June 17 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines

David Pauley was a tale of two pitchers in his single season as a Tiger.  He had been an arm that had been used by a few clubs.  He first was drafted by the Padres and moved to the Red Sox where he made his major league debut in 2006 as a starter.  He was with them again in 2008 but as both a starter and a reliever.  In his two seasons with the Sox he was 0-3 with a 9.53 ERA.   The Sox sent him to the Orioles in 2009 but he never made the big club before he was granted free agency and signed by the Seattle Mariners for the 2010 season.  His performance certainly improved in 2010 when he was 4-9 and posted a 4.07 ERA as a starter.  He was 5-4 in 2011 with the Mariners and reduced his ERA to 2.15 and the Tigers eyed him and made a trade of minor leaguers Francisco Martinez (who is back with the Tigers in Lakeland this year) ,  Charlie Furbush and Casper Wells for David and Pauley and Doug Fister.  Doug jumped into the Tigers starting rotation.  David played in 14 games for the Tiges out of the bullpen and his 2.15 ERA with Seattle jumped to 5.95 for the Tiges and he had two decisions both for losses.   His WHIP climbed from .994 to 1.627.  The signs were there for the Tigers that David was not in their future and before the 2012 season started the Tigers released him.  He was signed by the Angels for 2012 but was waived in June.  The Toronto Blue Jays signed him but granted free agency less than a month later.  The Mariners, his fourth team of the season signed him in July and released him in November.   He remained unsigned until last Monday when he was signed by the Arizona Diamondbacks.   He has played in two games since last Monday and is 0-1 with a 10.12 ERA in 2.2 innings pitched in the D-Backs AAA team in Reno.   It appears that the deal will be Doug Fister for some minor leaguers and David Pauley who didn’t quite make it in the majors.

Matt Kinzer had a very brief career as a Tiger.  He was originally a St. Louis Cardinal in 1989 where he was 0-2 as mainly a reliever in 8 games for the Cards with a 12.83 ERA.  He was obtained by the Tigers after the 1989 season in a less than block buster deal of minor leaguers Bill Henderson, Marcos Betances and Pat Austin for Jim Lindeman and Matt.  He made his debut as a Tiger on May 26, 1990, when he was called in to relieve in the 8^th inning in a game with the White Sox leading the Tigers 6-4 in Tiger Stadium.   Matt walked the first batter he faced as a Tiger.  He got a line out before a run scoring double, another walk and two more run scoring singles.  He got the last out with the Sox now leading 10-4.  He pitched the ninth and did much better only giving up a lead off walk before getting the next batters out 1-2-3.  But the Tiges has seen enough and Matt was sent to Toledo for the rest of his season.  He was 0-3 with the Mud Hens with a 2.50 ERA.  But the Tiges released him in July and while he signed with the Orioles they released him 11 days later without him ever throwing a pitch even in the minors.  He never pitched again in pro ball.  He has stayed in baseball and was a scout for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and was an assistant coach for the Taylor University team that had his son on the squad.  His son played in the minors from 2009 through 2011.  Matt holds a unique place in Detroit sports lore as he also played for the Lions as a punter in the 1987 players strike. 

Claude Rossman was the Tigers starting first baseman for the 1907, 1908 and 1909 AL Champion Tigers.  Those were his only years as a Tiger and in the three seasons he hit .280 with 2 homers and 179 RBI’s.  He K’s at a rate of almost 2 to 1 vs walk which drove his OBP to .318.  He did better in the post season where he was a .342 hitter.  In fact in 1907 he led the Tigers position players with a .474 average and a ,476 OBP and .579 slugging.  He moved on to his best major league performance in 1908 with a .294 average where the first baseman was an excellent bunter.  Something you will not here of today’s first basemen.  He would often bunt Ty Cobb from first to third.  He was not nearly as productive in the 1908 World Series where he hit only .210.  He was hitting .261 in 1909 for the Tigers when he was sent to the St. Louis Browns for Tom Jones in August.  He got in only 2 games for the Browns and recorded only one hit.  Claude dropped to the minors in 1910 and stayed there through 1914.  He was done in baseball after that and he disappears from most of societies records after that until he appears as a clerk for a shipping company briefly in 1918 until his death in an insane asylum ten years later at the age of 46.  He had been in the asylum for at least three years prior to his death.  To this day no one knows where he is buried including his family.    While we remember him today as a Tiger pennant winner no one else seemed to remember much about Claude, including his family.

The below is a 1907 Dietsche postcard of Rossman from my collection.