Dearth of doubles gauges Tigers' weakness at plate

Posted: Oct. 26, 2009
Dearth of doubles gauges Tigers' weakness at plate

By JOHN LOWE
FREE PRESS SPORTS WRITER

With its huge power alleys, Comerica Park would seem to be built for doubles.

But its tenants, the Tigers, finished last in the American League in doubles this season.

Tigers general manager Dave Dombrowski calls this "the most surprising statistic" produced by the '09 Tigers.

Stranger still: the Tigers had fewer doubles at home (120) than on the road (125).

The lack of doubles represented one more sign of how the Tigers' offense didn't function as expected.

"When you talk about the Tigers and our ability not to score runs and not hit the way we should, it's the lack of doubles," Dombrowski said. "We have a ballpark that is conducive to a doubles-hitting club. It has tremendous gaps."

This was the Tigers' 10th season at Comerica Park. Their 245 doubles were their second-lowest total for a Comerica season, ahead of only 2003, when the Tigers lost 119 games.

In 2007, the Tigers led the AL in doubles with 352, 107 more than they had this season. Magglio Ordoñez had 54 doubles that season, most in the majors.

Ordoñez fell to 24 doubles this season. One of them was the bases-clearing gap shot on the final Wednesday of the season that put the Tigers on the brink of the division title.

But then the Tigers went 28 straight innings at home without an extra-base hit. By the time they broke that streak, they were on the brink of falling into a first-place tie with the Twins.

I can't say that I'm surprised. The park was built for a team that had speed, and with the exception of Granderson, DD traded away those speedsters and brought in HR hitters that either go deep, or K. While it's nice to have players that can hit the long ball, I'd settle for more contact hitters than power bats.

Ohios#1TigerFan wrote:

I can't say that I'm surprised. The park was built for a team that had speed, and with the exception of Granderson, DD traded away those speedsters and brought in HR hitters that either go deep, or K. While it's nice to have players that can hit the long ball, I'd settle for more contact hitters than power bats.

True. It seems DD needs to balance the club. Get 2/3 contact speedster hitters to get on base and in scoring position and 1/3 HR hitters to knock in the loose change. I also say fine the players who are bullheaded and will not listen to the coaches, and strike out above a certain % of at bats!