Detroit Tigers
95-61, 1st AL East, Won ALCS 3-0, Won World Series 4-1
1972 Outlook: The Tigers rebounded well from a rough 1970 season, winning 82 games and getting within 10 games of the division winner for the first time since 1967. This is a team that had never even won the pennant during the single-division era and in fact their 2nd place finish was the high water mark for a team that had finished dead last 6 times in their history. Things were looking up... maybe a dream season was even in store...
1972 In Review: And what a dream year it was! Detroit started out fast - 8-3 in April, 26-11 through May - and never looked back. The closest anyone really got was the O's pushed to 3 games back on July 12 following a couple losses to the Texas Rangers but from that day onwards they went 49-30, winning what was supposed to be a competitive AL East in a romp. And they didn't stop there, sweeping the Angels and then coming extremely close to doing the same to Pittsburgh. All in all they had a balanced approach, 2nd in the AL in runs scored (3rd overall) and 4th in the league in runs allowed (5th overall).
1973 Outlook: The guys who got them there are for the most part pretty young so this was not a one-hit wonder. Look out, 1970s!
Pitching
Jimmy Goddard
RHP No. 50
SR, 5'11" 197 lbs.
Born 1940-03-16 in Arabi, LA
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 DET MLB 2 2 0 3.20 11 10 1 73.0 62 31 26 30 49
1971 DET MLB 19 8 0 2.58 33 29 6 226.0 187 75 65 68 149
1972 DET MLB 18 13 0 2.33 41 41 11 311.2 263 92 81 95 184
Using Goddard so heavily only a year and a half removed from a partially torn labrum in his throwing shoulder that caused him to miss most of the 1970 season was tempting fate but for one year at least the Tigers won out. Goddard managed to stay healthy the entire year and led the league in games started and innings pitched. He then followed that up with 2 complete games in the postseason, including a 7-0 shutout of the Pirates in the Series-clinching Game 5.
Goddard has a pretty unconventional pitch assortment. Mostly he just throws it fast, well, as fast as he's known to throw it - he might break 90 on a good day - and changes speed and location to get outs. He finished in the top 10 in strikeouts but that was more of a side effect of pitching so many innings over actually creating a lot of whiffs. What he does excel at is allowing weak contact and forcing you to beat him. He allowed only 10 HRs last year, good for the 4th best HR/9 mark in the AL (0.29). Known for his robot-like consistency, Goddard also led the league in quality starts with 33.
He won't win the Cy Young but at age 33, Goddard has put together the 2 best years of his career at an age when most pitchers are exiting their prime, not entering it.
Edgar Molina
RHP No. 32
RR, 6'2" 191 lbs.
Born 1944-10-13 in La Romana, DOM
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 DET MLB 13 16 0 3.68 34 34 12 258.2 226 115 106 94 238
1971 DET MLB 19 14 0 3.47 36 35 11 259.1 256 117 100 85 183
1972 DET MLB 21 11 0 3.09 40 40 15 305.0 234 111 105 108 264
Molina is the hard-throwing counterpart to Goddard. I think I mentioned someone else throwst the fastest ball of any starter in the AL. Well, I did not notice Molina's stuff. Molina hits the mid to high 90s with some regularity. In 1972 he set a new career high in innings pitched and led the league in strikeouts for the 2nd time in his career. He also led the league in complete games and finished in the top 10 in winning percentage (.656, 6th), innings (2nd to Goddard), K/W ratio (2.44, 7th), and shutouts (6, 4th). It was a pretty great year from start to finish, although he might have killed his Cy Young chances with a 2-3, 4.98 September (not to worry about that being a harbinger - Molina went right back to success in the postseason with a 3-0, 2.54 record that included an 11 inning performance in Game 4 that broke the Pirates' back).
Molina's a guy who will just straight-up challenge you. He throws so much gas, he's just going to blow things past you most of the time. He also has a slider with a ton of bite that he'll mix in with the riser to get that 3rd strike, a forkball, and a change. The one downside of his all-or-nothing approach is that he is prone to give up the longball, especially in his home park: he's led the league in HRs allowed in 3 of the last 4 seasons and the one year he didn't he gave up 31 of them. Last year, 18 of 30 came in Detroit, which is I guess bad in some respects but in others, that's the place his teammates are most likely to hit a lot of them too.
One day Molina's fastball will no longer be there for him to rely on and he'll have to learn how to pitch a bit more. That day has not come yet.
Bruce Rubio
RHP No. 10
RR, 5'8" 173 lbs.
