Scott Sizemore was one of the pieces in the Tigers second
base puzzle since Placido Polanco left for Philly. In the minors he was a .300 hitter over six
seasons and a .313 hitter at AAA level.
This kept him in the second base puzzle.
But in Detroit he was a below average fielder with decent power but only
a .223 hitter for the Tigers over two seasons.
He was sent to the Athletics in late May of 2011 for pitcher David
Purcey. He was the Athletics third baseman for the
rest of the season. However, he was out
of baseball at the end of the season.
Kevin Wickander was a middle reliever for various teams
starting with the Indians in 1989 long before he became a Tiger. He was with the Indians into 1993 when he was
sent to Cincy for Todd Ruyak who never made it to the majors. At the end of the 1993 season he was granted
free agency by the Reds. He spent 1994
out of baseball before he was signed by the Tigers before the 1995 season. For Detroit he got into 21 games and posted a
2.60 ERA with one save. He was traded to
the Brewers part way through the 1995 season and finished his career in
Milwaukee. For his career he was 5-1
with 2 saves and a 4.02 ERA.
Paul Gibson was a minor league pitcher for years before
making his major league debut as Tiger in 1988.
He was tried as a reliever to start his career before being moved to the
starting rotation in the minors. He was
14-7 in 1987 with the Mud Hens before coming up to Detroit in 1988. For Detroit Paul was back in the bullpen and
was used as a lefty closer to go along with Mike Henneman as the Tigers rightie
closer. In four years for the Tiges Paul
was 18-21 with a 3.88 ERA and 11 saves.
After his time in Detroit he went to the Mets with minor leaguer Randy
Marshall for Mark Carreon and Tony Castillo.
He went to the Yankees in 1993 and finished his career there in
1996. For his career he was 22-14 with a
4.07 ERA and 11 saves were with the Tigers.
Dennis Saunders was in the Tigers farm system for 5 years
before making his major league debut in 1971.
He debuted against the Orioles in a game that John Hiller had just blown
the save in the ninth. He came in and
pitched to the last two batters and got them both out to finish the game with
no decision. He got his first save
against the Brewers in Milwaukee about a week later. Two days later he got his first loss in
relief against the Brewers in the same home stand for Milwaukee. About ten days later he got his first win
with the Tigers when he pitched the sixth and seventh game at Detroit against
the same Brewers. He pitched one inning
two days later against the Angels with no decision. He was done in the majors after that. He posted a career record for the Tigers over
8 games for the Tigers in 1971 with a 1-1 record and 1 save and a 3.21
ERA.
Tito Fuentes was the Tigers switch hitting second baseman
for one year in 1977. He came from Cuba
and was a career National Leaguer starting with the Giants in 1965 and then
with the Padres in 1975 and 1976. He was
granted free agency by the Padres at the end of the 1976 season and the Tigers
signed him for $90,000. He was a solid
defensive second baseman but was famous for his headbands that he would wear on
his caps that said “TITO” on them and for bouncing his bat at the plate before
an at bat. He hit .309 for the Tiges
with five homers and 51 RBI’s on a bad team that was trying to rebuild. The
next year a young rookie named Lou Whitaker took over for Tito at second and a
young rookie named Alan Trammell took over the jersey number 3 from Tito as
well. He is currently the Giants Spanish
language broadcaster.
Don McMahon played part of two years for the Tiges. But he sure picked the right year. He had been in the majors for over ten years
with five clubs before coming to the Tigers in July of 1968 in a trade with the
White Sox that sent Denny Ribant out of town after his beaning of a fan. For Detroit he was 3-1 with 1 save and a 2.02
ERA in 20 games. He went on to make the
World Series roster. But in two games
and two innings he was 0-0 with a 13.50 ERA.
He earned $34,000 while with the Tigers in 1968. In 1969 he was with the Tigers again when he
was 3-5 with a 3.89 ERA when he was traded to the San Francisco Giants for
Cesar Gutierrez. Don played in 18
seasons before finally being released by the Giants in 1974. For his career Don was 90-68 for his career
with a 2.96 ERA and 153 saves. He died
in 1987 throwing batting practice for the Dodgers.
Ossie Vitt was a third baseman and second baseman for the
Tigers for seven years starting in 1912.
He was a .243 hitter for Detroit without a lot of power. Granted, it was the deadball era, but he only
had a .295 slugging percentage. For his
career he hit four homers. One of them
was with the Red Sox who he was traded to before the 1919 season for Eddie
Ainsmith, Slim Love and Chick Shorten.
Ossie was a good defensive third baseman leading the league in fielding
percentage in 1915 and 1916. If they had
Gold Glove awards back then he would have been winning them regularly. After his playing days he became a manager
and led the Hollywood Stars to the Pacific Coast League championship twice and
a loss in the finals another year. He
moved on to coach the Yankees top farm club, the Newark Bears, to a title in
the International League in 1937 before becoming the Cleveland Indians manager
in 1938. He was the manager for the
“Crybaby Indians” of 1940. In that
season he rode the Indians hard and they resented him greatly. Always sarcastic with his players, they
despised him to the point that they went to the Indians GM and said “if you
fire Ossie we will win the pennant for any other manager.” But news of their “crying” to the GM got out
to the press and then they were stuck with Ossie. They were labeled “Crybabies” and Detroit
would win the pennant in a dramatic final series in Cleveland. At the end of the season Ossie was fired and
never managed in the majors again.
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