Detroit Tigers
Overview
Although they didn't quite get over the .500 hump, 1933 was a definite step forward for the Detroit Tigers. Their 75 victories was the most since 1926, when they were still one year removed from 102 victories and their last World Series title. They're still a fair amount off from those heights but the core of this squad is young and full of folks with nice-looking potential.
The Tigers actually rode through most of the season over .500 but dropped below with a 21-30 record from August 1 to the end of the season. A 3-1 loss to the White Sox and Brian Hinman on the 11th of August seemed to be the turning point: from then through the 9th of September they went 7-21. They scored 3 or fewer runs in 14 of those 28 games as the youthful hitting just could not recover, psychologically speaking, from their demoralizing performance at the hands of the Sox ace.
Victor Madrid is going to need to avoid such slumps if he's going to drive this team into contention. He took over the Tigers last year as a rookie, albeit one with a pretty decent minor league record. The skinny around the league is that he really excels at coaxing an extra good season or two out of the vets - something he was often asked to do with barnstorming former major leaguers - but so far he's been doing a pretty good job with the kids as well.
Pitching
The front of the rotation, at least as the year started, was pretty old for a sub-70 victory team. Madrid's strategy was clearly to give the younger arms something to aspire to.
Ed Overcash has come a long way since being dumped by the Phillies organization in 1931. Just 103-112 going into his time with the Tigers, he's gone 33-30 during his 2 1/2 years with Detroit. Sadly, he hurt his elbow in August of last year and his career is in doubt.
Luis Lopez demonstrated the extreme pitch-to-contact skills that made him a minor league sensation, at least for a while: through June, he held an 8-5 record and even made the All-Star Game, although a 6.18 ERA in that last month proved to be a portent of things to come. Following a shoulder injury, he came back too early and just wasn't the same: in August he lost 5 of 6 decisions and couldn't manage a single strikeout.
As the year progressed, the team found itself with a potential new ace.
Steven Mudge was that man. His peripherals don't look that astounding but he specialized in the "atom ball" after coming up, and the Tigers are very high on his potential to throw five different pitches for strikes.
Alan Marable is another guy the team is enamored with. Like Mudge, he struggled with the longball; unlike him, he struck out more men than he walked.
Code:
Player Age W L Pct G GS SV IP H ER HR BB SO ERA
Ed Overcash 34 15 10 0.600 29 29 0 238 202 69 11 80 78 2.61
*Luis López 35 11 11 0.500 27 26 0 186 213 84 7 76 17 4.06
Steven Mudge 23 14 5 0.737 20 20 0 158 153 59 10 59 47 3.36
*Alan Marable 23 5 10 0.333 17 17 0 131 147 60 10 44 52 4.12
Curtis Ballentine 29 2 5 0.286 31 7 0 93 120 54 7 55 29 5.23
Ben Armstrong 27 5 5 0.500 21 8 0 92.1 98 44 7 44 41 4.29
Eric Jackson 27 6 5 0.545 12 12 0 90.1 97 33 2 29 31 3.29
*Chadwick Duffy 24 7 7 0.500 46 0 18 77 75 25 2 31 44 2.92
Bi-jun Seow 31 0 5 0.000 8 8 0 53.1 69 42 9 29 6 7.09
Wayne McMurtry 20 2 2 0.500 6 6 0 37 45 20 2 17 16 4.86
Bryan Debose 22 0 2 0.000 20 0 1 25.2 25 10 1 17 10 3.51
*Danny Collier 24 0 1 0.000 11 0 0 12 15 8 0 6 4 6.00
Curt Blue 21 0 0 0.000 3 0 0 4 5 1 0 4 3 2.25
Bill Gainey 29 0 0 0.000 2 0 0 3 9 4 0 1 2 12.00
*Bob Gragg 24 0 0 0.000 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0.00
*Marvin Robinson 21 0 1 0.000 1 1 0 0.2 3 3 1 1 2 40.54
*Martin Sheets 37 0 0 0.000 9 0 0 14.2 16 7 0 5 5 4.30
Dan Simmons 31 8 10 0.444 28 20 0 161 172 65 11 53 60 3.63
Team Totals 26.8 75 79 0.487 292 154 19 1378 1464 588 80 551 448 3.84
Catchers
Jim Lomond could be the most underrated player in the league. Year after year he gives his team a good number of singles and walks, a great feel for the bat when it comes to the sacrifice bunt, and solid if unspectacular play behind the plate. And what does he get for that? A bunch of competition for his job, year after year. Last year he brought on much of that competition himself, being laid up for the better part of 3 months with one ailment or another.
Scott Bridges was the best man to go in there. Bridges was the Indians' main man before they took on Dave Echols, and he played like a man accustomed to starting.
Code:
Pos Player Age G GS AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO AVG OBP SLG
C #Jim Lomond 31 79 76 267 29 77 22 2 5 41 0 1 43 16 0.288 0.396 0.442
C John Owen 28 62 47 170 18 41 7 1 2 14 0 0 21 8 0.241 0.330 0.329
C Scott Bridges 29 36 29 102 13 30 5 1 6 20 0 0 16 5 0.294 0.390 0.539
C Mark Morrison 24 26 14 64 9 15 2 0 1 9 0 0 2 5 0.234 0.258 0.313
Infield
David Garrett had that breakout season the Tigers had been expecting from him since they first called him up in 1930. Hard to believe he's still only 25 years of age. He still has a pretty good way to go before he's in the real elites at first base but he also has another 5 seasons to go before he even hits the 30 mark.