Born 1948-02-18 in Kansas City, KS
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 DEN AAA 7 5 0 3.91 22 22 7 161.0 163 75 70 61 122
1970 TEX MLB 7 3 0 2.10 11 11 4 85.2 74 29 20 28 58
1971 DET MLB 16 10 0 3.03 35 35 7 261.1 244 101 88 91 165
1972 DET MLB 18 13 0 3.31 37 37 6 274.0 241 106 101 78 174
Like the Red Sox, the Tigers rode their front 3 starters pretty hard all season long, and like the Red Sox they got pretty lucky with the injuries (lack thereof) last year. Bruce Rubio was their #3 guy as well as the youngster of their trio. He came up through the Senators system and was traded to the Tigers in the exchange that sent Vince "Not Denny MacLain" (who?) Akright to the nation's capitol. That trade... nothing against Akright, who's done well for himself in Washington and now Oakland, but oh man did it work out well for Detroit.
Rubio works hard and is always trying out some new pitch or other. His fastball is quicker than Goddard's but slower than Molina's, breaks in on righties, and comes with a nice knuckle curve. Sometimes that curve or the regular curve or the forkball or whatever else it is that Rubio elects to throw on a given day will hang and that gets him into trouble. He actually tied Molina for most HRs allowed. In spite of that, he managed to finish with 18 wins in spite of less run support than his 2 teammates by keeping his walks down and his strikeouts up. He was 9th in the AL in Ks - pretty good for a 3rd starter.
Rubio's ideal spot looks like the middle of the rotation. He could always develop into more: he's a hard worker and eventually he'll run out of new pitches to try out. Even as it is, he's a great competitor and a real asset to this staff.
Juan Merino
RHP No. 26
SR, 6'2" 193 lbs.
Born 1947-02-23 in Overland Park, KS
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 TOL AAA 2 8 0 3.91 14 14 0 96.2 99 45 42 29 102
1970 DET MLB 7 9 0 4.85 20 20 3 139.0 141 80 75 61 119
1971 DET MLB 12 12 0 3.86 31 31 4 226.0 210 105 97 88 144
1972 DET MLB 13 1 0 2.70 26 21 3 166.2 131 54 50 69 109
At the beginning of the year, Merino faced the issue that a lot of pitchers on good, deep pitching staffs face: he was all but forgotten. In spite of being on the major-league roster all this time he got in exactly 1 game and 1 inning in April - a relief appearance on the 25th - and then didn't appear again until May 14th, when he threw 3.2 innings in long relief in a loss at Kansas City. 9 days later he started his first game and from then on he was more or less in the rotation. To say Merino made up for lost time is an understatement: his final record of 13-1 ties Frank Yanez' 1960 mark as the best winning percentage in MLB history (Yanez, a 198 game winner, was also 13-1 that year with a 3.15 ERA for the World Series champion Yankees - as an aside it looks like he was going like gangbusters until he fell off a cliff at age 34. He was 189-107 after a 19-5 1961; he went 9-19 in 2 injury-shortened years).
Merino is a guy who's been with the Tigers' organization since he was drafted back in 1965. He ranked as high as the #5 overall prospect on the preseason list in '67 but could never quite put things together. At 25, he's regarded as more of a good-but-not great prospect with a big, breaking curveball and a low-90s riser. Merino is pretty cool headed and doesn't get himself into trouble as much as some of the guys who started ahead of him in 1972. He has an awkward delivery that puts him out of position to handle plays well but when runners do inevitably reach base on him he does a decent job at holding them onto the bag: runners have had 18 steals against 14 caught stealings over the past 3 years.
Sure, the winning percentage was way out of line compared to what Merino's capable of long-term. The Tigers even realized this, putting him back into long relief when the postseason started (he got into just one game, 1.2 IP in a 6-3 win at California). He's just fine as a back of the rotation man and he's still young enough to turn into something more than that.
Jim Marceau
RHP No. 2
RR, 5'9" 179 lbs.
Born 1941-05-30 in Tallmadge, OH
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 MIN MLB 3 3 3 2.89 41 0 0 56.0 50 19 18 17 47
1971 DET MLB 5 3 11 2.21 54 0 0 69.0 63 22 17 24 66
1972 DET MLB 5 7 25 3.56 62 0 0 83.1 76 37 33 41 72
If the Tigers had any one real weakness in 1972 - one thing they could improve in the offseason - it's that their bullpen was only average. Jim Marceau, asked to play a larger role than expected on the team when Alex Madrigal missed the first 3 1/2 months of the season with inflammation in his shoulder, proved mostly up to the task, albeit in a way that was, while very entertaining, maybe not quite the type of entertaining that you want night in and night out from your closer.
Marceau throws haaard, as hard as Molina does (believe it or not, he's not the hardest tosser on the staff - coming soon) although of course just one or two innings at a time. He mixes in a curve that misses the zone a lot but is hard to lay off of even when people know it's coming. In August and September both, he had a lot of problems keeping either pitch in the strike zone and that resulted in a 5.84 ERA in the first month... although in September we saw hitters get just plain scared of his repertoire: in spite of 10 walks allowed in 13.1 IP post-September 1, Marceau surrendered just 2 earned runs.
Between Marceau and, okay, I'll just say it, Alex Madrigal, it feels like the Tigers should actually get *fewer* hard throwers, maybe mix in some soft tossers a bit more.
