Hall of Scrubs

The June draft is approaching and there is a lot of excitement in Michigan about the top high school player,  Daniel Fields from U-D Jesuit.  There is a good story of how Daniel hit a home run at Comerica Park off of the batting practice pitcher at the age of 12. 

The batting practice pitcher for Daniel Fields was his father, Bruce, who was a bench coach for the Tigers at the time.  At one time, there was a lot of excitement about Bruce Fields in Michigan, too.  He was a top prospect for the Tigers after he hit .368 for their AAA team, Nashville, in 1986.  He even got into the Donruss Rated Rookie card set, but the picture on the card is of Darnell Coles.  It was a big mixup for Donruss.

He was called up at the end of ‘86, but hit “only” .279 in the majors.  It was not enough to make Sparky happy since Bruce did not have much power or speed.

Bruce spent all of 1987 at AAA and was traded in the off-season to the Mariners for Stan Clarke.  He played a little in Seattle in 1988 and hit .269.  He got only 3 at bats in 1989 and hit .333.  He spent most of that year tearing up AAA again with a .351 batting average.

Bruce was a top minor league hitter who just never got a shot at holding down a major league job.  He went right into coaching and managing when he retired and was regarded as a major league manager prospect after leading Toledo for a couple of years.  However, after spending time on Alan Trammell’s coaching staff during some of the worst seasons ever in Detroit, he has not received much attention as a potential candidate for manager positions.  Recently, he has been a minor league hitting instructor.

Hopefully, Daniel Fields will make it to the majors and have a better career than his father did.  It sounds like he has a lot more power than Bruce had.

You can view Bruce Fields stats at www.baseball-reference.com:

Bruce’s stats

After Fernandomania hit Major League Baseball in 1981, several teams started looking to Mexico for pitching. The White Sox thought they had quite the find in 1982 when they purchased 25 year old Salome Barojas from the Mexico City Reds on April 1st. They immediately placed Salome in their bullpen and he responded nicely by recording 21 saves.

Salome Barojas made the cover of Baseball Digest magazine as he became a top reliever in the American League. He followed his debut season with another stellar year in 1983, helping the White Sox win the American League West. His ERA in 1983 was 2.47 and he had 12 saves.

In 1984, the White Sox became tired of Salome’s wildness and traded him to the Mariners for Jerry Don Gleaton and Gene Nelson. Seattle made Salome a starter and he did ok. He won 6 games and had a 3.97 ERA. Certainly, he was good enough to stick with a major league team as a 4th or 5th starter.

The bottom fell out in 1985, however. He went 0-5 with a 5.98 ERA. Seattle released him in the off-season and he returned to the Mexico City Reds.

The Phillies purchased him from Mexico City in July 1988 but he pitched sparingly and ended the year with a 8.31 ERA.

You can view Salome’s stats at www.baseball-reference.com:

Salome’s Stats

The 2009 baseball season is a week underway and fans are undoubtedly projecting the stats of all players based on the results of the first week.  For example, players who have hit 4 homers in the first week will certainly lead the league in homers by the end of the year.  Optimism is running high, but reality sets in by the end of the month.

 This calls to mind an extreme case of the opening week success story.  In 1994, Tuffy Rhodes won the starting center field job for the Chicago Cubs and amazingly hit 3 home runs on opening day.  He became an instant favorite among Cubs fans and he was subsequently picked up in every single baseball fantasy league.  Unfortuantely, he hit only 5 more home runs the rest of the year and eventually lost his starting job.  After struggling in minimal at bats in 1995, he ended his major league career.  In the US, that is….

The story and legend of Tuffy Rhodes grew outside of the United States.  He launched a Japanese career in which he has become one of the all-time great sluggers.  Still playing today, he has hit 444 homers in Japan and currently ranks 12th all-time.

That is certainly better than the 13 homers he hit during his major league career with the Cubs, Astros and Red Sox.

He did try to return to the major leagues in 2006, but retired after being released by the Reds during Spring Training.

You can view Tuffy’s stats at www.baseball-reference.com:

Tuffy’s stats

Our next inductee into the Hall of Scrubs is yet another example of why Spring Training performances mean nothing.  Scott Pose entered his first Spring Training in 1993 with the expansion Florida Marlins.  He was not one of the Marlins expansion draft picks.  They picked him up in the Rule 5 draft from the Reds system.  He was coming off a season in Double-A in which he hit .342 and had an OBP of .414.  He also stole 21 bases.

