re: Detroit Tigers :idea: The Tigers are in great shape now. Even if they just play .500 ball the rest of the way, they would still wind up with 100 wins. Who would have believed such a thing was possible just two years ago when pundits were calling them the "worst team ever?" Clearly the Tiger management knew what they were doing and so did Pudge, whom those same pundits claimed was "throwing away his career" by signing with Detroit. This is the biggest comeback from the dead since Count Dracula... ..................DD :shock:
Book is closed on Corey Lidle for the day. Pitched 6 innings, left with an 8-1 lead. He gave up three hits. He didn't throw that many pitches but it is around 100 degrees. So much for Arthur Rhodes and his analysis....
The real difference between the Tigers today and the Tigers 2 yrs. ago is an excellent pitching staff. Two years ago Bonderman was a talented but struggling rookie. He's developed. This rookie Verlander is well on track to win 20. When's the last time a rookie won 20??? When Morroth went down they brought up this kid Miner who's doing a great job. The bull pen's been solid and voila, from worst to first. It starts and ends on the mound.
8) Yes. It begins and ends with pitching. Here's a look at another team that hadn't won anything in a long time. Then over a period of two years, with a combination of kids and vets, they put together one of the great pitching staffs of all time. This was the pitching staff of the 1968 Detroit Tigers... # Pitchers Height Weight Throws Bats Date Of Birth 38 Les Cain 6-01 200 Left Left 1948-01-13 22 Pat Dobson 6-03 190 Right Right 1942-02-12 30 Roy Face 5-08 155 Right Right 1928-02-20 18 John Hiller 6-00 195 Left Right 1943-04-08 15 Fred Lasher 6-04 210 Right Right 1941-08-19 29 Mickey Lolich 6-00 210 Left Both 1940-09-12 17 Denny McLain 6-01 185 Right Right 1944-03-29 47 Don McMahon 6-02 222 Right Right 1930-01-04 43 Daryl Patterson 6-04 195 Right Left 1943-11-21 14 Dennis Ribant 5-11 175 Right Right 1941-09-20 34 Jim Rooker 6-00 201 Left Right 1942-09-23 21 Joe Sparma 6-00 195 Right Right 1942-02-04 39 Jon Warden 6-00 205 Left Both 1946-10-01 16 Earl Wilson 6-03 216 Right Right 1934-10-02 37 John Wyatt 5-11½ 200 Right Right 1935-04-19
8) re: last rookie to win 20 answer: Tom Browning, Cincinnati, 1985 Here is a good article on this season's amazing crop of rookie pitchers in the American League by the San Francisco Communist Chronicle... Rookies making pitch for stardom Mark Camps Sunday, July 16, 2006 The best crop of rookie pitchers ever assembled by one league in one season could very well be the 2006 bounty in the American League, and it may just be the best group of rookies ever. By the end of the season, this is what we might have among the newbies of the AL: two 20-game winners, the ERA champion, another 15-game winner and two guys with 40 saves. All out of five guys: Minnesota's Francisco Liriano, Detroit's Justin Verlander, the Angels' Jered Weaver, Boston's Jonathan Papelbon and Chicago's Bobby Jenks. What's that you say? Jenks, the lights-out reliever from last year's White Sox world champions, can't be a rookie? Guess again. He pitched just 391/3 regular-season innings last season -- if he had exceeded 50 innings in 2005 he no longer would be a rookie -- so a 2006 rookie he is. While the 1987 AL rookie group is one of the best offensively (Mark McGwire hit 49 homers, Matt Nokes 32 and Devon White 24) in recent years, there is no historical match for what this group potentially will attain. Since the Rookie of the Year award was first given out in 1947, there have been only six rookies to win 20 games in a season, the last being Tom Browning for the Reds in 1985, and no two have come in the same year. In fact, the last time there were two rookie 15-game winners was 1957 (the Phillies' Jack Sanford 19-8, and the Cubs' Dick Drott 15-11). While they may have to carve up the Rookie of the Year award into five pieces, here's a look at what they've accomplished individually: -- Liriano (10-2, 2.12 ERA): After the former Giants farmhand threw seven shutout innings in the Twins' win last Sunday, he became only the second rookie to head into the All-Star break with at least 10 wins and a sub-2.00 ERA and the first since 1968 when Jerry Koosman of the Mets was 11-4 with an ERA of 1.94. Liriano's ERA was the best for a rookie starter at the break since Mark Fidrych's 1.78 in 1976. -- Verlander (11-4, 2.83 ERA): The 23-year-old is the first AL rookie to win 10 or more games by the All-Star break since Tampa Bay's Rolando Arrojo in 1998. Verlander and Liriano teamed up to become the first pair of rookies to have double-digit wins by the break since 1970 when the Reds' Wayne Simpson (13-1) and the Expos' Carl Morton (10-6) did it. -- Weaver (6-0, 1.12 ERA): In each of his first six games, he's been the starting pitcher and the winning pitcher, has gone at least six innings and has allowed no more than two runs. The last pitcher to do that was Boo Ferriss for the 1945 Red Sox. -- Papelbon (26 saves, 0.57 ERA): The 25-year-old was allowing just 6.65 runners per nine innings at the break; among pitchers with 40 or more saves, that would rank third-lowest behind Dennis Eckersley's 5.52 (1990 A's) and Eric Gagne's 6.56 (2003 Dodgers). If his season ended Friday, his 0.59 ERA would be the lowest by a pitcher with at least 46 innings since 1911 when another Red Sox right-hander, Buck O'Brien, posted 0.38 mark in 471/3 innings. -- Jenks (26 saves, 2.83 ERA): His save total is second-best by a White Sox pitcher before the break (Bobby Thigpen had 27 in 1990). Jenks and Papelbon became the first pair of rookies to each have 25 saves.
