Buck Farmer is one of the more recent Tigers. He was drafted out of Georgia Tech and signed
by the Tigers in June of 2013. So he has
been with the club less than two years.
He pitched in A level ball with the Connecticut Tigers in 2014 and was
0-3 in 11 starts but did post a 3.09 ERA.
In 2014 he was moved up to West Michigan where he was 12-6 in 22 starts
and a 2.60 ERA. He was moved up to Erie
(AA) where he was 1-0 in 2 starts with a 3.00 ERA and then to Toledo where he
was 1-1 in 2 starts with a 9.82 ERA.
Mind you, this was all just last year in 2014. In August he was called up to Detroit. In his debut against the Pirates he started
the game and lasted 5 innings. The young
righty allowed 4 runs on 6 hits and 4 walks while K’ing 4. He got no decision. 10 days later he started a game against the
Twins and lasted only 1.1 innings. He
took the loss as he gave up 7 runs in the brief period on 5 hits and 2 walks
while K’ing 3. His next two appearances
were in relief against the Giants and the Twins in the last game of the
season. His Tiger and MLB totals to date
are 9.1 innings pitched in 4 games with a 0-1 record and a 11.57 ERA. He was walked 5 but K’d 11. So it looks like he has some serious heat,
but maybe not many other pitches.
Hopefully we will learn more about him this season.
Justin Verlander has the beginning of a Hall of Fame career
with the Tigers. He was first in the
majors in 2005 when he started two games and lost both. The first was a 4th of July start
against the Cleveland Indians when manager Alan Trammell kept him in the game
for 5.1 innings. Justin gave up 4 runs
on 7 hits and 3 walks and a wild pitch.
Justin managed to get 4 K’s, the first being Travis Hafner who struck
out swinging in the first inning. His
second K was Hafner swinging again in the second inning. His second game was about three weeks later
when he faced the Twins and lasted 6 innings giving up 5 runs on 8 hits, 2
walks and on hit batter. He managed 3
K’s in that game. His ERA for the two
games was 7.15. He spent the rest of the
2005 season in the minors. In 2006, his
rookie season, was 17-9 and won Rookie of the Year honors and opened the 2006
World Series. Unfortunately the Tigers
had a week off before the Series started and the Tiges went down 4-1. Verlander had not pitched for 10 days and it
showed. He lasted only 5 innings and
game up 7 runs on 6 hits and 2 walks. He
started the sixth inning but after a leadoff walk to Albert Pujols, an error by
Justin on an attempted pick of Pujols sending him to third, a single to Edmonds
to score Pujols, and a Major League Baseball rule double to Scott Rolen Justin
was taken out of the game. Since then Justin
has been putting up Hall of Fame numbers.
He has 152 wins in 10 seasons (including the 2005 season), led the
league in wins twice, led the league in innings pitched three times, led the
league in K’s three times, been in the top five for complete games four times
including 2012 when he led the league with 6, has 6 career shutouts, been an
All Star 6 times, won a Cy Young award and an MVP. If he keeps it up he is shoe in for the Hall.
He is 32 today.
Kurt Knudsen pitched his entire time in the majors with the
Tigers. His first game was in May of
1992 when he was called in from the pen to relieve Scott Aldred who had started
and was up to 102 pitches in the sixth and had just given up a his first run of
the game on a George Brett double. Kurt
came in and walked his first batter faced, Kevin McReynolds. His next better was Mike Macfarlane who Kurt
struck out while giving up a wild pitch.
Kurt lasted two innings and allowed one run, on two hits and two walks. Four days later he came in to a game against
the Brewers in Detroit that Bill Gullickson had started and had one out in the
9th but trailed 2-1. Bill was
taken out for Mike Munoz who faced Dave Nilsson. Nilsson went down with a
ground out to shortstop Travis Fryman.
Kurt was called in by Sparky Anderson to get the last out. Kurt game up two singles in a row before Tim
McIntosh was caught stealing for the last out.
