Will Rhymes started his major
league career in 2010 as a Tiger. I am
trying to decide if he is smart or not.
He went to the College of William and Mary which would make me think he
is smart. But how he left the Tigers
makes me question that assessment. He
was called up in July of 2010 and made his major league debut with the Tiges as
a pinch hitter for Gerald Laird in the bottom of the ninth in a game the Tigers
lost to the Jays 5-3. Will K’d. Will went on to hit .304 that year in 191
AB’s for Detroit. He had been a .280
hitter in AAA. The hope for Will was
that he would clear up the second base issue for the Tiges. But in 2011 he did not clear that up. He played 29 games but hit only .235. The playoffs came around and Will was left
off the roster. But will is of a younger,
hipper generation. He was born in
1983. Not sure when most of you
graduated high school, but…. Anyway,
Will is one of those who feels everyone needs to know what he is thinking and
he tweets. He was
sending tweets during the 2011 playoffs. Some were not very bright. He was
upset when he was left off the playoff roster. On one play he disagreed with
Leyland's decision to pinch-run Danny Worth for Ramon Santiago. He tweeted "I turned the game off when Danny ran for
Santi. They are the same speed, at best. Very confused. I'll check the box
tomorrow." As a recommendation, if
your team is in the playoffs you should try to remember these guys are still
your teammates. Not bothering to watch
and publicly questioning the skipper is not what I would consider a bright
move. Shortly after this incident the Tiges
let him go. He was with the Tampa Bay
Rays in 2012 and was a reserve infielder playing both second and third. He gave everyone a bit of a scare when he was
hit by a pitch on the arm and ran down to first where he fainted. It was blamed on an adrenaline rush from the
hit and the running to first. In 2013 and
2014 Will was with the Washington Nationals AAA team where he hit .274 and .255
playing mainly second and third. Here is
hoping the 32 year old has a smarter season this year. By the way, if you tweet you can follow him
at @willrymes.
Frank Castillo pitched in the majors for 13 seasons. One of those was for Detroit, 1998 when he
went 3-9, with a 6.83 ERA. He led the
league in losses 1996 with 16. I think
he may have set some kind of record by
being released 10 times including the Red Sox twice. He had a career record of 82-104 in those 13
seasons and an ERA of 4.56. Yet he
earned over $10M in his career. I figure
it to be $133,414.63 per win.
Rusty Staub was known as Le Grande Orange before he was a
Tiger. The lefty started his major
league career in 1963 with the Houston Colt .45’s as a 19 year old starting
first baseman and the fifth youngest player in baseball. He was an all star for the Colt’s who changed
their name to the Astros in 1965. He was
a .273 hitter with some power. In 1969
he was part of a strange trade with the Montreal Expos. The Expos sent Jesus Alou and Donn Clendenon
for Rusty. But Donn announced that he
had retired from baseball to be an executive with the Scripto Pen company. So the Expos sent Jack Billingham (a future
Tiger) and Skip Guinn with $100,000 and Jesus to Houston for Rusty. Donn was talked out of retiring by the Expos
and was then traded to the Mets and in 1969 was the World Series MVP for the
Mets. Rusty became a fan favorite for
the Expos and was given the moniker Le Grande Orange for his bright red
hair. The same reason he has the
nickname Rusty. He continued to be an
all star for the Expos when in spring training in 1972 he met Mets manager Gil
Hodges one day at church. Rusty thought
nothing of it as Gil talked to him about how he was doing and such. Later that day Gil died on the golf
course. Three days later it was
announced that the Mets had traded for Rusty.
The chance meeting was really Gil and his coaches getting a read on
Rusty. He was with the Mets for three
seasons before he was traded with Bill Laxton to the Tigers for Mickey Lolich
and Billy Baldwin. Rusty was again an
all star for the Tigers and was a .277 hitter for the Tiges. Rusty would stay with the Tigers for 3 and a
half years. In his first season with the
Tiges, 1976, he was the Tigers regular right fielder. He hit .299 and led the team with 96 RBI’s
and was second on the team with 15 homers.
