Man, today I figured I’d check out the Detroit Tigers and Houston Astros player stats, see what’s really goin’ on between these teams. Seemed like a neat thing to share. Started simple, y’know? Just me, my laptop, and a cold soda.
Getting the Raw Stuff First
Fired up the MLB website official section. Wanted the basic numbers – hits, runs, who struck out a ton, who actually got on base sometimes. Copied all that info for both teams into a big messy text file. Took ages, felt like forever honestly. My eyes started crossin’ halfway through the Tigers lineup.
Spreadsheet Hell
Okay, dumped everything into Excel. Opened it up, pasted it all in. Boom. Instant chaos. Columns mashed together, names lookin’ weird. Sighed big time. Spent like half an hour just cleanin’ things up, deleting extra spaces, makin’ sure “Miguel Cabrera” wasn’t showing up as “Mig uelCa bera” or somethin’ stupid like that. Used some simple filters. Just wanted to see simple things:
- Who swings at EVERYTHING? (Seriously, some guys must have holes in their bats.)
- Which pitchers keep guys from even touchin’ the base? (Kinda important!)
- Did anyone suddenly start hittin’ like crazy last month? Or just fall apart?
Sorta basic stuff.
Staring at Numbers Till My Brain Hurts
Then came the real staring contest. Just lookin’ at rows and rows of numbers for both teams. Flipped back and forth between the Tigers sheet and the Astros sheet. Tried to spot differences, y’know? Like:
- Houston’s middle guys: Whoa, these dudes in positions 4 through 6? They hit the ball hard, like all the dang time. Way more consistent than Detroit’s fellas, honestly.
- Detroit’s starters: Okay, couple of their pitchers could go pretty long without givin’ up much. But then? The relief guys they bring in later? Yikes. Big time struggle city. Those numbers kinda plummeted.
- Lefties vs Righties for ‘Stros: Took me a while to notice, but yeah – the Astros have way tougher times against pitchers who throw left-handed. Like, noticeable difference in how they hit.
I wrote down the main bits in my note app as I saw them. Kept it simple, just “HOU mids crush ball” and “DET bullpen = bad news.”
My Big Conclusion? Not Rocket Science
After all that fussin’ and cleanin’ and staring? Couple things jumped out real clear:
- If you wanna beat the Astros? Find a good left-handed pitcher. That seems to mess ’em up way more.
- With the Tigers? Get past that first pitcher quick. Once their relief guys gotta come in? That’s when you gotta start swingin’. They look shaky back there.
- And honestly? The Astros just have way more guys you actually gotta worry about hitting the dang ball every game.
Put all my scribbles together into one blog post draft. Added some thoughts about what it might mean when they play each other. Felt kinda cool actually seein’ the patterns hidden in the numbers, even if it felt like busywork for a bit. Ain’t no fancy prediction, just some stuff the stats made obvious when you sit down and force yourself to look at ’em.