In the Tigers half of the inning Lou Whitaker got a leadoff single. Cecil Fielder was walked to bring up Mickey
Tettleton. Mickey hit a 3 run walk of
homer to give Kurt his first win as a major leaguer. About a month later Kurt came in to pitch the
11th of a tie game against the Red Sox.
He K’d Louis Rivera, gave up a single to Wade Boggs before getting Jack
Clark to pop out and K’ing Herm Winningham.
In the bottom of the inning Travis Fryman got a single and Mickey
Tettleton came up and hit a 2 run walk off homer for Kurt’s second win and last
of the season. His record for 1992 was
2-3 with a 4.58 ERA. He got his second
win of the 1993 season when he pitched the 8th and the Tigers were
down 6-2. In the top of the 9th
Mickey Tettleton got a double to start a 6 run rally and Kurt got the win.
Towards the end of the season Kurt got his third win when Mickey Tettleton
sealed the victory with two run homer in the ninth. For 1993 Kurt was 3-2 with a 4.78 ERA. In 1994 Kurt got one more win. The Tigers had just taken the lead in the 10th
against the Baltimore Orioles of off a Mickey Tettleton homer. Kurt came in and gave up a homer to Rafeal
Palmeiro to tie the game back up. The
Tigers got the game back and won 5-3 but Mickey did not provide the heroics for
the end of the game. Kurt was 1-0 with a
12.50 ERA in 1994, his last year in the majors.
I do not think Kurt ever married Mickey.
Bill Gullickson ended his career as a Tiger. He started his career with the Montreal Expos
in 1980 and finished second in Rookie of the Year balloting behind Steve Howe
of the Dodgers. Bill was 10-5 with a
3.00 ERA and 120 K’s. Steve Howe was 7-9
with a 2.66 ERA and 39 K’s. Bill was in
the rotation for the Expos and had two shut outs as well as a strong September
with the race against the Phillies. Bill
was 4-1 in September-October including a complete game gem against the Cubs
when he struck out 18 batters, a record for rookies until Kerry Wood broke it a
few years later. But the biggest stat
was Steve played in LA and Bill played in Montreal. Bill stayed with the Expos through 1985 as a
starter going 72-61 with the Expos and a 3.44 ERA. At the end of the 1985 season Bill was traded
to the Cincinnati Reds with Sal Butera for Dann Bilardello, Andy McGaffigan,
John Stuper and Jay Tibbs. He was in
Cincy for a year and a half going 25-23 with a 3.98 ERA. The Reds traded Bill to the Yankees in August
1987 for Dennis Rasmussen. He won 14
games in 1987 between the Reds and Yankees with a 4.86 ERA and could not find a
home as a free agent. One of the victims
of the owners collusion of the late 1980’s.
So Bill went over to Japan and pitched for the Yomiuri Giants for two
years going 21-14 with a 3.29 ERA. He
returned to the US in 1990 signing with the Houston Astros going 10-14 with a
3.82 ERA. He then signed as a free agent
with the Tiges in 1991 and immediately became the ace of the staff going 20-9
with a 3.90 ERA. That was the last time
a pitcher won 20games for the Tigers in 20th century. In 1992 he dropped a bit to 14-13 with a 4.34
ERA but still was the ace. In 1993 Bill was
not the ace and dropped a bit further to 13-9 and his ERA climbed to 5.37. In 1994 Bill struggled with injuries and
posted only a 4-5 record with a career high 5.93 ERA. Bill retired before the end of the
season. He was a diabetic his whole
career and in 1994 Bill had a talk with a 12 year old kid about dealing with
his diabetes. The kid was current Tampa
Bay outfielder, Sam Fuld.
