1971 Recap: Although never truly in a position to catch the Red Sox, Detroit stayed in the race all season long and, if we were still playing single-division baseball, would have finished in the same place in the league as they did in the division.
1972 Outlook: There's no reason to think Boston will fall off but should that happen, the Tigers are right there to pick up the slack.
Pitching
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Code:
Pitching Age BT W L WL % ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9
Molina, Edgar 26 RR 19 14 .576 3.47 36 35 0 11 2 0 259.1 256 117 100 29 85 11 183 1.315 100.0 1.0 2.9 6.4
Rubio, Bruce 23 RR 16 10 .615 3.03 35 35 0 7 3 0 261.1 244 101 88 18 91 8 165 1.282 100.0 0.6 3.1 5.7
Merino, Juan 24 SR 12 12 .500 3.86 31 31 0 4 1 0 226.0 210 105 97 28 88 8 144 1.319 100.0 1.1 3.5 5.7
Goddard, Jimmy 31 SR 19 8 .704 2.59 33 29 0 6 4 0 226.0 187 75 65 12 68 2 149 1.128 100.0 0.5 2.7 5.9
Madrigal, Alex 31 LR 9 7 .563 2.24 50 0 42 0 0 20 76.1 56 22 19 8 30 5 44 1.127 100.0 0.9 3.5 5.2
Marceau, Jim 30 RR 5 3 .625 2.22 54 0 38 0 0 11 69.0 63 22 17 9 24 3 66 1.261 100.0 1.2 3.1 8.6
Khoury, Nate 24 LL 3 2 .600 2.61 45 0 18 0 0 3 48.1 45 15 14 5 15 0 19 1.241 100.0 0.9 2.8 3.5
Bryan, Danny 30 SR 0 4 .000 3.79 31 7 13 0 0 0 80.2 74 40 34 9 42 2 47 1.438 100.0 1.0 4.7 5.2
McGranahan, Chris 33 RR 4 5 .444 4.39 30 13 8 1 0 1 104.2 107 53 51 15 21 1 44 1.223 100.0 1.3 1.8 3.8
Coffey, Kent 26 SR 2 2 .500 5.05 6 6 0 1 1 0 41.0 39 23 23 1 26 2 22 1.585 100.0 0.2 5.7 4.8
Rouser, Shane 28 RR 1 1 .500 3.49 5 4 1 0 0 0 28.1 21 11 11 2 19 0 19 1.412 100.0 0.6 6.0 6.0
Schmidt, Romain 34 LL 1 0 1.000 5.54 10 0 6 0 0 0 13.0 14 10 8 2 15 0 8 2.231 100.0 1.4 10.4 5.5
Diaz, Benito 31 SR 0 0 .000 2.89 2 1 0 0 0 0 9.1 5 3 3 1 4 0 5 0.964 100.0 1.0 3.9 4.8
Cranfill, Joey 27 RR 1 0 1.000 1.13 1 1 0 0 0 0 8.0 6 1 1 0 4 0 5 1.250 100.0 0.0 4.5 5.6
Krug, Niklas 30 RR 0 0 .000 21.00 5 0 0 0 0 0 3.0 7 7 7 1 3 0 3 3.333 100.0 3.0 9.0 9.0
Vaughn, Robbie 26 LL 0 1 .000 2.25 4 0 2 0 0 0 4.0 5 1 1 0 1 0 3 1.500 100.0 0.0 2.3 6.8
Ruiz, Alex 25 RR 0 0 .000 --- 1 0 0 0 0 0 0.0 3 2 2 0 0 0 0 --- --- --- --- ---
Code:
Starting Pitching GS Wgs Lgs ND Wchp LTuf WTm LTm tmW-L% CG SHO QS QS% GmScA Best Wrst sDR lDR RS/GS RS/9 IP/GS Pit/GS <80 80-99 100-119 >=120 Max
Molina, Edgar 35 19 14 2 2 7 21 14 0.600 11 2 25 71% 55 85 17 17 10 3.7 4.6 7.3 110 4 5 16 10 175
Rubio, Bruce 35 16 10 9 2 2 22 13 0.629 7 3 24 69% 57 83 30 15 10 3.5 4.2 7.5 113 3 4 15 13 169
Merino, Juan 31 12 12 7 0 2 14 17 0.452 4 1 19 61% 53 79 34 8 13 3.1 3.9 7.3 111 0 7 17 7 149
Goddard, Jimmy 29 19 8 2 5 6 21 8 0.724 6 4 22 76% 60 87 26 16 4 4.0 4.8 7.4 109 0 7 15 7 145
