Nick Castellanos has a lot of great expectations on him as a
Tiger. That is what I wrote last
year. I also wrote “He is looked at by many to be the key to
winning a pennant. He joined the Tigers
organization as a 2010 draft pick. He
was in rookie ball in 2010 where he went 8 for 24. He was with the West Michigan White Caps (A
Ball) in 2011 where he hit .312 while K’ing 130 times to 45 BB’s and hitting 7
homers. In 2012 he split time between
Lakeland (A+) and Erie (AA) and hit a combined .320 with 118 K’s and 36 BB’s
and 10 homers. In 2013 he was in Toledo
(AAA) and hit .276 with 110 K’s and 54 BB’s and 18 homers. He was also late season call up for the
Tigers in September. He was the 6th
youngest player in the American League and managed to get in 11 games as a
Tiger. In those games he went 5 for 18
or .278. He had only 1 K and no BB’s or
extra base hits. In 2014 he is expected
to be the third baseman for the Tiges.
Based on how he did in Toledo last season I would expect a drop off in
average. If he hits .250 that will be a
good thing and if he can control his K’s and not get caught up in the hype and
expectations we MAY have an average third baseman. “ So how far was I off? He hit .259.
I hoped for .250. That is right
in line with someone with some MLB staying power. He K’d 140 times to 36 walks. Hmmm. That is almost a 4 to 1 ratio. That seems to still be his weak point. His fielding was .950 to a league average of
.956. So he is an average fielder. Not bad for a rookie. For this year I hope he can hit .270 and
control his K’s. But my gut tells me
Nick will never control his K’s. That
will cause him to be an average third baseman and bounce around between 4 teams
in a 10 year MLB career until the K’s catch him and he is dropped in his early
30’s. Now don’t get me wrong. I hope he is stellar and has a great
career. But my gut tells and his numbers
tell me otherwise.
Jack Hannahan made his major league debut as a Tiger. The Tigers drafted him out of the University
of Minnesota in 2001. He toiled in the
Tigers farm system for five seasons before he got a call up in May of 2006 for
the Tigers. He got the start at first
base for the May 25th game in Kansas City. Chris Shelton was tearing up the league and
Jack came in to give him a breather.
Jack went 0 for 6 in his debut while the Tigers won 13-8. The next day Chris Shelton was back in at
first and went 1 for 2 with 2 walks and 2 runs scored. The following day Jack got another chance,
but not at first. Chris stayed in at
first and was 2 for 3. Jack was DH and
was 0 for 3. The following day Jack was
called in as a pinch hitter in the bottom of the ninth with two outs and the
Tiges trailing 9-0 to the Cleveland Indians.
Jack got a walk but was stranded at first as the game ended with the
next batter. Jack never got into another
game as a Tiger and his only time on base was his walk as a pinch hitter in his
last at bat. In August of the next
season he was traded to the Oakland Athletics for Jason Perry. Jack has been in the majors for most the
seasons since then. He has played with
Oakland, the Seattle Mariners and the Cleveland Indians where he was the
starting third baseman for the Tribe. In
2013 he was with the Cincinnati Reds. He
is a career .232 hitter with a career .316 OBP.
However, his penchant for K’s hurts him as his K’s to walks is more than
2 to 1. In 2014 he was still only a
career .231 hitter. He played 26 games
for the Reds and was granted free agency in October. He signed with the LG Twins of the Korean
Baseball Organization for $1M for the 2015 season. Jack is 35.
I do not expect to see him in MLB ever again. But I saw the LG Twins play and I have an LG
Twins cap. So good luck to Jack in the
KBO this year. I am pulling for him and
the Twins. Except against my SK Wyverns!
Hiram Bocachica made his major league debut in 2000 with the
Los Angeles Dodgers. He was a back up
utility player for the Dodgers hitting .231 before he was traded to the Tigers
in July 2002 for a minor leaguer, Tom Farmer, and a player to be named later,
Jason Frasor. Hiram was a back up
outfielder and hit only .192 over 40 games for the Tiges in 2002 and 2003. He was also never very sure of glove while in
the outfield either. At the end of 2003
he was released by the Tigers. He
managed to get on to other teams like the Mariners, Athletics and Padres before
going to Japan and Mexico to keep his baseball career alive. He finally ended his playing career after
2011. He was a career .215 hitter in the majors and .282 hitter in the
minors.
Mark Wagner started his career with the 1976 Tigers. He had played in the Tigers farm system as a shortstop
for five seasons before getting a late season call up in 1976. He debuted in a game at Tiger Stadium against
the Minnesota Twins. He replaced the
starting shortstop, Tom Veryzer and in his first plate appearance hit a single
and later scored the tying run to make it a 1-1 game in the third. In the 4th he came up drove in
Alex Johnson for the go ahead run. The
Tiges would win the game 3-2. Mark would
get in 38 more games and hit .261 that season.
He would continue to be the Tigers back up shortstop through 1980. At that time they had a new regular
shortstop, Alan Trammell and Mark was expendable as a .245 hitting back
up. He was traded to the Texas Rangers
after the 1980 season for Kevin Saucier.
He was done playing in the majors in 1984 and had a career .243 batting
average. A few years after he left the
Tigers they retired his number. Not bad
for a backup shortstop. The only
insulting thing that he had to deal with was when they retired his number, Hank
Greenberg showed up and took it. He
returned to the Tigers organization and was a minor league manager from 1992 to
1994.
Les Mueller played two years with the Tigers, 1941 and
1945. He was off to war in between those
seasons. When he came back in 1945 he
pitched and gave up the first hit of the career of one armed Pete Gray of the
St. Louis Browns. Les also was known for
a game in 1945 where he received no decision.
Actually no one received a decision in the game. Les gave up 13 hits and 5 walks. Sounds like a lot except that was over 19 2/3
innings! He allowed only one run against
the A’s that day and the game was called as the major league rules at the time
did not allow for turning on the lights during day games. The final score was 1-1. Les also pitched the last two innings of game
1 of the 1945 World Series against the Cubs and kept them scoreless. By the way, Pete Gray has birthday two days
after Les.
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