Baseball Reference Fun

Anyone who is hardcore baseball fan is familiar with the website, www.baseball-reference.com, and spends a fair amount of time there over the course of a season. You want a statistic, they've got it. If for some reason you want to know what Tom Brookens (left) batted for his career that's there too, it just has it all. One of the cool things it does is that it's creators have made a formula to compare a one player to another at every stage of their career. For example, you can go to Barry Bonds' page and see who he compared to historically at the age of 26. What it does is it compares Bonds' stats at the age of 26 with other players when they were 26 and come up with a match. Bonds match at 26? Jack Clark, good times all around. So today as I was checking out the Tigers' probably starting lineup I became curious as to how they stacked up in history. I'm not saying their the best every or anything, but on a team seemingly on the rise, it's easy to get carried away.
So, tonights project is to look at the Tigers lineup and see how the players in it stack up historically. Here it goes...(oh, and by the way, the ages come from the player's statistics from last season).

1. Curtis Granderson: Sandy Amoros. Never heard of him, he had a brief career with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Other players he compares to, Joe Carter and Reggie Sanders.

2. Placido Polanco: Todd Walker. Yuck, I never really cared much for his game, others on the list include Adam Kennedy and Julio Franco (right).

3. Gary Sheffield: Jeff Bagwell. Hey, you could do a lot worse, though I'd take Sheff in his prime over Bagwell in his.

4. Magglio Ordonez: Wally Berger, apparently this guy was big for a few years in the 1930s, but I have never heard of him, a more modern comparison is Mike Sweeney.

5. Carlos Guillen: Julio Lugo. I think if you asked all of the managers in baseball who they would rather have on their team, Guillen or Lugo, they would all chose Guillen.

6. Craig Monroe: Craig Wilson. Wilson was a promising young power hitter a few years ago. He's now a platooning first baseman in Atalanta. Interestingly enough, Bubba Trammell made this list.

7. Sean Casey: Wally Joyner. I was a big Wally Joyner back in the day. I'll take this comparison.

8. Ivan Rodriguez: Ted Simmons, a great catcher in the 70s and 80s. Others on this list include Hall of Famers Cal Ripken, Gary Carter, and Johnny Bench.

9. Brandon Inge: Jose Valentin. Boy, that is right on the money, although I think Inge is better in the field. So the Tigers 2007 lineup is comparable to:

1. Reggie Sanders
2. Todd Walker
3. Jeff Bagwell
4. Mike Sweeney
5. Julio Lugo
6. Craig Wilson
7. Wally Joyner
8. Ted Simmons
9. Jose Valentin

Meh, not bad, how about the pitching...

Kenny Rogers: David Wells
Jeremy Bonderman: Jon Garland
Justin Verlander: Clark Griffith (Hall of Famer, have you ever heard of him? I sure haven't)
Nate Robertson: Ted Lilly

Not too bad either.