1993 Detroit Tigers season

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1993 Detroit Tigers
Major League affiliations
Location
Other information
Owner(s)Mike Ilitch
General manager(s)Jerry Walker
Manager(s)Sparky Anderson
Local televisionWDIV-TV
(George Kell, Al Kaline)
PASS
(Jim Price, Jim Northrup)
Local radioWJR
(Rick Rizzs, Bob Rathbun, Ernie Harwell)
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The Detroit Tigers' 1993 season was a season in American baseball. The club wasn't expected to do much after a sixth-place finish the previous season. The pitching staff was riddled with inconsistencies, but the Tigers were in first place as late as June 25 before a 10-game losing streak ended their hopes of a turnaround.

Overview[]

At the heart of the team were three stars left over from the championship team of 1984: 36-year-old second baseman Lou Whitaker, 36-year-old outfielder Kirk Gibson (who had returned to Detroit during the 1992 offseason), and 35-year-old shortstop Alan Trammell. There was also the All-Star slugger Cecil Fielder at first base who, true to form, clubbed 30 home runs and drove in a team-high 117 RBIs; promising young shortstop Travis Fryman batted an even .300 and paced the team with 182 hits; and catcher Chad Kreuter enjoyed the best season of his career, setting career-highs in homers (15), average (.286) and runs batted in (51).

Tony Phillips, a versatile switch hitter, could play just about anywhere in the field and even DH, but he mostly ended up in the outfield. A patient leadoff man, Phillips set the table for the Tigers' offense. He got on base any way he could, with a base hit, drawing a walk or getting hit by a pitch more than 300 times; thus, he scored 113 runs while hitting for a .313 average. Mickey Tettleton was equally flexible. He caught, played first, and also saw duty in the outfield and at DH when needed. With power from both sides of the plate, Tettleton did serious damage, hitting 32 homers, driving in 110 runs, and drawing 109 walks.

Though the team may often be overlooked in the long, storied history of the Tigers' franchise (perhaps due to being in the midst of the team's leanest years), they were as powerful a lineup as the Tigers had ever seen, and for several weeks they lit up the American League, scoring runs at an eye-popping rate. With a lineup built around patience and swing-for-the-fences power, the Tigers got off to a remarkable start in tallying runs. In their home opener, they pummeled the Oakland Athletics by the score of 20-4. In that game Fryman had five RBIs, Tettleton plated four, and Fielder went 4-for-4 as the Tigers pounded out 18 hits and drew twelve walks. Four days later against the Mariners, the Tigers won 20-3, this time behind 20 hits and ten more walks. The next day Detroit won, 8-7. But that was just the beginning. When the club went on the road to face the Twins for a three-game series in late April, Detroit pounded their way to victories by the scores of 12-4, 17-1, and 16-5. In the series, Detroit finished with 46 hits and drew 22 walks while hitting 11 homers and 23 extra-base hits.[1]

On April 23, the Tigers were in first place and they would stay there for two months. Over the first six weeks of the season, the vaunted Tiger lineup was averaging 8½ runs per game, on pace to score more than 1,300 runs. This would have shattered the modern-day record held by the 1894 Baltimore Orioles, who scored 1,171 runs.[2]

On June 20, the Tigers beat the Milwaukee Brewers 7-3, putting them at 43-25, good for first in the East with a two game lead over second-place and defending World Champion Toronto. However, the team immediately went on a 10-game losing streak, during which they were outscored 80-31. The Tigers never recovered and finished in a tie for third place in the American League East with Baltimore.

Even with their success, the pitching continued to struggle, as evidenced by numerous high-scoring affairs against other top-tier teams such as the Toronto Blue Jays and the New York Yankees.

The Tigers lead the American League in runs scored (899), walks (765), on-base percentage (.362), and on base-plus slugging (.796).

The 85 victories were the most by the team in five years and would also mark the Tigers' last winning season until 2006.

Offseason[]

  • December 7, 1992: Bill Gullickson was signed as a free agent by the Tigers.[3]
  • February 10, 1993: Kirk Gibson was signed as a Free Agent with the Detroit Tigers.[4]
  • Before 1993 Season: Steve Carter was Sent from the Detroit Tigers to the Cincinnati Reds.[5]

Regular season[]

Season standings[]

  • v
  • t
AL East 		W L Pct. GB Home Road
Toronto Blue Jays 95 67 0.586 — 48–33 47–34
New York Yankees 88 74 0.543 7 50–31 38–43
Baltimore Orioles 85 77 0.525 10 48–33 37–44
Detroit Tigers 85 77 0.525 10 44–37 41–40
Boston Red Sox 80 82 0.494 15 43–38 37–44
Cleveland Indians 76 86 0.469 19 46–35 30–51
Milwaukee Brewers 69 93 0.426 26 38–43 31–50

Record vs. opponents[]

