Tigers Fans: Woods or Sheets?

I'll be the first to admit I was totally wrong in my assesment of Hanshin's acquistion of Sheets. I was pretty ticked off when we missed out on Woods, but at the moment, I'd stay with Sheets. Not only has Sheets performed with the bat, but he has been outstanding defensively at first base. Hes really made some fantastic plays there!

Anyone else?

Even though I'm a Hawks fan, and I wasn't as high on Sheets this off-season, Sheets has made me unquestion his doubts I had about him.

I would have to say that Sheets has impressed me a little more than Woods has so far. That's nothing to take away from Woods, who's also had a great year, but I think Sheets has had a slightly better year.

"No" is the simple answer. Woods has underperformed and I'm afraid the Dragons paid too much.

Tinkering with your team when they're 5 clear at the top of the league is asking for trouble. Sheets is doing well enough.

With no doubt SHEETS! He is a complete baseball player, Woods is just a guy that can hit the ball far if he swings at it and doesn't miss it! Sheets will give you RBIs, clutch hits, and his defensive skills are 200% better than Woods'. Plus, after Woods charged the mound, I don't have any respect for him. He made foreing players and people over all look very stupid. We made the right choice. Sheets is our man!

LETS GO TIGERS!

I've gotta disagree. Woods' stock rose a bunch after he charged the mound. They lost him for a few games, but a beanball isn't always just a beanball, and showing the pitcher he doesn't have diplomatic immunity to deadball batters is important. It's good for the clubhouse atmosphere.

The Dragons lost tonight, but are still only three games back, if my memory serves correct. Sheets has been superb, but T. Woods is a monster just waiting to launch the ball during the stretch.

Dragons are taking the division. No disrespect intended to the Hanshin fans, I hate kyoujin as much as all of y'all.

Ahhh did you actually see it?

Firstly, he didn't charge the mound, and secondly, it wasn't actually a beanball! It was high and inside, but not even close to hitting him. A gross overreaction.

His stocks didn't rise! It just showed up a frustrated slugger. I hope the pitchers chip away at this weakness.

I think he wouldn't have done that if it was a foreign pitcher on the mound. Anyway. I would take Sheets before Woods any day, even if Woods hit 50 home runs - those don't win games. When Barry Bonds hit 72 did the Giants win the World Series? Big NO!

LET'S GO TIGERS!

I've gotta correct you on a couple of things Mooch.

One, it was 73 and they only missed the playoffs by one game (Jeff Kent was the slumping guy that year and their main production was Bonds and Aurillia, nobody else on the team was hitting).

Two, Sheets is having an awesome year and he fits in well with the team chemistry, but Tyrone has increased his average about 40+ points (which coincides with the 12 game unbeaten streak). The Dragons also went into a huge funk after Tyrone got his suspension, so it can be argued that Tyrone is the key to the team.

Finally, I'm curious about what you mean by him not charging the mound against a foreign player. Why wouldn't he charge a foreign pitcher if he thought the guy was throwing at him?

They missed the playoffs! So did the Cubs and Cardinals in '98. Home runs don't win games.

Now, he knew that a Japanese player wasn't necessarily going to attack back, that's not their nature. A foreign pitcher, like Davey from the Carp, would've probably knocked him out.

LET'S GO TIGERS!

Home runs alone don't win championships but they help alot. You don't think that the bats of Cabrera, Wada, and Fernandez had anything to do with the Lions' pennant last year? I think you're oversimplifying it.

I also wouldn't bet against Woods in a fight. He's a powerful guy who used to be a firefighter, so I don't really see him being afraid of a fight. If you want call him a hothead or an idiot, that's fine, but I don't see any evidence that he wouldn't have hit a foreign pitcher if he thought the guy was throwing at his head. Does Davey get in a lot of fights with other foreign players?

OK. This thread is starting to get out of control. Woods apologized for the incident, served his time, it's over.

My biggest complaint about Woods while at Yokohama was his lack of clutch hitting. He led the league with 40 home runs in 2003, but drove in only 87 runs. His batting average for the season was .273, but with runners in scoring position dropped to .237! His home runs were a great crowd pleaser, but they did not contribute to winning games. (Yes, a large part of the problem was a pitching staff stricken with ippatsu-byou.)

Woods improved during the first half of 2004, actually driving runs in with those home runs. But he ended the season even worse in the RISP category at .223.

Sheets and Woods are both batting in the mid .280s. But with runners in scoring position, Sheets is over .300 while Woods is in the .260s. (I must say, a huge improvement over last season.)

Interestingly, Sheets has more overall hits and doubles while Woods has just under twice as many home runs, but they come out pretty even in the total bases and RBI categories. So as far as driving in runs in concerned, they're actually both fairly even.

In a close ball game, though, I'd rather have Sheets up with two down and a runner at second than Woods. Woods if the bases were empty.

Naturally, right after I say I'd rather have Sheets up with two down and a runner at second in a close game, Woods breaks a 4-4 tie in the 7th inning last night (August 4th) in a 2-out, runners at first and second situation. Well, I didn't say that he never comes through.

Nonetheless, this was the fifth losing streak that Woods has broken with the game winning RBI. To date, the Dragons' losing streaks have been broken like this:

Date Games Opposition Score GWRBI
---- ----- ---------- ----- ---------
4/10   3   Giants      10-0 Woods
5/08   2   Orix         8-6 N/A
  14   4   Softbank     3-2 Ibata
  18   2   Nippon Ham  11-4 Inoue
  27   5   Softbank     8-5 Woods
6/15   4   Orix         2-0 Tanishige
  23   2   Hanshin      9-3 Araki
  29   2   Yokohama     5-4 Woods
7/06   3   Giants       2-1 Woods
8/04   2   Yakult       5-4 Woods

As you can see, it's been a long time since the Dragons have lost as many as two in a row. They're still very much in this race and coming on strong.