Alex Madrigal
RHP No. 3
LR, 5'10" 182 lbs.
Born 1939-12-30 in Santo Domingo, DOM
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 TOL AAA 0 0 0 2.99 2 0 0 3.0 4 1 1 0 1
1970 DET MLB 3 13 26 3.96 66 0 0 86.1 97 41 38 39 59
1971 DET MLB 9 7 20 2.24 50 0 0 76.1 56 22 19 30 44
1972 TOL AAA 1 0 1 1.35 5 0 0 6.2 7 1 1 4 3
1972 DET MLB 2 2 8 3.49 22 0 0 28.1 28 11 11 18 16
Once he came back from the labrum tear, it was more or less another typical Alex Madrigal season... except that his always-weird lack of Ks was even more pronounced. The 1971 All-Star still got lots of outs and, most importantly results, but the man with the fastball that is rumored to hit triple digits had troubles controlling it last year, allowing a career-worst 5.7 BB/9 (I guess technically the 7 appearances he had in 1966 were worse). In typical Madrigal fashion, he blew a save in the ALCS but then pitched 2 scoreless innings in the World Series to help the Tigers win it.
This guy is a reeeeeeeal enigma. That fastball's straight, like Andy Benes (who?) straight. Regardless, hitters should not be able to get around on it as often as they do. Madrigal's 32 now and has been with the Tigers organization his entire professional careeer. I hate to even say this but... maybe it's time for a new home.
Todd Theisen
RHP No. 11
RR, 6'0" 201 lbs.
Born 1939-08-08 in Jackson, TN
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 MIN MLB 7 1 4 2.98 27 3 1 54.1 55 19 18 12 42
1971 POR AAA 2 0 0 1.99 4 4 0 27.0 22 7 6 13 12
1971 MIN MLB 1 3 5 5.58 14 0 0 19.1 26 14 12 4 14
1971 STL MLB 2 0 1 5.58 7 0 0 9.2 7 6 6 1 5
1972 DET MLB 8 6 4 3.61 37 7 0 94.2 89 40 38 42 52
Call Theisen the designated "soft tosser" of the bullpen. The former Indians relief ace is still a decently hard thrower at age 33 - in fact, he seems to have aded an extra foot to his fastball over the past season or two - but unlike roughly half this pitching staff, Theisen gets batters out by changing speeds and location with a good 4-seam offering and a straight change. He did have some issues with gophers last year - 11 HRs, 8 of those in relief for a 1.6 HR/9 rate - and will sometimes just plain forget to keep the ball down.
The 7 starts were Theisen's highest total since 1968. Given the state of this rotation it seems unlikely that he'll get that many again. More importantly though, Theisen looked like a gamer after a horrible 1971 that looked like the gig might have been up.
Infield
Gianluigi Farinelli
C No. 22
RR, 6'0" 202 lbs.
Born 1941-09-23 in Maracaibo, VEN
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 DET MLB .257 124 486 48 125 27 2 11 50 32 117 0
1971 DET MLB .273 126 465 53 127 22 2 13 69 40 105 0
1972 DET MLB .197 123 366 34 72 13 1 7 45 42 83 0
Gianluigi Farinelli, whose parents escaped Italy and fascism in the midst of World War II in favor of Venezuela, is a guy with the rep at least of being a hit-first catcher who lost the ability to hit in 1972. He was all kinds of terrible to open the year, dropping as low as .144 on May 29, and surely would have been replaced if it wasn't for the fact that the Tigers as a team were doing so well. It also didn't help that his primary backup Trey Forgey was even worse at the plate. A late-season signing of Jonathan House also proved to not work out so great. I'd love to tell you he got things turned around at the end but the statline don't lie and it includes a .207 September and a .125 (3-24) postseason.
Through it all, it has to be said, one advantage of the poor play is that it highlighted how good Farinelli is in the field. He really should get more caught stealings with his arm, which is rated among the best in baseball - he was a pretty average 27.7% at throwing guys out. At the plate, too, I should note that he cut down on the strikeouts after going over 100 in each of his first 2 seasons as a starter. Unfortunately, instead of replacing those Ks with singles and doubles, Farinelli replaced them with weak pop flies and groundouts to third and short. He's not really a guy to fire up a pitcher who's moping around; in fairness to the Tigers, they don't really have guys like that.
Farinelli's got the starting catcher job pretty much by default. I'm seeing a guy who was... okay in AAA, a 25 year old post-prospect named Joel Moise. He might challenge for the job, but he's got a bad arm so maybe not.
Trey Forgey
C No. 16
RR, 5'10" 201 lbs.
Born 1942-01-18 in West Richland, WA
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 TOL AAA .248 30 105 9 26 3 0 3 21 10 26 0
1970 DET MLB .220 26 100 7 22 4 1 1 16 8 12 0
1971 DET MLB .185 42 124 6 23 4 2 1 12 19 23 0
1972 DET MLB .164 60 122 5 20 3 0 0 11 16 17 1
Forgey is well-respected and liked by his teammates and in 1972 got what will probably be his best chance to start. He had the kind of season that John Timonem would look at and say "man, am I slumping or what?". It's not just the .164 average or the fact that this was his 2nd straight year below the Line, it's the .189 slugging and the .259 on-base average.
