Patience Is A Virtue
By Blake VandeBunte • Apr 14th, 2009 • Category: 2009 Season, Brandon IngeBrandon Inge has been with the Tigers organization since 1998 and has been in the big leagues since 2001. Over that time Tigers fans have loved and hated Inge. Those two groups have varying opinions about him, including:
- Good: He’s got a lot of power.
- Bad: He strikes out way too much.
- Good: He’s amazing on defense.
- Bad: He has often complained about his role with the team.
- Good: He’s loyal to the Tigers.
- Bad: Hits for a very low average.
Whether you were with the good crowd or the bad crowd, both crowds could agree on one thing about Inge’s game: He just did not take a lot of walks.
In 2005, Inge drew 63 walks, which is his career high. Those 63 walks ranked him 49th in all of baseball in walks. While that is respectable, he could hardly be considered a world-beater in the category.
Inge has been terrific so far in 2009. He’s hitting for power. He’s made a number of dazzling plays at third base and he’s even hitting for a decent batting average. Perhaps more surprising than any of that is that Brandon Inge is drawing some walks.
In nine games this season, Inge has seven walks. Even though this is a small sample size, it’s certainly an encouraging trend. Those seven walks are the fourth most in the American League. 2005 is often cited as Inge’s best season and it had a lot to do with those walks.
Players who draw walks enjoy all kinds of other perks. They wear pitchers out. The more pitches a batter a sees, the more likely he is to see a mistake. While Brandon Inge is hardly a batting champion, he is certainly capable of hitting a mistake into the seats.
So yeah, it’s only nine games into the season, but we have to like we’re seeing from Inge in almost every respect.
Blake VandeBunte is a posting fiend.
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When did you fall in love with Inge?
Great article and an even better argument that has continued on FoxSports (my normal hangout).
I think the player you are talking about is Brandon Cringe though…
(toss me in the hate category)
I have failed to understand how a career .225 hitter (round about) has managed to play that bad for Detroit yet half of Tiger Nation treats him like he’s gold! Zero gold gloves, low OB%, high strikeout rate and up until Sundays game zero clutch at bats. Most players who hit that low remain in AAA, yet Brandon is everyones hero. While he does dive into the stands and make the occasional trick play…More often he’s doing to much..Check the stat sheet A plethora of errors on his rap sheet.
So who’s better? Well we are left eating his contract through 2010. We could do worse don’t get me wrong but man we could do sooooo much better. I hope he makes me eat my own words (believe me) if Brandon bats .275 with an average amount of walks and decent power it makes us just that much better. However all through spring training I was forced to listen to people talk about “Inge is hitting .375 this spring” “Inge is gonna win a gold glove” “Inge should be an all star” etc Making me wonder if section 100 Field Box Row AA was suddenly FantasyLand. *Note he finished at what .240 this Spring! So I’m not being rude but the recent Inge buzz because he is batting .269 is killing me. Is that great? We all know it will be .230 in September!
Til’ then Larish on third, Cringe is a turd!
I feel your pain on Inge. I have never understood the Tigers fans obsession with him. He’s had two years where he has been an about average player, 2005 and 2006. We are three years removed from his glory days yet you will still see more Inge jersey’s at Comerica Park than any other jersey.
If, and this is a big “if”, Inge can hit .260 and keep up the level of D he brings to third, he’s probably worth his contract. We’ll see if that happens.
if Derek Jeter is a gold-glove shortstop, then I don’t want a gold glover.
That’s a good point. I really don’t need Brandon Inge to win a Gold Glove since they are voted on mainly by reputation and popularity. Derek Jeter has ranked towards the bottom in most fielding stats for years now but has still managed to win a few GG. As long as we can keep seeing Inge make nice plays, I’m happy with his defense. A GG proves nothing.
How can u people say that you don’t understand detroit’s obsession with Brandon Inge? He was here when they almost lost 100 games, he was here when they made it to the world series. He has been moved and shuffled in the field and the line up but he still goes out there and gives it his all on defense, His hitting may not be the best( ok really bad ill admit) but he is the spirit of the tigers and he represents detroit so i say that detroit’s feelings toward inge are based on his dedication and determination along with feilding than his slugging percentage.
Excellent points, Blake, as usual. I am also not a Brandon Inge fan, and I never have been. I think I began cursing him out at Comerica Park in 2003 when he struggled to stay above the Mendoza line for the second straight year. I too have never understood this town’s obsession with Inge. Tigers fans treat Inge like Pistons fans used to treat Ben Wallace; he can do no wrong. The difference, of course, is that Big Ben was making All-Star teams and winning Defensive Player-of-the-Year awards, while Inge has not even come close to the baseball equivalent of that kind of performance.
By the way, Jacob, Bondo and Nate were also here when we lost 119 games in 2003. There is not the type of love for them that Inge sees, and I would dare to say that at least Bonderman has gotten more out of his potential than Inge.
In all honesty, if he wasn’t a foreign-born player, and fans could relate to him better, I think Carlos Guillen would be to Tigers fans what Brandon Inge is right now. He exhibits all of the things that you listed about Inge, Jacob, and he actually performs at an above-average level, as exhibited by his 3 All Star appearances.
Great point about Guillen. I think all fans like him, but you’d be hard pressed to find fans that love him like they love Inge.
Also, I have no problem with people loving Inge. They can go right ahead, I just don’t understand it at all.