Jeff Baker spent most of August 2012 as a Tiger. He was born in Germany in 1981, right after I
graduated high school, and he was on the 1999 World Junior Championship team in
1999 and outperformed Joe Mauer. He was
drafted by the Colorado Rockies and made it to the majors in 2005. He has been a pinch hitter, second baseman
and outfielder for most of his career and never has been a starter. After 5 years as a back up in Colorado he was
sent to the Cubs in 2009 in a deal for future Tiger teammate Al
Albuquerque. In 2012 he was brought to
Detroit from the Cubs for minor leaguer Marcelo Carreno and cash on August
5. He got in 15 games as a Tiger and hit
.200 as a back up right fielder and third baseman. He got 7 hits as a Tiger in 35 at bats. On August 31 of the 2012 he was sent to
Atlanta for minor leaguer Greg Ross.
This year he is with the Texas Rangers who signed him as free agent and
he is having his best year yet at the age of 32 where in 37 games he is hitting
.317 with 9 homers and 16 RBI’s mainly as a left fielder but also with some
games at third, first, DH, and even a game at second.
Sean Runyan played his entire career with the Tigers. He was originally with the Houston Astros
farm system but was traded to the Padres before the 1997 minor league
season. The Tigers then drafted him in
the Rule 5 draft of 1997. The rule 5
draft is held in the winter meetings in December. If a team does not have a full 40 man roster
they can draft other teams players that are not on their 40 man roster. This prevents teams from stockpiling players
in the minors who could be playing in the majors on other teams. One of the rules is that the player can not
be designated for assignment to the minors the following season. So this meant that Sean would spend the
entire season on the Tigers roster for 1998.
He did and led the league in games as a pitcher. The lefty appeared in 88 games for the Tiges
and was 1-4 with a 3.58 ERA and 1 save.
Those 88 games accounted for only 50.1 innings pitched. His win came against the Minnesota Twins when
he game into the game in the 7th with the Tiges down 9-7. He sent the Twinkies down 1-2-3 with 2
K’s. Then in the 8th the
Tiges scored 4 runs and took the lead and gave Sean his first major league
win. It would also be his only major
league win. Sean was the Tiges in 1999
and 2000 but only in 12 and then 3 games.
His final record in the majors and as a Tiger was 1-5 with 1 save in 103
games and 64 innings pitched for a 3.66 ERA.
He was done in baseball in 2002 playing his last season in the Orioles
farm system.
Gene Pentz started his major league experience as a
Tiger. The rightie pitcher was signed
out of high school in Pennsylvania in 1971.
He started in Bristol in 1971 at 18 which was rookie ball. He then went to A level Lakeland for two
seasons in 1972 and 73. Each year he
dropped his ERA from 5.96 to 3.86 to 2.66.
He missed 1974 but I can not find out why. I have looked in all my media guides, farm
directories and all the web sights I can think of but can find nothing. One website, cardboardgods.net, has an entry
for Gene. The entry also says they have
no idea why he did not play in 1974.
However, in 1975 Gene played and played well. He had been a starter prior to 1975. But in 1975 he was used entirely out of the
bull pen. He started the season in AA
Montgomery and was 4-2 with a 1.64 ERA and 7 saves. He was moved up to AA Evansville and was 2-3
with a 3.00 ERA and 4 saves. In July he
was up with the Tigers as they made a trip east to play the Yankees at Shea
Stadium (Yankee Stadium was being renovated for the 1974 and 1975 seasons to
the Yanks played home games at Shea.)
and with the score 4-2 in favor of the Yanks Ralph Houk made the call to
the pen for Gene. Gene face Fred Stanley
and K’d him. Then he got Sandy Alomar
out on a grounder to second. He then
ended the inning with another K of Bobby Bonds.
He went on to pitch 3 innings of hitless ball with only 2 walks while
striking out two more batters including Thurman Munson. Gene went on to pitch in 12 more games and
while his record was 0-4 his ERA was a decent 3.20. But at the end of the season Gene was traded
with Terry Humphrey, Mark Lemongello, and Leon Roberts to the Houston Astros
for Jim Crawford, Milt May and Dave Roberts.
He played the next three seasons with the Astros and every year his ERA
went up. From 2.97 to 3.83 to 6.00. In September of 1978 he was released by the
Astros and signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates but never got back to the
majors. He was one with baseball after
1981.
Tom Jones
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