This was the kind of year that is often too much for even a defense-first catcher to be able to come back from. There's a guy on the 1984 Tigers (science fiction!) who had a year like this in 1985 and then just disappeared. It's not hard to see this happening to Forgey, nice guy or otherwise.
Jonathan House
C No. 4
LR, 5'9" 201 lbs.
Born 1942-05-26 in Center Line, MI
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 CLE MLB .244 130 435 47 106 13 0 10 46 37 105 0
1971 CLE MLB .217 90 249 17 54 6 2 3 26 20 52 0
1972 TEX MLB .187 39 107 6 20 3 2 1 8 8 28 0
1972 DET MLB .200 12 30 0 6 1 0 0 3 1 8 0
In 1969 House as a 27 year old rookie was an intriguing choice at catcher, a guy with a roughly league-average bat and enough pop to maybe make you forget about his below-average arm. 4 years later, House is a backup in this league, in fact sold by the team he started the season with - the Texas Rangers - on August 31st to help the Tigers down the stretch. Which, hey, he did get a ring! And he even played 2 games in the World Series, both as a defensive replacement after the Tigers pinch-hit for Farinelli.
House was used almost entirely against RHPs last season but hit .197 against them. The average-ish contact he once seemed to possess is gone and, playing so infrequently that he couldn't get any streaks going, the double-digit power seems to be a thing of the past as well. House has never so much as attempted a steal in the major leagues and I wouldn't expect him to start now. In Texas, his always-bad wing was at late-career Carlton Fisk (who?) levels of bad: 23 steal attempts, only 3 caught stealings.
Unless House can either improve his arm or remember how to hit in a big hurry, his career might be about as over as Trey Forgey's looks to be.
Niki Lauda
1B No. 24
LL, 6'0" 199 lbs.
Born 1949-10-09 in Vienna, AUT
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 RM A .289 10 38 5 11 2 0 1 4 8 8 0
1970 LAK A .250 63 216 19 54 11 1 1 27 36 44 0
1971 MGM AA .258 38 128 22 33 7 1 4 14 23 20 0
1971 TOL AAA .314 95 357 71 112 23 0 17 61 60 35 0
1971 DET MLB .471 17 17 7 8 1 0 1 4 5 2 0
1972 TOL AAA .299 35 127 20 38 11 1 7 19 17 23 0
1972 DET MLB .280 117 354 52 99 18 0 18 65 53 51 1
Enough with the bad hitters! It's time for some good ones! Niki Lauda was downright fantastic for Detroit last year. A scouting discovery out of Austria all the way back in 1966, Lauda has slowly but surely made his way up through the minors ever since he was old enough to play pro ball in '68 and now, still only 22, a combination of a nice first month and a Danny Villegas broken hand in mid-May meant the first base job was his to lose. He didn't lose it; one way or the other the Tigers found a place for him in the lineup for the rest of the season.
Lauda's swing is a good fit for Detroit: in just 354 at-bats he still managed to finish 7th in the AL in homeruns and 2nd on the team in RBIs to Jose Ayala. Scouts think this is just the beginning, too, and he certainly knows how to put on a show in batting practice. Pitchers caught onto the power pretty quickly and for Lauda's part he took walks when they were given to him. He did strike out a lot but that's one place where you can even look at the numbers - for instance his 1971 campaign in Montgomery - and see that once he learns a league he's pretty good at avoiding them. The trick in the big leagues will be doing so without sacrificing all that power. Lauda is primarily interested in driving racecars and so is pretty indifferent when it comes to the finer points of the game, something that will hurt him in the field.
Between Lauda, Joey Ramone, and Alvin Romero, the Tigers have 3 young players who are already among the best and brightest in the league.
Danny Villegas
1B/2B No. 12
RR, 6'0" 199 lbs.
Born 1937-06-10 in Guatire, VEN
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 DET MLB .284 144 525 84 149 22 4 35 90 75 70 5
1971 DET MLB .289 110 384 64 111 14 1 29 76 58 72 2
1972 DET MLB .265 47 162 24 43 2 0 12 40 32 25 0
The DH position seems tailor-made for Villegas, not because he can't field but because at the age of 35 he seems constitutionally unable to stay on the field for any length of time. The Tigers moved him down from 2nd to first last year in an effort to save his knees but it just didn't help: he missed time early and often and his 47 games played were a career low since sticking in the league. As always, when he did play Villegas was fantastic. His .500 SLG would have been 3rd in the league if he qualified and the .383 OBP would have been 4th. Happilly for both him and the team he just so happened to be healthy come October and he hit .343 with 12 hits, 3 HRs, and 7 RBIs in 35 post-season at-bats, a run worthy of the ALCS MVP.
