Casselberry: Plate Discipline: The Detroit Tigers’ Mantra Next Season?

And this all started with a can of Sardinha!

It can result in some tedious baseball.  Games against the Yankees and Red Sox seem to take far longer than those against other teams.  And when they play each other?  Set aside four hours of your time.  But it seems to yield winning results more often than not.  All three of those teams made it to the postseason.

Compare that to the Tigers, who continually let opposing pitchers off the hook by jumping on pitches early in the count.  Many times, pitchers had to throw less than 10 pitches to get out of an inning.  Only one regular starter, Brandon Inge, averaged more than four pitches (4.09) per plate appearance.  (Though Curtis Granderson was close at 3.96.)

That’s not to say that Tigers batters should never swing at the first pitch (which I know is a pet peeve for several fans).  You see your pitch, you attack it.  That seems to have been Lloyd McClendon’s philosophy as hitting coach.  So it’s troubling that he appears to be returning in that role for next season.  But perhaps he believes a change in approach is necessary, as well, and sold that to Jim Leyland and Dombrowski when his performance was up for review.

So is this an encouraging development going into next season?  Is it too early to say, before seeing if this new philosophy is actually enacted and yields some results?  Who are some current Tigers hitters that you think would benefit from a more patient, disciplined approach at the plate?