Jackson, Cabrera, Fielder Best Tigers Hitting Trio Since '61

When the Tigers signed first baseman Prince Fielder in January, fans knew that he and Cabrera had a good chance to be the best Tigers batting duo in a long time.  For the most part, they have not disappointed.  Cabrera is batting .326 with 29 homers and a .978 OPS and  Fielder is hitting .310 with a .911 OPS.  The big surprise is that lead-off man Austin Jackson is right there with them batting .320 with a .915 OPS.  So, rather than compare Cabrera and Fielder to past Tigers pairs, I'm going to see where Cabrera, Fielder and Jackson rank among threesomes.

 Hitting performance can be measured by Batting Runs (BR) which was discussed in an earlier post.  In Summary, Batting Runs is the estimated number of runs a player would contribute to an average team beyond what an average player would have contributed in his place.  The Batting Runs statistic is described in more detail towards the bottom of the linked article.  (Note that "average" includes pitchers as is done at FanGraphs.com.  Baseball-Reference.com does not include pitchers, so their Batting Runs totals are lower.)

Cabrera has 37 Batting Runs so far this year.  So, he has contributed 37 runs above what an average player would have been expected to contribute in the same number of outs.  In addition to Cabrera, Fielder and Jackson have 26 Batting Runs apiece giving them a total of 89 Batting Runs.  Over the course of a 162 game season that would translate to 130 Batting Runs.

The Tigers all-time best Batting Runs trios are shown in Table 1 below.  The list is headed by the 1961 group of Norm Cash (90 BR), Rocky Colavito (58) and Al Kaline (44) with a total of 192.  All of the other combinations did their work prior to World War II which is generally the case when one looks at all-time best Tigers offensive producers.  Cabrera, Fielder and AJax would need to pick up their current pace to crack the all-time top ten.


  Table 1: All-Time Best Tigers Batting Runs Trio

Year	Player 1	BR	Player 2	BR	Player 3	BR	Total BR
1961	Norm Cash	90	Rocky Colavito	58	Al Kaline	44	192
1911	Ty Cobb	93	Sam Crawford	59	Jim Delahanty	35	187
1940	Hank Greenberg	78	Rudy York	57	Charlie Gehringer	37	172
1938	Hank Greenberg	79	Rudy York	45	Charlie Gehringer	45	169
1937	Hank Greenberg	79	Charlie Gehringer	56	Rudy York	34	169
1921	Harry Heilmann	65	Ty Cobb	56	Bobby Veach	35	156
1925	Harry Heilmann	59	Ty Cobb	50	Al Wingo	39	149
1917	Ty Cobb	81	Bobby Veach	43	Donie Bush	17	141
1935	Hank Greenberg	66	Charlie Gehringer	42	Mickey Cochrane	33	140
1909	Ty Cobb	73	Sam Crawford	39	Donie Bush	25	137

Data Source: Baseball-Databank.org


Table 2 displays the best Tigers Batting Runs trios since 1946.  It shows that if Cabrera, Fielder, Jackson troika continues at the same pace for the rest of the season, they would have the best total since 1961.  Other recent groups include Magglio Ordonez, Curtis Granderson and Placido Polanco with 122 in 2007 and Cabrera, Alex Avila and Victor Martinez with 116 in 2011.

So, the Tigers current big three of Cabrera, Fielder and Jackson is in good company if they can maintain their performance and there is no reason they can't.  
  

Table 2: Best Tigers Batting Runs Trios Since 1946

Year	Player 1	BR	Player 2	BR	Player 3	BR	Total BR
1961	Norm Cash	90	Rocky Colavito	58	Al Kaline	44	192
2012	Miguel Cabrera	54*	Prince Fielder	38*	Austin Jackson	38*	131*
1959	Eddie Yost	44	Al Kaline	43	Harvey Kuenn	41	129
2007	Magglio Ordonez	62	Curtis Granderson	37	Placido Polanco	23	122
1956	Charlie Maxwell	43	Al Kaline	42	Ray Boone	35	121
2011	Miguel Cabrera	65	Alex Avila	28	Victor Martinez	23	116
1950	Vic Wertz	42	Hoot Evers	39	George Kell	34	114
1946	Hank Greenberg	52	Roy Cullenbine	44	George Kell	17	113
1967	Al Kaline	49	Bill Freehan	33	Dick McAuliffe	27	109
1962	Rocky Colavito	37	Al Kaline	35	Norm Cash	34	107
1968	Willie Horton	43	Bill Freehan	36	Jim Northrup	25	104

Data Source: Baseball-Databank.org
*Extrapolated to 162 games