Team 80: The 1954 Tigers
By Blake VandeBunte • Dec 2nd, 2009 • Category: Al Kaline, Dick Marlowe, Frank Bolling, Harvey Kuenn, Ray Boone, Ray Herbert, Top 109 Teams- Year: 1954
- Record: 68-86
- Win %: .442
- Win % Change: 52
- Run Differential: -80
- Pythagorean Record: 68-86
- AL Finish: 5th of 8
- Manager: Fred Hutchinson
- Best Transaction: Nothing to speak of.
- Worst Transaction: Again, nothing. I’m not kidding, I’ve never seen a collection of trades, free agent signings and draft picks that resulted in almost no consequences either way. Check it out for yourself.
- Upper: Ray Boone’s play at third base. Boone, in his prime at the age of 30, put together one of his finer seasons in 1954. The Tigers offense struggled this season, but Boone did more than his part to shoulder the load. Boone led the team with an OPS+ of 132 and led the Tigers in home runs, RBI, and finished second in batting average (Harvey Kuenn). Boone was named to the All-Star team and went on to lead the AL in RBI the following season.
- Downer: The Tigers bullpen was a mess. The starting rotation was about average in 1954, most of their major trouble was found in the bullpen. Ray Herbert and Dick Marlowe were the primary arms out of the Tigers pen and posted ERA+ numbers of 63 and 89 respectively. I know that bullpens were used differently in 1954, but these two did not do their part to help the Tigers succeed in 1954. The starting rotation had five pitchers lose at least 10 games.
- Summary: This was a fun team in retrospect. It featured a 23-year-old Harvey Kuenn who led the team in batting this season. In right field, Tigers fans got a look at a 19-year-old Al Kaline. The teenager got 504 at-bats in his first full season, good enough to finish 3rd in the Rookie of the Year voting and even earned a few MVP votes. Frank Bolling was another good young player on this club that would eventually blossom into an All-Star infielder. This club made a step forward in 1954, winning more games than they did the previous season. While they were still rough around the edges, this was a club full of talent and just a few years away from great success.
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Blake VandeBunte is a posting fiend.
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Blake, probably the biggest break ( no pun intended ), for the ‘54 Tigers was in spring training when incumbent outfielder steve souchouk broke his wrist? or arm, and Kaline became the starting outfielder. Remember in ‘53 Kaline signed in June and was pretty much the man in the middle sitting in the dugout between Fred Hutchinson the manager and Johnny Pesky learning from their in game comments. It was thought that Kaline as a bonus baby of sorts, ( had to stay on the major league team for 2 years), would sit and fill in as a defensive replacement as he did in ‘53, much the same in ‘54 and get sent down to the minors for seasoning. Kaline’s play in the field with his strong accurate throws and average offense was enough for the Tigers to decide when souchouk came back in june of ‘54 he became the 4th outfielder. Another thing I remember that Ray Boone said back then was that there was no denying Kaline’s fielding and throwing but there were whispers among the players about his lack of power. He had 4 homers in ‘54. Near the end of the season he met and spoke with Ted Williams who suggested to Kaline he squeeze a baseball during the off season to build up his wrists. 1955 Kaline had the year of years for a 20 year old.