Thursday, November 20, 2014

November 19 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines

Bryan Holaday, until 2014, had spent his cup of coffee so far with the Tigers.  He was drafted by the Tigers out of Texas Christian University after the 2010 College World Series.  He is a catcher and in 2010 he was a .220 hitter in 44 games at Lakeland.  In 2011 he was moved up to Erie and hit .242.  Last year he spent most of the time in Toledo where he was a .240 hitter with 2 homers in 75 games.  He caught 34% of the runners but is about average for his fielding percentage.  Last year he also got into 6 games for the Tigers.  His degut was against Cleveland on June 6th.  He was the starting catcher and went 1 for 4.  His hit came in the 5th against Jeanmar Gomez.  He hit a single to left to advance Johnny Peralta to third.  Bryan scored after moving to third on a Quentin Berry double and then Ramon Santiago’s ground out.  In his six games he was 3 for 12 with a sacrifice and scoring 3 runs.  With Gerald Laird gone to the Braves It was thought that Bryan would get more play in 2013 with the Tiges.  He did.  He went from 6 games in 2012 to 16 games in 2013.   He got 8 hits in those 16 games.  He was the Toledo Mud Hens starter for the 2013 season.  The Tigers have let Bryan Pena go before 2014 so Bryan Holaday was the Tigers back up behind Alex Avila.   He had his biggest year to date in 2014 getting in 62 games with a .266 OBP and defensively he was a .981 fielding percentage with 30% of base runners caught by Bryan.  Our starter, Alex Avilla, has a .327 OBP and a .995 fielding percentage and 34% of base runners are caught by Alex.  Bryan’s challenge for 2015 will be James McCann.  James is a 24 year old backstop who played at AAA Toledo last year and had a .343 OBP with a .993 fielding percentage and 42% of the would be base stealers caught by James.  There will be a drop all around for James in the majors but that might put him right in the range of Bryan.

Dickie Noles played fewer games for the Tigers than Bryan Holaday has.   Dickie was a pitcher for 11 years in the majors.  His career started in 1979 with the Philadelphia Phillies where he went 3 and 4 as a starter.  He spent three years with Phillies and was part of the World Series Championship for the Phils in 1980.  He was traded to the Cubs in 1981.  He had his most wins in 1981 when he was 10-13 with a 4.42 ERA.  He was with the Cubs until being traded in mid 1984 to the Rangers where he stayed thru 1985.  He was splitting time between a starter and the bull pen by now.  After spending 1986 in Cleveland and half of 1987 back with the Cubs he was “loaned” to the Tigers in September 1987.  He got into 4 games and recorded 2 saves in the 4 games with a total of 2 innings pitched.  In October, the Tigers returned Dickie to the Cubs.  The Cubs granted him free agency and he signed with the Baltimore Orioles for 1988 and would end his career in 1990 with back with the Phillies.  His career record was 36-53 with a 4.56 ERA and 11 saves.  Today he councils Phillie players about drug and alcohol abuse.



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