Season Grades

The Detroit Tigers' season ended on Sunday with a victory. They finished the season with a record of 72-90. Although to most teams this would have been a bad season, this was a great one for the Tigers. The Tigers finished 29 games better than last season when they were 43-119, the second worst record of all time. During the midseason I graded each player. Now I am going to grade each player based on the entire season.

Carlos Guillen A+
As I mentioned before,Carlos Guillen was the best player for the Tigers this season. The Tigers traded for him in the offseason and he has turned out to be a great player. He hit 20 homeruns, batted 318, and collected 97 RBIs. Pudge and him were the only Tigers named to the All Star Game.

Ivan Rodriguez A-
Pudge brought something special to the Tigers this season. Detroit signed him in the offseason to lead the team. I think he did that despite finishing the second half of the season on a bad note. During the first few months of the season he was batting close to 400. He finished the season with 19 homeruns,86 RBIs, and batted 334.

Brandon Inge B
At the start of this season when the Tigers got Pudge, it looked like the Tigers were going to trade Inge. They ended up not trading him and he paid them back with a great season. He hit 13 homers,knocked in 64 runs, and batted 287.

Carlos Pena B
This young first baseman had a very strong season, something that was expected out of him. He hit 27 homers(a team high),collected 82 RBIs, and was walked 70 times(tied with Higginson for first on the team). The one thing he must improve on is his terrible 241 batting average and his super high 147 strikeouts. He looks to be a future superstar.

Rondell White B-
This guy had a very solid season. He hit 19 homers, batted 270, and batted in 67 RBIs. These were the exact numbers Detroit was looking for when they signed him in the offseason.

Omar Infante B-
This young second baseman replaced the injured Vina early into the season. He did good in his place hitting 16 homers, collecting 55 RBIs, and batting 264. He looks to be a very good player in the near future.

Craiq Monroe B-
This is another young player who looks to be a star. He hit 18 homers, batted in 72 runs, and hit 293. He will be going into his third season in 2005.

Dmitri Young C+
The Tigers lost Dmitri Young,their offensive leader of 03, early in the season but he still came back to play in 104 games. He hit 18 homers and knocked in 60 runners. This was a bit of a down year after his allstar season in 03.

Bobby Higginson C
Higgy has been playing for the Tigers for a long time and this season started good but ended bad. He ended up with 12 homers and 46 RBIs. His top stat was probably his team best 70 walks.

Eric Munson C
The Tigers really expected more out of this guy after his great rookie season. He only got 49 RBIs and batted a terrible 212.

Alex Sanchez C-
Alex Sanchez had a bad season. He started the season batting first in the Tigers' lineup but he only got 7 walks. He had a 322 batting average but a weak 335 on-base percentage. He needs to step it up next season if he wants to regain the starting bat role.

Note-I only graded players who played in 75 or more games.

Final Thoughts
The Tigers offense really improved this season. Last season they had the worst offense in the MLB. This season they had 7 players who hit 18 homeruns or more. They also had 8 players who hit over 260 and had over 60 RBIs. Early in the season they were averaging the most runs a game out of the entire league. I think that they provided enough runs for the pitching staff on a fairly consistent basis. This lineup should be even better to watch next season with some of these younger players getting even better.

In the next few days, I will grade the pitching staff.