Inge attitude thread

Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Inge's new attitude: Catching is cool
Lynn Henning / The Detroit News

In a dramatic disclosure that could have long-term impact on the Tigers lineup, Brandon Inge said Tuesday that he is willing to work at catcher as often as the team requests, in 2008 and beyond.

"I had to get over the hump," Inge said before Tuesday night's game against the Red Sox at Comerica Park. "I'm feeling comfortable catching."

Inge, 31, had asked the Tigers last winter to trade him to a team that might play him regularly at his preferred position, third base.

He was displaced at third base last December when the Tigers made a dynamic trade with the Florida Marlins that brought third baseman Miguel Cabrera to Detroit, in addition to pitcher Dontrelle Willis.

Inge said Tuesday that he still prefers to play third base -- "my first love" -- and that a chance to play at third regularly could persuade him to play elsewhere.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm not gonna lie," Inge said, "but I'm good with the catching, too. I don't like sitting.

"And I love Detroit. I love everything about it."

Inge's change of heart was revealed during pre-game conversations with Tigers manager Jim Leyland.

"Inge came to me," Leyland said of the news that pleased a Tigers skipper who has been shuffling and switching players during the early weeks of the 2008 season. Leyland has been trying to find offensive and defensive combinations that might turn around a team that sat five games beneath .500 entering Tuesday's game.

Leyland said he would "probably catch Inge more" in the coming weeks. Inge's reversal could also make him the likely successor to Pudge Rodriguez, whose contract runs out at the end of 2008. The Tigers have been searching, in vain, for the past year or more for a long-term catching option.

Inge said during spring training that he was unhappy catching, that its multiple responsibilities affected his offense and made playing baseball less than fulfilling.

But he said Tuesday that he has been finding his old comfort level at a position he played exclusively for the Tigers from 2001-2003.

"I don't know how it came about," Inge said of his change in attitude, which has left him with a new disposition toward an old position. "I think I'm over that now."

I wish he was deciding to play Inge at third more...

TigerLily wrote:

I wish he was deciding to play Inge at third more...

Me too, Inge is a far better player at 3rd than Carlos. But Carlos is better at 3rd than Miggy! Miggy seems to be a far better 1st baseman than 3rd baseman.

If Sheff does not start hitting, I still would love to see him DL and then rehab in the minors! Then let Carlos DH and Inge play 3rd!

I want Inge back at 3rd

I love the title of this thread

Inge is at third tonight!

haha. I like the thread title. But on the thread content... NO WAY! After all that complaining, he likes the position.... why I find that funny. :haha:

05/06/2008 7:18 PM ET
Inge to get more game action catching
Meeting with Leyland goes well; manager to work Inge into mix
By Jason Beck / MLB.com

DETROIT -- Brandon Inge is starting to embrace catching again. The Tigers, in turn, are starting to embrace Inge as a catcher.

Manager Jim Leyland said on Tuesday he could work Inge into more playing time at catcher after what was a refreshing meeting between the two late last week. Inge went to Leyland on his own and said what he had been feeling recently -- that he was actually enjoying catching.

It's a far cry from the challenges Inge saw in getting back behind the plate during Spring Training.

"I think I'm comfortable now," Inge said. "I think I'm comfortable with catching."

It's not that the adjustment, physical and mental, wasn't there. But once Inge put in the time catching and got comfortable again, some of his old catching instincts kicked in again. As he had said last week, he still thought along with the pitcher on what pitch to throw when he was playing every day at third base, so that part wasn't going to be a big transition for him.

"Once the physical part gets through to where you don't have to think about it, the rest of it becomes easier, too," Inge said.

More importantly, Inge realized the upside of how much control the catcher can have on the course of the game. When Nate Robertson overcame a three-run homer in the first inning Thursday at New York to keep the Tigers close enough to rally for a victory, Inge took pride in that as much as Robertson.

"When I'm in there, I'm dedicated," Inge said. "I want to call a game. I take pride in it. It has definitely changed, I think, for the better."

It was with that in mind that Inge told Leyland he was cool with catching. He still would rather play third base, he cautioned, but he wants to help. He also wants to do whatever can get him playing time.

With Curtis Granderson back in center field every day and Carlos Guillen entrenched for now as the everyday third baseman, catching is his best chance at being on the field.

That, too, is a new development, given how regularly Ivan Rodriguez has caught for the last five years. Being Pudge's backup usually has been an official job title a lot of bench time and catching relievers in the bullpen. Mike Rabelo's 43 starts last year marked the most by a Tigers catcher not named Rodriguez since Pudge arrived in Detroit in 2004. Rodriguez is a free agent at season's end.

Leyland wouldn't say how much more time he saw Inge getting as a catcher, only that it would be more time.

"I think he'll fall more into the catching mode here shortly," Leyland said, "and may start getting more playing time. ... He's probably seen the light. He's pretty good at [catching]. He's catching the ball pretty well."

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Quote :

Rodriguez is a free agent at season's end.

TigersGirl wrote:

Quote :

Rodriguez is a free agent at season's end.

That's the one thing I hate about baseball and love about baseball...
change.

laprimamirala wrote:

TigersGirl wrote:

Quote :

Rodriguez is a free agent at season's end.

That's the one thing I hate about baseball and love about baseball...
change.

I hate to think, soon enough, Maggs will be a free agent, as will Grandy, and Sheff, and everyone else. Nobody stays forever.

Pudge is still a better catcher than Inge. I'm sure it all depends on the salary Pudge demands as to if he will be back next year.