Villegas comports to the 1970s line of thinking that working out just makes you musclebound. He has what the kids in the 2010s (time travel!) would call a "dad bod". He's been a Tiger all 9 years of his major league career and normally loves the short alleys in both left and right; however, in 1972 8 of his 12 HRs came away from Detroit. Villegas was never particularly fast and years of accumulated knee issues have left him as a guy with knees so bad that sometimes he'll stagger and fall after a hard swing. In spite of this, he can still move decently well in the field at first - the man was a second baseman after all - and is tall enough to get a lot of high throws.
Fingers crossed, the DH extends Villegas' career for 5 years. Without it, in another era last year might have been a swan song.
Tim Suman
1B No. 28
SR, 5'12" 201 lbs.
Born 1947-03-03 in Grand Terrace, CA
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 MGM AA .342 121 412 65 141 23 0 13 67 21 16 1
1971 TOL AAA .222 3 9 1 2 0 0 0 2 3 0 0
1971 DET MLB .322 108 276 35 89 14 0 6 40 15 17 0
1972 TOL AAA .284 29 81 11 23 5 0 4 14 1 5 0
1972 DET MLB .233 62 120 14 28 6 0 1 14 9 12 0
Suman, the AA batting champion in 1970, came up even before Villegas got hurt to work as a switch-hitting pinch-hitter and, later, a platoon partner for Niki Lauda. He never quite got his hitting untracked and was sent back down to work on his swing in the 2nd half. Of course, because AI will AI, he was even passed over there in favor of farmhand and member of the 1970 team Danny Valdez.
That's kind of not a great sign for Suman's future, so I've stuck him on the trading block to see if someone else wants to carve out a job for a guy who looks to me like a 25 year old Bill Buckner (who?).
Joey Ramone
2B/OF No. 19
RR, 5'11" 177 lbs.
Born 1948-12-30 in Monument, CO
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1971 LAK A .000 1 3 0 3 0 0 0 2 1 0 0
1971 MGM AA .290 25 100 13 29 7 0 4 8 6 19 1
1971 TOL AAA .361 9 36 2 13 2 1 1 10 3 9 0
1971 DET MLB .343 68 254 35 87 17 4 6 34 31 49 3
1972 DET MLB .304 116 461 61 140 29 7 13 62 43 85 4
I wouldn't go so far as to say that the meteoric rise of 1971's 4th overall draft pick Joey Ramone is what caused Danny Villegas' move to second - the injuries are what caused it - but it sure didn't hurt. Ramone demonstrated that 1971's .343 average was no fluke, finishing 4th in the AL in average while also getting in the top 10 in doubles (4th), triples (10th), total bases (10th), extra-base hits (5th), slugging (.482, 5th), and OBP (.361, 9th), all while spending most of the season hitting 3rd for this club. A lot was put on his shoulders and he carried it all.
Ramone has one of those picture-perfect swings that coaches tell kids to emulate in batting practice. He still has a tendency to chase the high fastball that probably kept him from winning the batting title last year; he's 23 and, in spite of singing songs about wanting to be sedated, pretty even-keeled, so he's got the time and energy to do it. Ramone was really bad on the basepaths last year, stealing just 4 out of 13 attempts. Judging from his spot in the lineup I don't think this was due to a lot of hit-and-run plays either; he just has not-great instincts. As a fielder, he's got great, great range at second base and only isn't considered a shortstop because of a well below average arm tool.
To think that Ramone did all this and is still barely old enough to drink... it's big. It's... I! O! LET'S GO!
Jose Ayala
3B/1B No. 33
RR, 5'12" 195 lbs.
Born 1941-05-29 in Managua, NCA
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 DET MLB .274 144 587 75 161 26 2 19 63 43 103 0
1971 DET MLB .267 135 460 49 123 16 0 16 52 35 76 0
1972 DET MLB .260 135 511 65 133 22 2 20 74 36 93 2
Ayala is no relation to Cesar Romero. He's really, kind of like Yogi Berra (who?), a guy with an undeserved rep for being a (half) wit, just a guy who goes out there and does his job day in, day out. Last year he led the Tigers in HRs and RBIs, which was probably more due to the fact that Danny Villegas was out so much. Ayala at this point is a Hall of Very Good guy, although of course he's only 31 so he could still do a lot of damage.
The Joker has middle of the order power but also some middle of the order holes in his swing. He loves that high inside fastball although it does not always share the same love for him (although really outside of Ernesto Garcia he's as good a power hitter as anyone in the league right now). Ayala is kind of a tweener, a 2-time Gold Glove Award winner at first base who gets asked to play 3rd a lot even though he doesn't have particularly good range. The scouts say you should DH him; that's going a bit too far, although when error rates get back to normal he might be in for a rude awakening.
He's a joker, he's a smoker, he's a midnight toker. Call him the Gangster of Love. Also call him the starting 3rd baseman for the best team in baseball.