Roy Face played only part of a season with the Tigers but he
picked the right season. Roy spent most
of his career with the Pittsburg Pirates as their closer. He started with the Pirates in 1953 and was
in the minors in 1954 but back up in the majors in 1955. He was not a successful starter and was
converted to a reliever. He then became
one of the NL’s top relievers for the late 1950’s and 1960’s. In 1959 he won 18 games without making a
single start. He led the league three
times in saves for the Pirates and was the major leagues career leader in saves
for two years starting in 1962 and held that title for one more year before
Hoyt Wilhelm passed him in 1964. Roy had
a career 188 saves for the Pirates, a franchise record, and was a three time
all star. He was 40 when he was purchased
by the Tigers on August 31, 1968. Before
he left Pittsburg he got in one more game to tie him with Walter Johnson for
most games pitched with on team at 802.
He got in his first game with Detroit on September 2 in the second game
of a double header against the Athletics in Oakland. The Tiges were leading 3-2 in the 8th
and with runners on first and second and one out. Roy gave up a single to Danny Cater that
scored Bert Campaneris and tied the game.
Roy then got Sal Bando to fly out to left and moving Danny Cater to
second. Roy then intentionally walked
Rick Monday before ending the inning by getting Jim Pagliaroni out on strikes.
Roy was pulled the next inning. The next
day Roy was called in again with the Tigers leading the Athletics 2-1 in the 8th
with runners on first and second and two outs.
Roy faced Joe Keough. Joe hit a
single to right scoring the runners but Joe was called out trying to stretch
the single into a double to end the inning.
Roy never pitched again for the Tigers.
His record after 1 inning pitched for the Tigers was 0-0 with a 0.00 ERA
but two blown saves. In the spring of
1969 Roy was released. He was signed by
the Expos as free agent and was the Expos main closer their first year in
existence closing out 27 games before his career was closed out at the end of
the season.
Muddy Ruel was a 19 year catcher in the majors with two of
those years as a Tiger. He started his
career in 1915 with the Browns as a 19 year old back up and in 14 at bats did
not get a hit. He was in the minors
before coming back to the majors in 1917 with the New York Yankees as a backup
catcher through 1920. He was always a
strong defensive catcher. In 1920 he was
the catcher when Carl Mays threw the pitch that killed Cleveland’s Ray
Chapman. At the end of the season he was
traded to the Red Sox with Del Pratt, Hank Thormahlen, and Sammy Vick for Harry
Harper, Waite Hoyt, Mike McNally and Wally Schang. He became a starter with the Red Sox and hit
.269 over three seasons before being sent to the Washington Senators. He was their starter when they made their
only two appearances in the World Series.
He scored the winning run in game 7 of the 1924 World Series when the
Senators won their only World Series.
After 8 seasons with the Senators he was sold back to the Red Sox. He played one season as a backup with the Sox
before being traded to the Tiges for Marty McManus on August 31, 1931. He got in 14 games for the Tigers in 1931 and
hit .120. He was back with Detroit in
1932 as a 36 year old backup catcher.
The value of a smart defensive catcher has always been great in
baseball. He hit .235 for the Tiges and
at the end of the season was released.
He went back to the Browns for 1933 and then to the White Sox in 1934
before his playing days were done. After
his playing career he coached for the White Sox through 1945. He then became assistant to Commissioner
Happy Chandler in 1946 before joining the St. Louis Browns as their manager in
1947. He left the Browns in 1948 to work
as coach for the Cleveland Indians and stayed there until coming back to
Detroit as director of their farm system before becoming the Tigers General
Manager from 1954 through 1956. Muddy
held a law degree from Washington University in St. Louis.
Q. Who is the only player to collect 500 career RBI while hitting fewer than five career home runs?
Hint: He turned more double plays in a season than any
other catcher in Boston Red Sox history.
Hint: He played for St. Louis as a rookie then again
eighteen years later then fourteen years later was the manager of that same
franchise.
Twint: He was General Manager of the Detroit Tigers
1954-56 and later special advisor to the owner.
A. Muddy Ruel (536 RBI, 4 HR; 17 DP in 1922; Rookie in 1915 for SLB,
as a veteran for them in 1933 and Mgr in 1947)
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