8) Yes. The 1968 Tigers had several of the greatest relief pitchers of all-time. To that point in baseball history, the three greatest relief pitchers ever were probably Elroy Face, Don McMahon and Lindy McDaniel. Please note that the Tigers bullpen had two of those three, in addition to future reliever John Hiller and future 20-game winner Pat Dobson... All of that and a starting rotation of Denny McLain, Mickey Lolich, Earl Wilson and Joe Sparma. Who were the worst guys in that pen? Rooker? Wyatt? Cain? Wowza... ...................DD :shock: PS. Face was at the end of his great career in 1968 and pitched only one inning for the Tigers that year.
Interesting. I don't remember much about that Series except for McClain and Lolich. I would have guessed that Face had already retired.
:idea: Earl Wilson's place in baseball history Remembering Earl Wilson Jeff Kallman at The Catbird in the Nose Bleed Seats remembers the recently departed Earl Wilson. Wilson hit 35 home runs in 740 AB as a pitcher, a rate of 1 HR every 21 AB. Lots of position players wish they had that kind of rate. Military service had kept Wilson from becoming the first black player on the Red Sox, the honour falling in due course to Pumpsie Green, and now he would be traded to the Tigers (in June) for an outfielder named Don Demeter. “And Earl Wilson hit more home runs as a pitcher for Detroit,” fumed the journalist David Margolick, still steaming after all those years, “than Demeter hit as an outfielder for the Red Sox.” Posted by David Pinto at 02:38 PM | Deaths | TrackBack (0) Comments My first glove was an Earl Wilson.... Posted by: john swinney at April 26, 2005 03:11 PM re: Earl Wilson the recent book on racism and the Red Sox points out that Earl Wilson was traded because there was an unwritten rule that there could be no more than two black players on the Red Sox in the 1960s, meaning a black player and his black roommate. Earl Wilson was not only an effective pitcher and hitter for Detroit, he was a key part of the 1968 World Championship team after Mickey Lolich and Denny McLain and almost helped Detroit prevent the miracle 1967 Red Sox from happening. Although not the first African American player for the Bosox, Wilson was the first effective and good African American player for the Bosox. Had the Bosox retained his services, the 1967 team could have won a pennant in 1968 despite Jim Lonborg's injury because Earl Wilson could have been a #1 or #2 for them. Instead Detroit had a talented #3 and they ran away with the pennant in 68'. Reggie Smith grew to feel that blacks weren't welcome in Boston and ended up in LA, where he helped LA to several division titles and pennants while the Bosox continued to end up just short in 1975, 74, 77, 78 and 79. All of this because they traded Earl Wilson. No black free agents signed with the Red Sox for about 25 years after free agency began, in part due to the legacy of Earl Wilson and Reggie Smith.
Interesting post about Earl Wilson, the Bosox and the Tigers. Today if you go to a game in Comerica Park you'll notice almost no African-Americans in the crowd. The popular theory is that to this day they hold it against the franchise that they were one of the last to intergrate in the 50's.
:idea: I've noticed very few Afro-Americans at Dodger Stadium or Anaheim and as coaches, both Corey and I had a difficult time getting them to sign up or tryout. Time after time, those kids would explain to us that basketball or football was their priority and baseball just wasn't important to them. This was the exact opposite attitude of the white and Hispanic kids, who often had baseball or soccer as their favorite sport, so culture and personal preference are playing a role in this. MLB now has programs to try and increase baseball awareness in black areas to correct this situation, but I'm not convinced that this will work. Black American players are disappearing from MLB too and it seems to all be a matter of choice...
:idea: I've often thought that the '68 Tigers pitching staff was one of the most mentally tough collection of pitchers ever assembled and to me, mental toughness (consistency, courage, poise) is the most important factor in being a great pitcher. Here's the obit of the Tigers #4 starting pitcher on that '68 staff. Joe Sparma was a mentally tough guy too... http://www.thedeadballera.com/Obits/Sparma.Joe.Obit.html