1993 American League Records
  • v
  • t

Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14]
Team BAL BOS CAL CWS CLE DET KC MIL MIN NYY OAK SEA TEX TOR
Baltimore — 6–7 7–5 4–8 8–5 5–8 7–5 8–5 8–4 6–7 10–2 7–5 4–8 5–8
Boston 7–6 — 7–5 7–5 5–8 6–7 5–7 5–8 7–5 6–7 9–3 7–5 6–6 3–10
California 5–7 5–7 — 7–6 5–7 4–8 6–7 7–5 4–9 6–6 6–7 6–7 6–7 4–8
Chicago 8–4 5–7 6–7 — 9–3 7–5 6–7 9–3 10–3 4–8 7–6 9–4 8–5 6–6
Cleveland 5–8 8–5 7–5 3–9 — 6–7 7–5 8–5 4–8 6–7 8–4 3–9 7–5 4–9
Detroit 8–5 7–6 8–4 5–7 7–6 — 5–7 8–5 6–6 4–9 8–4 7–5 6–6 6–7
Kansas City 5–7 7–5 7–6 7–6 5–7 7–5 — 5–7 7–6 6–6 6–7 7–6 7–6 8–4
Milwaukee 5–8 8–5 5–7 3–9 5–8 5–8 7–5 — 7–5 4–9 7–5 4–8 4–8 5–8
Minnesota 4–8 5–7 9–4 3–10 8–4 6–6 6–7 5–7 — 4–8 8–5 4–9 7–6 2–10
New York 7–6 7–6 6–6 8–4 7–6 9–4 6–6 9–4 8–4 — 6–6 7–5 3–9 5–8
Oakland 2–10 3–9 7–6 6–7 4–8 4–8 7–6 5–7 5–8 6–6 — 9–4 5–8 5–7
Seattle 5–7 5–7 7–6 4–9 9–3 5–7 6–7 8–4 9–4 5–7 4–9 — 8–5 7–5
Texas 8–4 6–6 7–6 5–8 5–7 6–6 6–7 8–4 6–7 9–3 8–5 5–8 — 7–5
Toronto 8–5 10–3 8–4 6–6 9–4 7–6 4–8 8–5 10–2 8–5 7–5 5–7 5–7 —


Notable transactions[]

  • August 21, 1993: Joe Boever was signed as a free agent by the Tigers.[6]
  • August 31, 1993: The Tigers traded a player to be named later to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Eric Davis. The Tigers completed the deal by sending John DeSilva to the Dodgers on September 7.[7]

Roster[]

1993 Detroit Tigers
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders Manager
  • 11 Sparky Anderson

Coaches

Player stats[]

Batting[]

Starters by position[]

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
C Chad Kreuter 119 374 107 .286 15 51
1B Cecil Fielder 154 573 153 .267 30 117
2B Lou Whitaker 119 383 111 .290 9 67
SS Travis Fryman 151 607 182 .300 22 97
3B Scott Livingstone 98 304 89 .293 2 39
LF Dan Gladden 91 356 95 .267 13 56
CF Milt Cuyler 82 249 53 .213 0 19
RF Rob Deer 90 323 70 .217 14 39
DH Kirk Gibson 116 403 105 .261 13 62

Other batters[]

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
Tony Phillips 151 566 177 .313 7 57
Mickey Tettleton 152 522 128 .245 32 110
Alan Trammell 112 401 132 .329 12 60
Skeeter Barnes 84 160 45 .281 2 27
Chris Gomez 46 128 32 .250 0 11
Gary Thurman 75 89 19 .213 0 13
Eric Davis 23 75 19 .253 6 15
Danny Bautista 17 61 19 .311 1 9
Rich Rowland 21 46 10 .217 0 4

Pitching[]

Starting pitchers[]

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Mike Moore 36 213.2 13 9 5.22 89
David Wells 32 187 11 9 4.19 139
John Doherty 32 184.2 14 11 4.44 63
Bill Gullickson 28 159.1 13 9 5.37 70

Other pitchers[]

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Mark Leiter 27 106.2 6 6 4.73 70
Tom Bolton 43 102.2 6 6 4.47 66
Bill Krueger 32 82 6 4 3.40 60
Sean Bergman 9 39.2 1 4 5.67 19

Relief pitchers[]

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G W L SV ERA SO
Bob MacDonald 68 3 3 3 5.35 39
Mike Henneman 63 5 3 24 2.64 58
Kurt Knudsen 30 3 2 2 4.78 29
Storm Davis 24 0 2 4 3.06 36
Dave Haas 20 1 2 0 6.11 17
Buddy Groom 19 0 2 0 6.14 15
Joe Boever 19 2 1 3 2.74 14
Greg Gohr 16 0 0 0 5.96 23
Mike Gardiner 10 0 0 0 3.97 4
John Kiely 8 0 2 0 7.71 3
Mike Munoz 8 0 1 0 6.00 1
Dave Johnson 6 1 1 0 12.96 7
Mark Grater 6 0 0 0 5.40 4
John DeSilva 1 0 0 0 9.00 0

Farm system[]

See also: Minor League Baseball
Level Team League Manager
AAA Toledo Mud Hens International League Joe Sparks
AA London Tigers Eastern League Tom Runnells
A Lakeland Tigers Florida State League
A Fayetteville Generals South Atlantic League Mark Wagner
A-Short Season Niagara Falls Rapids New York–Penn League Larry Parrish
Rookie Bristol Tigers Appalachian League Rubén Amaro, Sr.

LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Niagara Falls[8]

Notes[]

  1. ^ 1993 Detroit Tigers schedule
  2. ^ 1894 Baltimore Orioles season
  3. ^ Bill Gullickson at Baseball Reference
  4. ^ "Kirk Gibson Statistics and History | Baseball-Reference.com". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved June 24, 2016.
  5. ^ http: Steve Carter was//www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/cartest01.shtml
  6. ^ Joe Boever at Baseball Reference
  7. ^ Eric Davis at Baseball Reference
  8. ^ Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball". Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 1997

References[]

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