The Tigers purchased the contract of DH Brad Eldred Friday, and he joins the team in New York as the Tigers begin a three-game series against the Yankees.
Eldred certainly earned the honor by demolishing International League pitching in a 20-game cameo with the Mud Hens.
Click here to read my story about Eldred in Friday's Blade that includes comments from Eldred, Mud Hens manager Phil Nevin, hitting coach Leon "Bull" Durham and teammate Ryan Strieby about Eldred.
Here are some of Brad Eldred's batting statistics from his 20 Toledo games this season, as well as Eldred's rank in the International League and among all players in minor-league baseball (through Wednesday's games).
Category Number IL rank MiLB rank
Batting average .388 2 21
Home runs 13 1 1
RBIs 35 1 1
Hits 31 1 tied 3
Doubles 9 tied 1 tied 6
Slugging percentage 1.013 1 1
Extra-base hits 23 1 1
Runs 23 1 2
Total bases 81 1 1
Here are a few crazy stats from Eldred's start to the 2012 season. ...
- Eldred had at least one hit in each of his 20 games this season. But he also had at least one hit in his last six games at Fresno last season, so he is working on a 26-game hit streak spread over two seasons.
- Speaking of streaks, Eldred has at least one RBI in 16 of the 20 games he has played this season. He also has a streak of 11 consecutive games with at least one RBI. During that streak he has a total of 26 RBIs ... and that total is greater than all but one player in the International League.
- Turning to home runs, Eldred obviously leads the IL with 13 home runs. He has more home runs than eight of the other 13 IL teams.
- Eldred has hit five home runs in his last three games. His home run total in those three days is higher than all but four other IL players.
- Eldred has a 1.013 slugging percentage, which is the best in the minor leagues. No other player in the minors has a slugging percentage that is above the .900 mark (next highest is .855 by Tyler Austin of Colorado Spring in the Triple-A PCL).
- Eldred has an OPS (on-base plus slugging) mark of 1.457. No other player in the minors has a OPS that is above the 1.300 mark (next highest is 1.272 of Evan Gattis of Lynchburg in the Hi-A Carolina League).
- If you take the best on-base percentage in the IL (Buffalo's Bobby Scales at .481) and the second-best slugging percentage (Pawtucket's Will Middlebrooks at .792), the combined 1.273 mark still doesn't equal Eldred's OPS.
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