Team 73: The 1992 Tigers
By Blake VandeBunte • Dec 13th, 2009 • Category: Alan Trammell, Bill Gullickson, Cecil Fielder, Frank Tanana, Lou Whitaker, Mickey Tettleton, Milt Cuyler, Rob Deer, Scott Aldred, Top 109 Teams- Year: 1992
- Record: 75-87
- Win %: .463
- Win % Change: -56
- Run Differential: -3
- Pythagorean Record: 81-81
- AL Finish: 10th of 14
- Manager: Sparky Anderson
- Best Transaction: Drafted Frank Catalanatto and Bobby Higginson. The Tigers squandered their first round choice when they picked Rick Greene who never amounted to anything, but they got in right in these two late round picks. Higginson blossomed into a star and was the best player on a few Tigers teams and Catalanotto is still in the big leagues and has been a decent lefty bat in the bigs since the 1990s. Higginson flamed out early and Catalanotto’s best years were with other teams, but these were two solid picks.
- Worst Transaction: Released Jamie Moyer. Moyer played only one season in the Detroit organization. In 1992, Moyer was 29 years old and had yet to do much in the bigs. He went 10-8 at Toledo that season with an ERA below 3.00. This wasn’t good enough for the Tigers and they let him go. Moyer has had the last laugh as he is till in the bigs at the age of 47. Since leaving the Tigers organization, Moyer has won 224 games, but hey, who needs a guy like that?
- Upper: Classic Mickey Tettleton. Tettleton was the Tigers catcher in the early 1990s but he wasn’t kept around for his defense. In 1992 we saw Tettleton at his best. Ignore the .232 batting average, it just doesn’t tell the whole story. Mickey hit 32 homers and drove in over 80 runs. He also walked 122 times which was the most in the American League. The Tigers need a guy like this right now. A player with some pop who draws a ton of walks. Tettleton was prone to struggles and wasn’t perfect, but he had a good eye and could reach base even when going through struggles with the bat.
- Downer: Young guys bomb. Maybe my memory is cloudy, but I remember being told that guys like Milt Cuyler and Scott Aldred were key prospects. Both of these players flamed out quickly and never did a thing. In 1992, they were 23 and 24 respectively. Cuyler hit .241 with an on-base percentage of only .275 (OPS+ 65). Aldred was probably worse. Given a job in the starting rotation, Aldred responded with an ERA of 6.78 (ERA+ 58). He struggled in every way possible, he walked too many batters and struck out too few. He gave up too many home runs. He was just a mess. Both of these guys were given several chances to succeed in Detroit and just never put it together.
- Summary: The 1991 Tigers were decent, but they couldn’t keep it up for the 1992 campaign. They got decent seasons out of Tettleton, Cecil Fielder and Rob Deer (Deer actually led the club in OPS+). However, guys like Alan Trammell, Dan Gladden and Lou Whitaker struggled to stay healthy and the offense couldn’t plow through those losses. What about the pitching you ask? Bill Gullickson and Frank Tanana were a touch below league average, but had decent years. However, no one else really picked up the slack as the entire staff really struggled to keep the opposition from crossing the plate. Lots of high ERAs on this staff. The club played roughly .500 ball in each month of thes season except for the first and last months of the season. The Tigers went 7-14 in April and 12-18 in September/October. They also ranked second to last in the league in attendance.
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Two thoughts: I hadn’t heard the Jamie Moyer thing before, so thanks for that. He certainly would have been a help later on.
I am shocked that we were next to last in attendance in ‘92. That just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me considering the offensive star power on this team. How can you have such shoddy attendance figures with guys like Fielder, Fryman, Tettleton, Trammell, and Whitaker on your team? The awful pitching probably had something to do with it.
As an added bonus, Mike Ilitch purchased the Tigers from Tom Monaghan in the middle of the 1992 season. I still have the hankies that they passed out at Tiger Stadium from the first home game that he owned the team.
Yeah, I had completely forgotten about Moyer. Kind of interesting.
I double-checked the attendance numbers and they really were that bad. The Tigers have deserved bad attendance numbers the past 20 years but this season was actually decent. I thought Fielder was a bigger draw than this by himself.