McGranahan, Chris 13 4 5 4 1 1 7 6 0.538 1 0 7 54% 46 74 17 2 4 3.8 5.2 6.5 91 1 10 2 0 101
Bryan, Danny 7 0 3 4 0 2 2 5 0.286 0 0 5 71% 50 68 11 1 5 2.1 3.0 6.5 103 1 2 3 1 138
Coffey, Kent 6 2 2 2 0 0 2 4 0.333 1 1 3 50% 47 80 19 0 5 2.7 3.5 6.8 110 0 1 4 1 123
Rouser, Shane 4 1 1 2 0 1 1 3 0.250 0 0 3 75% 55 64 44 1 3 1.8 2.3 6.8 113 0 0 3 1 120
Diaz, Benito 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 1.000 0 0 1 100% 52 52 52 0 1 1.0 1.4 6.3 83 0 1 0 0 83
Cranfill, Joey 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1.000 0 0 1 100% 67 67 67 0 1 3.0 3.4 8.0 128 0 0 0 1 128
Code:
Relief Pitching GR Wgr Lgr SVOpp Sv BSv SV% SvSit Hld IR IRS IRS% ALi LevHi LevMd LevLo Run Emp <3O >3O 0DR 1DR 2DR 3+DR Out/GR Pit/GR
Marceau, Jim 54 5 3 12 11 1 92% 17 5 31 9 23% 1.387 19 23 23 14 40 11 16 9 16 7 22 3.8 20
Madrigal, Alex 50 9 7 24 20 4 83% 26 2 18 4 18% 1.899 26 12 12 9 41 4 25 10 15 11 14 4.6 22
Khoury, Nate 45 3 2 7 3 4 43% 12 5 19 7 27% 1.029 10 19 19 14 31 9 8 9 9 11 16 3.2 16
Bryan, Danny 24 0 1 0 0 0 0% 0 0 10 2 17% 0.494 1 19 19 8 16 4 12 3 5 0 16 4.4 26
McGranahan, Chris 17 0 0 2 1 1 50% 4 2 7 1 13% 1.083 4 11 11 5 12 1 4 4 2 2 9 3.6 17
Schmidt, Romain 10 1 0 0 0 0 0% 2 2 4 2 33% 0.538 2 7 7 3 7 0 3 1 2 3 4 3.9 26
Krug, Niklas 5 0 1 1 1 0 100% 1 0 3 1 25% 1.132 2 3 3 2 3 1 4 0 0 1 4 4.2 31
Goddard, Jimmy 4 0 0 0 0 0 0% 1 1 4 1 20% 0.486 1 3 3 3 1 0 3 0 0 0 4 8.0 43
Vaughn, Robbie 4 0 1 0 0 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0% 0.841 0 2 2 0 4 1 1 1 0 0 3 3.0 20
Diaz, Benito 1 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0% 0.182 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 9.0 42
Molina, Edgar 1 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0% 0.800 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 9.0 60
Rouser, Shane 1 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0% 0.075 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 3.0 14
Ruiz, Alex 1 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 2 3 60% 0.275 0 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0.0 9
In the last 2 seasons, the Tigers have shipped off two of their best starting pitchers in Vince Akright and Jason Gilmer and yet starting pitching continues to be one of their top positions.
Edgar Molina was the team's workhorse, if not necessarily their most effective starter. The Dominican has been a starter for Detroit for 4 years now and has a 63-60 record to show for it. 1971 saw him hit a career high in wins, although his K rate of 6.4/9 innings was well off what he did the previous 2 seasons (a league-best 8.1 in '69 and 8.3 in 1970). In a perfect world, he'd probably benefit from pitching less.