Despite his excellent minor league stats, Pose was not considered a prospect.  The centerfield and leadoff jobs belonged to Chuck Carr, whom the Marlins selected from the Cardinals with the 14th pick of the expansion draft.  But Pose had such a great Spring Training that manager Rene Lachemann handed him Chuck Carr’s position.  Along with that came  the honor of having the first at bat in the Marlins franchise history.

Unfortunately, once again, the realities of the regular season set in.  Pose fizzled out quickly after 15 games.  He hit .195 and was demoted.  Chuck Carr got his job back and finished the year with 58 stolen bases and was fourth in the voting for NL rookie of the year.

Pose did not appear in the majors again until 1997 when the Yankees called him up after he hit .308 on their Triple-A team.  Joe Torre used him quite a bit as a reserve outfielder, but he hit only .218. 

The Royals gave him another shot in 1999, and he seemed to finally get comfortable as a major league hitter.  He ended the season hitting .285 and he earned a spot on the Royals 2000 opening day roster.  It would be the second time in his 11 year career that he made an opening day roster.  He struggled again though by hitting .188 that year.  It was his last year in the majors.

 Despite his struggles in the majors, Soctt Pose will always be remembered fondly for  being the first man to bat for the Florida Marlins.

You can view Scott’s stats at www.baseball-reference.com:

Scott’s stats

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Major League Spring Training camps are full of Triple-A sluggers who generally have no shot at making the team.  While scrappy mediocre prospects like Pittaro impress the heck out of major league managers, big sluggers from AAA rarely gain attention even though they hit monstrous homers during Spring Training games.  They show up as non-roster invitees and are shipped out when the regulars need to get more playing time.  Sluggers like Randy Ruiz of the Blue Jays and Joe Koshansky of the Rockies (now Rangers) are recent examples.

In 2005, Calvin Pickering bucked this trend.  He came to Spring Training with the lowly Royals and battled their All-Star incumbent at first base, Ken Harvey, for spot on the roster.  Kansas City was not happy with the lack of power from the hefty Ken Harvey and were delighted with the power and patience of the equally hefty Calvin Pickering.  To the surprise of minor league slugger fans everywhere, Calvin Pickering actually won the job with a great Spring season.

Unfortunately, as is the case with most Spring Training surprises, it did not last long.  Calvin was given only 7 games to retain his new job as the starting first baseman. Only 7 games?  It was simply not fair.  He did scuffle in those seven games, hitting only .143.  The Royals promptly demoted him in favor of Ken Harvey.  It was the end of Calvin’s major league career.

Calvin went to Korea in 2006 where he hit a ton of homers.  No surprise.  He returned to the U.S. to play independent league baseball in 2007.  A blogger for the Royals review (www.royalsreview.com) recently spotted him in the Atlantic League and is sharing a photo of Pickering that shows how the 6′5” slugger has grown considerably around the midsection.  He won’t be playing in the field anytime soon with that size.  You can view this picture at the following link provided by the Royals Review:

Gigantic Calvin Pickering playing for the Bridgeport Bluefish in the Atlantic League

Prior to his stint with the Royals, Calvin played in the majors for the Orioles, who drafted him in the 35th round out of the Virgin Islands, the Reds and the Red Sox.  He ended up hitting a total of 14 homers in 95 major league games.  In the minors, he regularly hit over 30 homers per season and was known as the Barry Bonds of AAA (back when that was a respectable comparison).

You can view Calvin’s stats at www.baseball-reference.com:
Calvin’s stats

It happens every Spring.  Some crusty old manager goes nuts for a marginal prospect who is grinding hard to make a good impression during Spring Training.  It happens to the best of managers.  Recently, we have heard how much Jim Leyland likes Will Rhymes.  Hopefully, better judgement will prevail and Rhymes will start the year at Toledo.  These types of infatuations usually do not end well.  The prospect fizzles out by May and is shipped off to the minors.

 This is what happened to Chris Pittaro in 1985.  Sparky Anderson went nuts for this second baseman who hit an unimpressive .284 with 11 homers in AA.  Even though his team was coming off World Championship year, Sparky decided he needed to make room for Pittaro.  Unfortunately, there was no room at second.  He had the all-star duo of Trammell and Whitaker up the middle.  No worries, he thought.  Let’s just move Lou to third and make Pittaro the new second baseman.  He actually made an announcement that he was doing that.  Luckily, he partially came to his senses and moved Pittaro to third instead.  I think Lou basically refused to move.