However, there after due to his fleetness of foot or lack there of, he
was DH for the rest of his years as a Tiger.
His slow base running is evident by the fact that he led the league
twice in grounding into double plays and finished second once while a Tiger. Yet he still would use his “base running
gloves” once he got on base. However, I
am not sure what they were for as he only stole 8 bases in the three and half
years in Detroit. In July of 1979 the
Tigers thought Rusty was done. He was
hitting a career low .236 as a DH as his days as a fielder were certainly
over. So he was sent back to Montreal
for minor leaguer Randy Schafer and some cash.
He finished the season hitting .267 for the Expos and showed his career
was not over as he played first for the Expos.
He played one more year for the Ranges and then 5 more years back with
the Mets until he called in quits in 1985 at the age of 41 as the fourth oldest
player in baseball. For his career he
was a .279 hitter with 47 stolen bases in 23 years. That averages to about 2 a year. He is also number 10 in career grounding in
to double plays with 297.
Ron Perranoski went to Michigan State University from 1956
to 1958. He was signed out of college by the Cubs who traded him to the Dodgers
for Don Zimmer. Ron started one game in
his career as a rookie. He was a
reliever for the rest of his career. He
was the Dodgers closer for five years.
After the 1967 season he was traded to the Twins. He did well for the Twins leading the league
in saves in 1969 and again in 1970. In
1971 his ERA ballooned to 6.75 and the Twins had a new closer in Tom Hall so
Ron was waived and the Tigers picked him up.
His ERA dropped back down to 2.50
and he saved a couple of games for the Tigers.
But in 1972 his ERA ballooned again to 7.71 and the Tiges released him a
year a day after they had signed him.
Ron was resigned by his old team the Dodgers and finished the season
with them before they released him as well.
He played one more season with the Angels and then called it quits for
his baseball career.
Moe Franklin went to the University of Illinois from 1935 to
1937. He as in the Tigers farm system
starting in 1937 and survived the 1940 purge of the Tigers farm system by Judge
Landis . He was brought up to the Tiges
in 1941 as a shortstop /infielder. He
had 10 at bats and got three this including a double. In 1942 he again spent some time with the
Tigers and hit .260. After that his
major league career was over.
Jake Wade started his career in the majors as a Tiger. His brother Winfield “Wink” Wade was playing
in the Texas League and knew Jack Zeller, the famed Tiger scout of the day and
told him of his younger brother Jake.
Jack signed Jake and his pro career started. Jake had one of his best years in the Texas
League himself when in 1934 he was 14-11 at Beaumont, the Tigers farm team, and
had a 2.70 ERA. The next year, he was 17-15 in Portland of the Pacific Coast
League. Jake possessed a solid fast ball
and was nicknamed “Whistlin’ Jake”. But
that was for his ability to do bird calls.
It was once said of Jake that he whistles like a mocking bird but
pitches like a kangaroo. This was
because Jake was wild. For his career he
had 440 walks to 291 K’s in 668.1 innings pitched. In 1936 Jake made his debut in the majors
with the Tigers. He came in to pitch the
8th inning of a game the St. Louis Browns were already winning
8-4. Jake pitched the full inning and
gave up 4 runs on 5 hits. For the year
he was 4-5 with a 5.29 ERA. But his
fastball was enticing enough that the Tigers brought him back in 1937. He was 6-10 when on the last day of the
season he faced the Cleveland Indians and Johnny Allen who was going for his
major league record tieing 16th consecutive win. Jake gave up only 1 hit for the game and
blanked the Indians for his 7th win of the season. He was still with the Tigers in 1938 but at
this point he was 3-2 with a 6.56 ER at the age of 26. The Tigers sent him to the Red Sox in Boston
with Eldon Auker and Chet Morgan for Pinky Higgins and Archie McKain. Jake would pitch into 1946 in the majors with
the St. Louis Browns, Chicago White Sox, New York Yankees and Washington
Senators. He ended his career with a 27-40
record over all and a 14-17 record as a Tiger.
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