball,
07:27and they have no rotation right now.
07:29They're doing it with bats,
07:31which is something that you would not have believed
07:33if I told you this a month ago.
07:35We'll talk about it next year, 97-1, the ticket.