Joe Theismann
3B/SS No. 99
RR, 5'10" 177 lbs.
Born 1949-09-21 in New Brunswick, NJ
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 RM A .291 68 258 33 75 14 3 0 41 29 59 8
1970 LAK A .276 27 105 15 29 3 2 1 19 8 26 5
1971 CLI A .333 12 48 7 16 2 0 1 3 6 3 3
1971 MGM AA .286 95 364 49 104 24 5 4 40 29 47 9
1972 MGM AA .325 37 120 23 39 3 2 3 10 19 17 1
1972 TOL AAA .342 19 73 18 25 4 1 3 9 5 16 2
1972 DET MLB .316 48 95 10 30 4 1 2 8 11 13 3
Theismann is another guy who's made a slow but steady rise through the minor leagues since he was drafted with the 30th overall pick in 1969. The football quarterback pressed his case last year by hitting over .300 at 3 different levels, albeit without the power that the incumbent Jose Ayala possesses. On the other hand, while Ayala is slipping defensively Theismann is a fantastic fielder at the hot corner who played a fair bit of shortstop throughout the minors.
He's going to be a contact guy and so that's a big change from Ayala. I still think Ayala probably has at least a year left, not so much because of loyalty but because he's an established fact at third base whereas Theismann, fine pedigree, fine scouting, and all that, could still wash out in the major leagues.
Rob Curran
SS/3B No. 31
LR, 6'1" 203 lbs.
Born 1946-11-14 in New York, NY
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 PFD AA .297 30 91 17 27 4 1 2 9 30 10 0
1970 WAS MLB .231 116 390 44 90 15 5 4 33 62 109 2
1971 DET MLB .245 107 269 33 66 12 1 3 21 41 60 0
1972 DET MLB .265 123 400 50 106 16 3 5 30 57 53 8
Curran is yet another part of that Vince Akright deal. Which, look: Akright had kind of a rough - well, undersupported - year with the A's but he's still a great pitcher and the Tigers also gave up veteran third baseman David Salinas in that deal as well. But when a guy like Curran, a 1972 All-Star and starting shortstop, is the 3rd best player you get back... that's a pretty, pretty good trade.
Curran's a classic good-field no-hit shortstop except that he's developed the contact tool pretty well, hitting 29 points above the league average last year. 1972 was the 3rd consecutive season where Curran lowered his strikeout totals: with Washington in 1970 he really looked like a guy who's swing would be exploited but that's just not the case anymore: he's a solid, above average contact hitter now. Curran was drafted in the first round more than anything else because of his defense. He glides to his left and his right with equal ability and he's got a great arm out there as well. The only potential downside we see is that sometimes Curran has a habit of making the easy plays look hard.
Curran batted 2nd for the second half of the season. That trend ought to continue. Even if he goes back to hitting deep in the order, he's a bug enough plus on "D" that he's an easy choice to put in the lineup every day.
Matt Mullen
SS No. 35
RR, 5'10" 201 lbs.
Born 1941-08-12 in Garland, TX
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 DET MLB .266 151 563 50 150 23 6 0 43 31 114 3
1971 DET MLB .226 137 402 28 91 13 2 0 27 23 76 5
1972 DET MLB .187 62 155 11 29 2 1 1 13 17 30 0
Mullen is a very good fielder, potentially a Gold Glover in a league where Oniji Handa does not exist, who at the age of 31 has been surpassed on his team by a better hitter. 3 years ago Mullen hit for a high enough average that you could look at the virtual lack of anything else and accept that he's your man. He's dropped 40 points of average in each of the last 2 years and with his average sitting at a cool .200 on June 12 the Tigers decided to move on from him and over to Rob Curran.
Now is the time in Mullen's career, should he choose to accept it, where he becomes a utility guy. He's really great on the pivot so you could totally see him fill in at second base once he gets the experience and his arm is more than up to the task at third as well. Mullen's been a team leader since taking over short in 1966 and that probably comes to an end - nobody listens to guys on the bench - but chemistry-wise he's just such a great fit.
Outfield
Tom Berenger
OF/1B No. 17
RR, 6'1" 201 lbs.
Born 1949-05-27 in Chicago, IL
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 PON R .308 36 130 37 40 6 0 17 34 17 40 4
1970 BAT S A .295 41 139 18 41 6 0 2 13 22 36 4
1971 CLI A .285 71 277 46 79 27 0 11 68 38 46 1
1971 MGM AA .240 62 233 25 56 16 1 2 22 26 32 1
1971 TOL AAA .143 2 7 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
1972 MGM AA .220 41 141 21 31 9 0 3 21 30 15 1
1972 TOL AAA .322 47 171 28 55 12 2 9 28 17 24 0
1972 DET MLB .299 39 117 17 35 9 0 4 19 9 16 0
1972 was a dream season for Berenger, the 11th round pick in the 1970 draft who mostly got picked because he looks like a baseball player. You know, the kind of guy you'd cast in a movie about a bunch of sad sacks playing for a bad team who somehow put everything together. Berenger excelled at 3 levels... well, 2 out of 3 anyway but I don't tell the AI when to promote people. He got to the big leagues in late August, filled in for Alvin Romero when his back spasms were too much to deal with, and parleyed that fill-in / 4th outfielder role into a spot on the playoff roster, where he played in 3 games and contributed to the WS championship in his own way (he was 0-4 but don't worry, Tom, you'll get your ring!).