Phil Beadle missed the second half of the year with a broken elbow and, given that this is the second straight year he's missed significant time (he missed all of 1932 save 5 games with a torn labrum), you have to wonder if he's still going to be starting material in 1934. If not,
Noah Bashford is there to provide a plus glove and... what it is that Noah Bashford provides you on offense, which isn't much.
Charlie Parson suffered an extreme gap power outage (28 doubles in '32, 12 last year) and lost almost 50 points off his batting average, but the Tigers aren't super concerned. Why? He more than doubled his career walk rate. That was enough to make his total 2nd on the team to Gene Smyth and 9th in the American League. Although the loss of all those doubles is distressing, Parson is still young enough to find that stroke again.
Matt Collins was pushed into a starting job due to a simple lack of talent at the shortstop position and he did what he does. He has soft hands, a good arm, and a lot of range but his .270 average is pretty much the sum of his skills at the plate.
Yoshifumi "Admiral" Yamamoto has similar defensive skills but the Tigers were reluctant to give him a lot of at-bats after a really horrible 1932. The Tigers can do better than this. They need to do better than this to take the next step forward.
Code:
Pos Player Age G GS AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO AVG OBP SLG
1B David Garrett 24 141 141 556 85 153 28 16 13 95 10 7 53 39 0.275 0.338 0.453
2B *Phil Beadle 27 91 90 373 46 110 18 8 2 57 5 2 18 40 0.295 0.327 0.402
2B Noah Bashford 28 111 57 259 26 69 9 2 1 40 3 3 25 29 0.266 0.323 0.328
2B Jason Irwin 24 21 21 64 5 9 2 0 0 1 2 0 10 7 0.141 0.257 0.172
3B Charlie Parson 24 140 135 551 78 151 12 6 11 51 6 4 76 57 0.274 0.361 0.377
SS Matt Collins 29 89 83 363 36 98 12 2 2 33 7 9 16 16 0.270 0.301 0.331
SS Yoshifumi Yamamoto 32 59 54 186 21 53 7 8 1 24 0 1 19 15 0.285 0.348 0.425
SS Ron Paquette 28 39 23 98 11 25 2 1 0 11 1 1 10 6 0.255 0.324 0.296
Outfield
After
Carl Penley terrorized the American League in 1932 (.342 BA, 57 doubles, 11 triples), word got out around the league that he will swing at essentially anything that comes within three feet of the strike zone. Penley learned the hard way in '33 that free swinging has its consequences. 13 of his 18 walks came in the second half. That's still not nearly enough for a man who was, this time a year ago, being counted on to hit 3rd for this ballclub.
There's no one thing that really stands out to you when you watch
Gene Smyth play. There are lots of center fielders who are faster and have a better arm. He's a talented hitter for a person his age, but his biggest skill - plate discipline - is the kind of thing you notice on a week-to-week basis rather than a game-to-game one. He's not speedy on the basepaths and has middling power. And yet... he was the best player on the team last year, bar none.
Right field was a revolving door in the Motor City last season. Gene Smyth actually played the most innings out there, edging
Bill Taylor by 1/3rd (330.2 to 330.1). Taylor's a purer CF than Smyth so if he does take a starting job in '34, the two will probably switch places. That's not a given, though.
Sam Swinney had a great year in the minors in 1932 and showed occasional flashes of very goodness as the Tigers' 5th OFer last year.
Rusty McCarty had a tough year last year and has the same hackitis that plagues Carl Penley. He projects to hit for a lot more power than Penley, though.
Frank Jackson is probably still a couple years away but you never know.
Code:
Pos Player Age G GS AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO AVG OBP SLG
LF Carl Penley 20 116 113 481 55 121 24 13 5 62 13 6 18 56 0.252 0.280 0.387
LF *Sam Swinney 24 50 18 101 15 28 3 2 2 12 0 2 10 12 0.277 0.342 0.406
LF Frank Jackson 20 24 14 68 7 18 4 0 0 4 3 1 3 1 0.265 0.296 0.324
CF *Gene Smyth 22 119 117 449 83 134 22 4 16 63 0 0 94 38 0.298 0.421 0.472
CF #Bill Taylor 26 80 77 310 44 84 20 2 6 22 8 6 24 37 0.271 0.326 0.406
CF *Tod Bly 25 52 39 158 17 45 10 4 0 16 5 1 15 7 0.285 0.347 0.399
CF *Cory Atkins 31 61 18 104 14 25 3 1 2 15 1 1 12 8 0.240 0.311 0.346
CF Naoya Imai 31 22 15 61 6 15 3 0 0 7 0 0 6 6 0.246 0.319 0.295
RF *Je-myung Kim 23 37 36 128 16 25 6 2 2 14 2 2 15 16 0.195 0.290 0.320
RF #Rusty McCarty 24 28 15 65 4 16 4 1 1 7 0 0 1 9 0.246 0.258 0.385
- Don Gordon 30 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.000 0.000 0.000
Team Totals 26.5 1776 1386 5419 670 1413 236 76 80 652 66 47 518 492 0.261 0.326 0.377