Jimmy Goddard, on the other hand, was handled with kid gloves after missing most of 1970 with a torn labrum, and as a result he put in a season that saw the Tigers go 21-8 in his 29 starts. He even threw almost as many innings per start as Molina did in spite of only completing 6 games the entire season.
This is a team that is pretty well set in the rotation should
Bruce Rubio come back from the torn triceps he suffered at the very end of the season. All accounts indicate that he'll be ready to go by spring training but it's a fairly big speedbump for a guy who's kind of expected to fill the shoes of Vince Akright, whom he was traded for (to be fair he was one of several players coming back in that deal).
Juan Merino rounds out the rotation. He's the epitome of a .500 pitcher, which is just fine for a 4th starter. Should one of these guys fail to go the Tigers also have
Chris McGranahan, liberated from Milwaukee in May; he posted a 1.08 ERA with the Brewers but a 4.39 with Detroit.
Alex Madrigal is a guy who got results last year almost in spite of himself: posting a 44/30 K/W ratio, he nevertheless went 20-24 in save opportunities and allowed only 18% of inherited runners to score. It was a similar year for his setup guy
Jim Marceau, who also filled in while Madrigal was out with an injury over the summer, although Marceau did strike out 66 men in 69 innings the way a short reliever is supposed to.
Nate Khoury's 45 games pitched feels like the upper limit of how I'm capable of using lefty specialists - AGAIN I will try to get better at that.
Batting
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Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos
Farinelli, Gianluigi 30 RR 126 465 53 127 22 2 13 69 40 105 0 0 13 .273 .333 .413 2*
Forgey, Trey 29 RR 42 124 6 23 4 2 1 12 19 23 0 0 3 .185 .288 .274 2
Bostic, Craig 30 RR 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 /2
Gianluigi Farinelli has all but made Detroit fans forget about the now-retired Scott Woodcock since he took over for him in 1970 (he was also listed as the team's starter in 1965!). The Venezuelan has been embraced by Detroit's Italian-American community, who calls him "the Badalisc" after the Italian mythological creature. He missed out on the All-Star Game last year although truth be told he probably deserved more than in 1970. Still only 30, he could easily be the team's catcher of the 1970s.
Trey Forgey is no threat to do much of anything except back Farinelli up and even then the Tigers will probably want to find someone better.
Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos
Suman, Tim 24 SR 108 276 35 89 14 0 6 40 15 17 0 0 10 .322 .358 .438 3
Valdez, Danny 28 LL 47 131 13 31 5 0 3 12 14 26 0 1 3 .237 .308 .344 3
Lauda, Niki 22 LL 17 17 7 8 1 0 1 4 5 2 0 0 0 .471 .591 .706 /3
Barrientos, Alfonso 26 LL 3 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 .000 .333 .000
Villegas, Danny 34 RR 110 384 64 111 14 1 29 76 58 72 2 0 6 .289 .393 .557 43
Ramone, Joey 22 RR 68 254 35 87 17 4 6 34 31 49 3 2 9 .343 .411 .512 4
Hernandez, Ivan 25 RR 53 89 12 15 3 0 3 13 11 17 1 0 3 .169 .255 .303 4/6
Perez, Alex 27 RR 6 14 3 3 1 0 0 0 1 4 0 0 0 .214 .267 .286 /4
Ayala, Jose 30 RR 135 460 49 123 16 0 16 52 35 76 0 1 15 .267 .317 .407 53
Curran, Rob 24 LR 107 269 33 66 12 1 3 21 41 60 0 3 9 .245 .335 .331 56
Busby, Don 26 RR 12 12 2 1 0 0 0 0 3 4 0 0 0 .083 .267 .083 /5
Mullen, Matt 30 RR 137 402 28 91 13 2 0 27 23 76 5 5 11 .226 .266 .269 6*
Rose, Josh 26 RR 64 69 5 14 2 1 1 9 7 10 0 0 2 .203 .276 .304 6/4
Tim Suman did well as the de facto starter last year but is probably out of a job at least for 1972 because
Danny Villegas figures to move to first base full time after playing 32 games there late in the season. Villegas has a severe problem staying in shape and it's hoped that the move to the easier position will help with that. Down the line, rumors abound that the American League will adopt a designated hitter rule, a role that would be ideal for this guy. When healthy, he's got the ability to lead the league in HRs, at least in a year when Ernesto Garcia isn't playing the entire season. Suman will still in all likelihood get a lot of play as a pinch-hitter and a caddy for Villegas. Race car driver
Niki Lauda is also an intriguing prospect.
