Team 91: The 1974 Tigers
By Blake VandeBunte • Nov 17th, 2009 • Category: Al Kaline, Auerilio Rodriguez, Ben Ogilvie, Bill Freehan, John Hiller, Mickey Lolich, Ron LeFlore, Top 109 Teams, Willie Horton- Year: 1974
- Record: 72-90
- Win %: .444
- Win % Change: -81
- Run Differential: -148
- Pythagorean Record: 65-97
- AL Finish: 11th of 12
- Manager: Ralph Houk
- Best Transaction: Drafting Mark Fidrych and Lance Parrish. Fidrych is good because of his amazing rookie season, but his performance doesn’t exactly stand the test of time as he he was hurt for the rest of his career. The Tigers hit a home run with Parrish, though. Lance would be the main target behind the plate in Detroit for ten years and would slug 212 home runs. Can’t argue with that kind of production.
- Worst Transaction: Traded Jim Perry and Ed Farmer for Jerry Moses. Farmer was only 23 when the Tigers traded him and he had All-Star game in his future as a relief pitcher. Perry was 37 so there wasn’t that much risk in dealing him, but Perry won 17 games in 1974, something the Tigers obviously could have used. The Tigers take in the deal was Jerry Moses who was still in his 20s when the deal was made. However, Moses lasted only one season in Detroit (1974) and was out of baseball for good after the 1975 season.
- Upper: The performance of John Hiller. Hiller was the Tigers closer for a long time and 1974 was one of his finer seasons. The 32-year-old Hiller continued to get it done on a club that received pretty lousy starting pitching. Appearing exclusively out of the bullpen, Hiller won 17 games and saved 13. He threw 150 innings (fourth most on the club, including starters) and posted an ERA+ of 143. Despite playing on an awful team, Hiller made the All-Star team and finished 7th in Cy Young voting.
- Downer: Injuries. This club still had several key pieces from the 1968 championship club. That was great for the fans in some ways, but these guys were aging by the time 1974 came along and injuries started to take their toll. The outfield trip of Willie Horton, Mickey Stanley, and Jim Northrup played in 72, 99, and 97 games respectively, forcing the Tigers to rely on back-ups for large chunks of the season.
- Summary: This is a club that actually had a better record than they should have, if you trust run-differential. That discrepency can be explained in these two facts: 1) The Tigers were surprising good in one-run games at 26-24 and 2) They were awful in games decided by five or more runs at 8-27. The offense was led by Bill Freehan and Al Kaline, while both getting up there in years, were the key offensive performers on a club that struggled to stay healthy. No pitcher in the starting rotation was able to post a league-average ERA and Mickey Lolich lost 21 games. While this team was aging, a few young faces gave solid performances like Auerilio Rodriguez, Ron LeFlore and Ben Ogilvie.
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Kaline retired at the end of the season.