TigersGirl wrote:

Quote :

Rodriguez is a free agent at season's end.

iluvpudge7 wrote:

TigersGirl wrote:

Quote :

Rodriguez is a free agent at season's end.

Man, but what a career. He's got a lot to be proud of. Wonder what he will do next!

Inge could be No. 1 catcher in '09: 'I could catch every day, if that's what they need'

Leyland deserves credit for his decision last week to alternate Brandon Inge and Rodriguez every other game behind the plate. The plan has provided the Tigers with present production, as well as future perspective.

Over the first five games of the arrangement, the catchers have combined to bat .267 (4-for-15) with two extra-base hits. More important, Detroit is 4-1 over that span.

"So far, it's been pretty good," Leyland said Friday. "Sometimes, guys do better because they get rested. Pudge has looked fresher to me the last few games than almost all year."

Meanwhile, Inge looks as though he could be the Tigers' No. 1 catcher in 2009. After he caught Justin Verlander's complete-game victory Wednesday, Verlander remarked that Inge "looks great" behind the plate. In his next start, Friday night, Inge caught the Tigers' first shutout victory this year.

"Everyone on the planet knows that third base is my favorite spot," Inge said. "I could catch every day, if that's what they need. I'd be more than glad to do it. I like this team. I like it here in Detroit. It's always been home to me.

"I want to stay here."

The Tigers were unable to trade Inge before this season, because other clubs were wary of the money left on his contract (three years, $19.1 million) and his disappointing production last year.

Ironically, that same contract seems reasonable for an everyday catcher. Inge, 31, will have two years and $12.9 million left on his contract after this year.

OMG--I just can't imagine that type of money.
He's done a world of good for my employer, the U of M. We like him lots!

Anyhow.... i want him on 3rd not as a catcher.

swiss_tiger wrote:

Anyhow.... i want him on 3rd not as a catcher.

Me too!

mrsrabelo wrote:

swiss_tiger wrote:

Anyhow.... i want him on 3rd not as a catcher.

Me too!

I agree!

TigersGirl wrote:

mrsrabelo wrote:

swiss_tiger wrote:

Anyhow.... i want him on 3rd not as a catcher.

Me too!

I agree!

So do I!!!

Tigers' Inge: 'I'm revamped ... at peace'
Lynn Henning / The Detroit News

GRAND RAPIDS -- Brandon Inge's change has been as much physical as psychological since the end of a 2008 baseball season that, for him, was akin to an investor's year on Wall Street.

The Tigers' newly re-appointed third baseman weighs almost 200 pounds, up from the low 180s midway through last season. And if there's any lard there, it wasn't conspicuous Wednesday night at the Marriott Hotel here, where Inge was inducted into the West Michigan Whitecaps Hall of Fame.

"As strong as I've ever been," said Inge, whose return to third base is part of Detroit's hyper-focus on defense in 2009. "Much stronger than I was (in 2006, when he hit 27 home runs)."

But it's his reclamation of third base after a dizzying and dispiriting 2008 season that had Inge looking Wednesday as if he had just found a long-lost pet.

"This is probably as excited as I've ever been to go to spring training," said Inge, who appeared at the Whitecaps banquet along with Curtis Granderson and Tigers president and general manager Dave Dombrowski.

A crowd of 1,000 packed the Marriott's ballroom as the Tigers officially began their 2009 winter publicity caravan at the home of their lower-level Class A affiliate.

Inge's passion for playing third base explained his disconsolation a year ago after the Tigers landed then-third baseman Miguel Cabrera in a mammoth trade with the Florida Marlins.

He showed up at spring camp sullen and resigned to a trade the Tigers tried hard to make. Inge eventually started at catcher after Pudge Rodriguez was traded in July. The Tigers' revised infield plans had already fallen apart.

By the end of the season, Guillen was hurt and Inge was back playing third base, and Tigers manager Jim Leyland announced he would start there in 2009.

The restoration of his old job helped persuade Inge to get to work in a bid to turn around his two-season slump at the plate. After batting .253 with 27 home runs and 83 RBIs in 2006, he slipped to .236 and 14 home runs and 71 RBIs in 2007. Last season's personal nightmare was marked by his worst full season: .205 batting average, 11 home runs, 51 RBIs.

But his two-year tailspin, says Inge, is bad history that will be reversed in 2009. The past week spent at Comerica Park with Tigers hitting coach Lloyd McClendon confirmed it.

"I'm revamped," he said. "I don't want to get into it too much, but Lloyd and myself are at a very good place. I'm at peace with it. I'm not overanalyzing or overthinking."

Inge's power and pull-hitting preferences led to pitchers adjusting on him in 2007. He never comfortably was able to change. He and McClendon also had differences as things fell apart in 2008.

But returning to third, and an offseason's reflection on where he was in 2006, have convinced Inge -- and Dombrowski -- that his offense could rival his celestial defense in 2009. Inge said he saw the difference on video and was able to process it completely during the past few months.

"Because of my bad mechanics, I couldn't understand what the hitting coaches were talking about," he said. "Now, I think I can have a year above and beyond '06."

"This guy's gonna be better," Dombrowski said, tapping Inge on the shoulder. "One reason is that he's such a good athlete."

Ya readin' this, Swiss?

laprimamirala wrote:

Ya readin' this, Swiss?

I did read this! And i tell you: Inge will have a great season! I think the whole mess from last year (trade, no trade, catcher, outfield, ...) did block his performance. I somehow can understand that (i know he gets a lot of money and should play better. but if you're mentally blocked and unhappy, you will not deliver no matter how much money you get).
This year really should be a new start for him!

Go Brandon!