Berenger doesn't really have the power you expect for a corner outfielder but he's not terrible at driving the ball, especially in Tiger Stadium, and he's got a positive hit took that, in spite of the low draft slot, appears to be for real. He's got average speed, in spite of what he showed in college (man was 29/39 in steals his final year), and is a pure corner outfielder and is a pure corner outfielder / first baseman / DH. He does work hard at his job, almost as though he's learning a part for a future role.
It wouldn't be completely out of place to see Berenger win a platoon job here. He could just as easily be moved away for bullpen help if someone else sees that contact tool and wants to turn him into a full-time starter.
Joshua Birley
OF No. 60
LL, 6'4" 200 lbs.
Born 1945-04-23 in Markham, CAN
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 LAK A .290 8 31 4 9 0 0 0 3 4 1 2
1970 MGM AA .296 35 125 23 37 7 2 4 14 20 13 6
1970 TOL AAA .260 75 246 23 64 12 3 1 25 27 35 10
1971 TOL AAA .296 62 226 34 67 11 3 1 20 19 26 6
1971 KC MLB .222 17 18 0 4 2 0 0 2 0 2 0
1971 DET MLB .379 16 29 4 11 1 0 1 2 0 2 0
1972 TOL AAA .250 63 248 35 62 11 1 4 22 17 31 5
1972 DET MLB .278 33 115 16 32 5 1 1 7 10 19 1
Birley was acquired by KC in the Rule V Draft in 1970 and, after just 17 games with his new club, was offered back to the Tigers, who for their part realized their error and snapped him up. He even got a late-season cup of coffee with his original club in September of that year. This year he was right in line to take over the full-time job in left when veteran Adam Dittmar went from possible underachiever to horrifically bad player (he wound up hitting just .146 on the season before getting released in July; Milwaukee signed him at the end of the year but didn't play so he didn't get a write-up this year). Birley joined the team in July and for two months did pretty well, all told: you can see the numbers. It wasn't good enough for the Tigers and he got sent back down in late August, never to return.
Alvin Romero
CF No. 41
LL, 6'3" 205 lbs.
Born 1945-12-10 in Grape Creek, TX
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 CAL MLB .273 12 22 4 6 2 0 0 1 2 0 4
1970 WAS MLB .323 137 576 106 186 31 13 5 40 53 32 68
1971 DET MLB .335 129 531 98 178 34 6 8 48 48 45 50
1972 DET MLB .296 148 595 103 176 30 5 4 41 75 55 48
I'll freely admit it: Alvin Romero is pretty much my favorite player in this save. While Detroit is technically his 3rd team in the last 3 years, he looks like he's in Detroit to stay. Romero's got lights-out speed - the man holds the single-season steals record with 72 in 1970 and is also 6th and 7th on the list with his '71 and '71 totals - who also just happens to have BA champion level contact and, oh yeah, a Gold Glove quality... glove. Last year he he suffered through recurring back spasms throughout August that dipped his average to .228 for the month and .258 in December, which lowered his full-year average under .300. Otherwise he'd have been right up there. In spite of the back injury Romero still led the league in at-bats and plate appearances. That's what you get for hitting leadoff for the Tigers.
There's not much more to say about the guy except that he's awesome, he's a calm, cool-headed guy who rallies the troops even at the tender age of 26, and who's just beginning to enter his prime years. A whole lot can happen between now and age 40 but consider this: Romero's played 3 full seasons and part of a 4th and he already has 621 hits.
Danny Hohman
OF No. 1
LL, 5'11" 187 lbs.
Born 1944-01-19 in Los Angeles, CA
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1971 ALB AAA .750 1 4 1 3 0 0 0 0 1 0 0
1971 LAD MLB .283 26 106 15 30 4 2 2 11 7 16 2
1972 DET MLB .260 94 346 47 90 18 1 5 40 44 43 18
Some guys get lauded for winning trophies and taking home awards. Some get lauded just by playing. Witness Danny Hohman, who blew out his PCL running into a wall in spring training 1970, an injury that caused him to miss all of 1970 and all but 26 games of 1971 (I guess technically he came back in late July of that year but a sympathetic torn groin injury did him in a month later). I can't say Hohman stayed healthy in 1972 - he still missed almost 2 months with a strained hamstring - but at least he played.