Part of what made Villegas' move to first look like such a good idea was the emergence of punk rocker
Joey Ramone, who in his off time fronts a band composed of him and his brothers. It just sounds like noise to us but what do we know? We're old. Ramone would have contended for the batting title had he been called up earlier in the year. There were actually a whole bunch of young stars who emerged last season and while I wouldn't necessarily label Ramone as the brightest light of them all, he's got a chance to be.
Jose "Joker" Ayala keeps moving around from first to third. He's a classic tweener which unfortunately also means he's got a third baseman's bat but a first baseman's glove. He fielded only .941 with poor range last year, which isn't great but could be a lot worse.
Rob Curran, Washington's starter in 1970, exists as a guy who could challenge him at the position. He's a much, much better fielder but his hitting approaches middle infielder levels of futility.
And speaking of futile-hitting middle infielders...
Matt Mullen is about as "good field no hit" as you can get in the league now that John Timonem is a backup. He did hit .226 but, well, it was about as empty a .226 as you'll ever see out of a non-pitcher. He's an excellent shortstop, good enough to maybe even rival Oniji Handa out there, which is why he stayed in the lineup all season long. Well, that and the fact that potential replacements
Josh Rose and
Ivan Hernandez are even worse as hitters.
Dave Abramowitz (watch this space) is the Tigers' #4 prospect and top middle infield guy who the team will probably want to play a full year in AAA before fully challening Mullen. He
Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos
Dittmar, Adam 29 RR 135 460 71 121 19 2 15 72 75 89 22 14 6 .263 .366 .411 739/8
Thompson, Guillermo 28 RR 126 497 59 120 22 10 1 45 22 59 11 3 15 .241 .271 .332 79
Birley, Joshua 26 LL 16 29 4 11 1 0 1 2 0 2 0 2 1 .379 .367 .517 /7
Romero, Alvin 25 LL 129 531 98 178 34 6 8 48 48 45 50 10 2 .335 .385 .467 8*
Swan, Bill 25 RR 51 138 19 26 1 0 5 12 11 30 0 1 4 .188 .247 .304 87/93
Irwin, Bob 28 RR 23 79 14 25 2 1 3 16 1 9 2 3 1 .316 .317 .481 8/7
Contreras, Chris 27 LL 88 322 34 83 15 3 5 46 11 41 1 2 6 .258 .287 .370 9
Harpst, Corey 29 RR 32 104 11 24 3 0 1 7 7 18 1 1 2 .231 .277 .288 9/87
Adam Dittmar essentially split the difference between an All-Star 1969 campaign and a disappointing 1970 to become... a league average left fielder. The Tigers would really like to have more than that.
Guillermo Thompson is a possibility there as well. Thompson's season was a tale of two halves: after hitting .200 and losing his job through the month of July, he rallied to hit .355 in August and .278 in December to kind of salvage his season. He hit .290 or better each of the previous 3 seasons and frankly that's the level he needs to hit to be effective.
Joshua Birley is also around but seems like basically a poor man's Guillermo Thompson.
Alvin Romero is not a guy with a bad personality or smelly feet or anything; the fact that he played for his 3rd team in 3 years is just a thing that happened. If anything he seemed determined to prove California and Washington wrong about him: before he got hurt, he was making a case to not just be the best leadoff man in baseball but the best pure hitter, period. It also seems, on the downside of things, that his high-flying, gutsy style of play caused him to miss 34 games last year and will probably put him on the DL every year for a stretch.
I'm not at all convinced that
Chris Contreras is the answer in right field. Like Thompson, he's a former high-average hitter who didn't hit for average last year. At this point it seems likely that Detroit will go with THompson over him. Another option is some sort of platoon arrangement. Their top outfield prospect,
Coby Plunk (yeah right, like that's going to be his name when he debuts) is probably at least a year away and projects as yet another hitter in the Thompson/Contreras mold, perhaps with a bit more plate discipline.