Kyle Farnsworth
Steve Avery
Brad Ausmus is on his third stint as a Tiger. He grew up in Connecticut and went to college
at Dartmouth. Although he did not play
baseball at college. Instead he was
drafted and signed with the Yankees out of high school. He played catcher and had made it as far as
AAA with the Yankees when he was drafted by the Colorado Rockies in the 1992
expansion draft. He never made it to the
Rockies but was traded to the San Diego Padres in mid 1993. The Padres GM was Randy Smith. He became the Padres starting back stop in
1994 and was there until part way through the 1996 season when new Tiger GM
Randy Smith traded Tiger catcher (of all things) John Flaherty and Chris Gomez
for Anujar Cedeno a minor leaguer and Brad.
Brad became the Tiger starting back stop for the rest of the 1996 season
hitting .248. However, at the end of the
season Randy Smith traded Brad to the Houston Astros with Jose Lima, C. J.
Nitkowski and Daryle Ward for Doug Brocail, Brian Hunter, Todd Jones and
Orlando Miller and cash. Brad was the
Astros catcher for two seasons hitting .266 and .269. In January 1999 Randy Smith sent a couple of
minor leaguers, Dean Crow, Brian Powell and a catcher (of all things) in Paul
Bako to get C.J. Nitkowski and Brad back in Detroit. 1999 would be Brad’s lone appearance as an
all-star when he was the Tigers lone representative to the mid summer
classic. Brad hit .275 for the Tiges
that season and was the Tigers starting catcher in 2000 when they moved to the
Coma err, Comerica Park. He hit .266 for
the Tiges that first season at the Coma and was rewarded by being traded to the
Astros with Doug Brocail of the first Ausmus trade and Nelson Cruz for Roger Cedeno,
Chris Holt and a catcher (of all things) in Mitch Meluskey. Brad was the Astros starting catcher for the
next 8 years hitting .240 and showing himself to be a solid catcher behind the
plate. He played his last two seasons in
the majors in 2009 and 2010 with the Dodgers as a back up catcher. He then joined Randy Smith who was back in
San Diego as a special assistant. He
then became the skipper of the Israel National team in 2013 before joining the
Tigers in 2014 for his third stint but this time as the Tiger skipper. He took the Tigers to the AL Central title in
his first season. The Tiges had a 90-72
record. The Tigers Pythagorean theorem
puts them at 86-76. (The baseball
Pythagorean theorem states that a teams winning percentage should be equal to
((runs scored^1.83)/(runs scored^1.83 +
runs allowed^1.83)). Maybe this year he
can be another Mayo Smith and take the Tiges to a World Series title in only
his second season.
Jess Doyle
Parson Nicholson
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