Need advice: Top three Tigers...

[gehringer_2]

Among guys I saw a lot - which is to say Tigers, the two that really stand out were Magglio one seasaon and Cabrera. Maggs only did it once, but that year, it he just didn't miss, it was like he was in control of every AB. And the same with Cabrera - in his good years, you knew that even if he made an out, it was a BaBIP out - he could almost always hit the ball hard somewhere. I think ~400 is probably somewhere near the absolute limit for BA. You can hit the ball hard everytime and about 60% will still be fielded -  so any time a BA starts getting into the 350 (or ~400 OBP) range and up, I think you are looking at a hitter pretty much in control of the large majority of his ABs.

Kaline may have been as good as that, but I didn't see the beginning of his career, and he was in the middle of his career at the height of the pitcher's era when a mere 300 BA was winning batting championships. In that period nobody could get close enough to that 'hit it hard every time' level where as a fan, you knew that player was a threat to do something every time up the way Cabrera was.

Edited yesterday at 05:41 PM by gehringer_2

[oblong]

With Miggy I always think back to a random game I was at with Oakland. He kept fouling the same pitch back. 4-5 times. It was like he was rejecting it rather than  just missing. “I don’t want that one…”.  Then he got the one he wanted and put it into the seats. I like to think the pitcher was just conceding. “I don’t want to pitch to him anymore”. 

[Sports_Freak]

20 minutes ago, oblong said:

With Miggy I always think back to a random game I was at with Oakland. He kept fouling the same pitch back. 4-5 times. It was like he was rejecting it rather than  just missing. “I don’t want that one…”.  Then he got the one he wanted and put it into the seats. I like to think the pitcher was just conceding. “I don’t want to pitch to him anymore”. 

There were a few years when Miggy would come to bat with guys on base and I would wonder why they were even pitching to him. More often than not (it seemed) he would knock in some of the runners.

And many people underestimate how Cabrera will be remembered. I guarantee every time a player gets close to winning a triple crown, the baseball world will say Cabrera was the last player to do it. Just like Yaz was talked about during/after the Miggy triple crown season.

[papalawrence]

In his prime, Miggy was the best Tigers hitter I've ever seen. I was born 5 years too late to see Cash in 1961 (honorable mention to Colavito same year). And I agree that Magglio's 2007 was incredible. Trammell's 1987 ranks way up there.

[Tenacious D]

Don’t forget Granderson’s 20/20/20/20.  Crazy thing was that Jimmie Rollins accomplished it, too.