I was interested in looking at how Tigers pitchers performed in actual earned runs allowed compared to FIP and xFIP. Specifically, I was interested in seeing if certain types of Tigers pitchers either exceeded or failed to meet their saber expectations. More after the jump!

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So, having seen several people suggest that the Tigers sign Vladimir Guerrero to man the DH and play Victor primarily at catcher, I decided to do some analysis and see exactly what the Tigers would be gaining or losing from this proposition. 

First I decided to look at the defensive difference between Victor Martinez (VM) and Alex Avila (AA).

Last year, Martinez played 904 innings at catcher and Avila played 757.  In VM's 904 innings he had 126 stolen base attempts, or one every 7.2 innings (That's seven and one fifth innings, not seven innings and two outs).  In AA's 757 innings he had 63 stolen base attempts, or one every 12.0 innings.  This means that VM faces approximately 67 percent more stolen base attempts per unit of time than AA.  So, if VM logs 1458 (162 times 9) innings at catcher and has similar run on stats to last year, he'd face 203 stolen base attempts.  If AA logs 1458 innings at catcher and has similar run on stats to last year, he'd face 121 stolen base attempts.  If we divide these results by 162 we get the stolen base attempts per game for each catcher.  AA's is 0.75 stolen base attempts per game and VM's is 1.25 stolen base attempts per game.

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