Before he got hurt, Hohman was a 3-time All-Star who hit .325 for the Dodgers in 1969 and stole 38 bases in 2 years. The contact tool wasn't there as much in 1972, although he still carried that same ability to foul off pitches that weren't in the right part of the zone for him. I will say that as good as 43 Ks in 346 innings was, before the injury Hohman was striking out close to once every 20 at-bats (26 Ks in 404 ABs in 1969, 27 in 574 in 1968). The line drive stroke that led him to 30 doubles in '68 was absent. Fielding-wise, he was a serviceable centerfielder before he got hurt but didn't play there at all last year. Judging from the now good but not great range he showed in left and right, this wasn't entirely due to the presence of Romero.
Hohman did it. He came back. Now comes the part where gets back to that All-Star form.
Chris Contreras
OF No. 8
LL, 6'3" 200 lbs.
Born 1944-07-14 in Consuelo, DOM
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 DET MLB .309 112 466 54 144 31 2 7 43 22 45 1
1971 DET MLB .258 88 322 34 83 15 3 5 46 11 41 1
1972 DET MLB .247 79 223 21 55 7 1 3 22 13 21 0
Contreras hit .340 in 371 at-bats in 1969, won the AL Rookie of the Year award, and looked like he was going to be a regular part of this lineup for years. He's seen his average drop every year since then and in '72 the Tigers finally had enough and moved on from him. He actually started the year in only a part-time position, hit .308 and .298 in April and May to give the Tigers some sense that maybe he was back, and then, when given the job in July, he went just 18 for 80 (.225) with 1 extra-base hit. Now convinced that he wasn't it (and I guess more to the point, convinced that Frankie Faison was it), the Tigers used him just 26 times over the rest of the season.
When he was getting things done, Contreras had line drive power into the gaps and just enough speed to turn those hits into doubles. The speed is now mostly gone even at 28. He still gets out of the batters' box really quickly, a trait which had him - somehow, even with the low K totals - not ground into a single double play last year. Contreras has never been a patient hitter, although he studies guys enough to know when they're going to give him that first pitch he can hit. His range has never been super great although he's got a good arm in right, good enough I guess that it wasn't tested last year (though he did get 2 BRKs in 291 innings in left).
Contreras is still only 28 and someone is bound to want to take a chance on the former ROY. That someone won't be the Tigers.
Frankie Faison
2B/SS/RF No. 77
LR, 5'9" 170 lbs.
Born 1949-06-08 in Redding, CA
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 RM A .313 65 201 38 63 10 0 3 25 25 20 1
1971 CLI A .233 32 103 17 24 3 1 1 11 17 24 0
1971 MGM AA .313 83 304 41 95 24 2 1 29 25 38 0
1971 TOL AAA .235 13 51 4 12 1 1 0 3 5 2 0
1972 TOL AAA .325 33 123 12 40 7 1 0 7 14 10 0
1972 DET MLB .323 74 198 30 64 10 1 3 24 16 11 1
Over the course of a single season, Faison slipped down two places in the defensive spectrum. He rose through the minors as a 2nd round pick in 1968 as a middle infielder, capable of playing both short and second. He didn't do short at all in Detroit, whic his probably for the best because he didn't look that good at second either. He He did get into 13 games in right late in the season and even started 5 of 8 games in the postseason for the Tigers at that position. He looked like he was still learning but at least he was able to play enough to unleash that plus-plus contact tool.
The Tigers have been burned by this kind of player in the past in both Chris Contreras and Guillermo Thompson but it's hard to stay away from guys who threaten to hit .320 and set the table for the power hitters. Faison has good line drive power although nobody's going to mix him up for a homerun threat. He will take any pitch wherever it wants to go and has a short, compact swing without a lot of holes. His minor league record indicates he's not that bad of a 2B, with a good first step and soft hands that overcome a relative lack of speed. In right the lack of speed is a bit more evident.
Faison's future is kind of simple: if he keeps hitting, the Tigers will find room for him. If he doesn't, he can still be a utility guy. I guess that's not so simple.
Bill Wilson
OF No. 3
SR, 6'1" 202 lbs.
Born 1944-02-02 in Philadelphia, PA
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 MGM AA .313 98 336 42 105 18 2 10 49 26 37 0
1970 TOL AAA .364 7 11 1 4 0 1 0 1 3 2 0
1971 TOL AAA .247 67 154 19 38 8 0 3 19 17 16 0
1972 TOL AAA .285 59 172 22 49 7 0 9 31 18 28 0
1972 DET MLB .270 35 115 10 31 6 0 3 18 6 11 0
My final write-up of the year! I like the format but, since I do what I do, I did a weeeeeeee bit too much writing in these and sort of burned myself out midway through. I'll see if I can remember to control myself next year...
Wilson is an organizational soldier who came on up midway through the season and celebrated his debut/rookie year as a 5th outfielder. A switch hitter with a decent contact tool and not a lot else, Wilson was mostly in the right place at the right time to pick up 115 at-bats and win a World Series ring as the 25th man on the roster. Will he be back in 1973 for this team? He's cheap so probably but it's not like the Tigers will super hard miss him if he's gone.