The pressure of jumping from AA to the majors and of learning a new position at the same time proved to be too much for Chris Pittaro.  What a surprise!  He struggled both offensively and defensively and he was returned to the minors after 28 games.

Pittaro was so shaken that he hit only .194 in AAA.  The Tigers traded him that off-season to Minnesota in a deal for a backup catcher, Dave Engle.  The primary goal of the trade, I believe, was to keep Pittaro away from Sparky in the spring.  Who knows what would have happened if Pittaro hit .300 again in Spring Training.   He would have been like Purnal Goldy, who fooled the Tigers with great Spring Training stats in both 1962 and 1963 but failed each time they brought him North.  He was just an excellent Spring Training player. 

Chris tried to make it as a utility infielder for Minnesota, but he only got into 25 games in the next two years.  He retired after 1987 and became a scout.  Currently, he is a scouting director in the Oakland organization.

You can view Chris’s stats at www.baseball-reference.com:

Chris’s Stats

Karim Garcia is another former major leaguer making news in the World Baseball Classic.  As the leader of a potent Mexican offense, Karim is hitting .385 with three homers and 5 RBI.  Fans of Garcia are certainly not surprised to hear this.  He has been tearing up the Japanese, Korean and Mexican leagues the last few years.  He is ready to do more damage this year as a member of the Lotte Giants in the Korean League, where he is known as the “Latino Bambino.” After his major league career, he learned a little patience at the plate and has emerged as an offensive force.

It is too bad he could not learn that in the big leagues.  He was given several opportunities to do so, but poor defense, lack of plate discipline, and an awful attitude lead to his early departure from many major league organizations.

Karim started out as a top prospect in the Dodgers organization.  He was picked as Sporting News Minor League Player of the year in 1995 and made his major league debut that year at the age of 19.  He was also ranked higher than Alex Rodriguez as a prospect in AAA Pacific Coast League.  He was certainly on the fast track,  but he failed in 3 brief stints with the Dodgers and was selected by the Diamondbacks in the 1997 expansion draft.

Arizona made him part of a platoon in the outfield and he responded with nine homers.  The power was the only part of his game.  His defense in the outfield made him a liability.  Arizona swindled the Tigers in the off-season by shipping him to Detroit for Luis Gonzales, who went on to lead the Diamondbacks to a World Series championship.  The Diamondbacks took advantage of the Randy Smith’s obsession with power-hitting prospects to pull off the best trade in their short history. 

Karim, a left-handed hitter,  used the short right field porch in Tiger Stadium in 1999 to hit 14 homers in 288 at bats.  But Detroit had enough of his antics after one season.  They dumped him off on the Orioles in 2000.  It was the beginning of his career as a journeyman.  The Orioles released him after he went 0 for 16.  The Indians picked him up in 2001, but released him even though he hit 5 homers in 45 at bats.  The Yankees picked him up and released him.  The Indians picked him up again.  He hit 16 homers in limited duty and had a .584 slugging percentage.  But the Indians couldn’t wait to dump him again and sold him to the Yankees in 2003. 

Karim had a decent year for the Yankees in 2003 and was a member of their ALCS and World Series rosters.  However, he embarassed himself that year by joining Yankees reliever, Jeff Nelson, to beat up a member of the Fenway Park grounds crew in the visitor’s bullpen during the ALCS. 

The Yankees let him leave as a free agent in the off-season.   The Mets picked him up and traded him to Baltimore where he was released a second time. It was the end of his major league career.

You can view Karim’s stats at www.baseball-reference.com:

Karim’s stats

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Gene Kingsale was the typical no-hit, speedy centerfielder who was always so close to becoming a great leadoff hitter when he was a top prospect for the Baltimore Orioles in the late nineties.  If only he could bunt more or hit it on the ground more.  If only he could get more walks.  Sadly, he never could improve those skills in the US.  But the coaches of the Netherlands national team seemed to have unlocked that potential.

This former scrubby centerfielder is making news recently as the leadoff hitter for the Netherlands team that upset the Dominican Republic in the first round of the World Baseball Classic.  He has found success in the Netherlands that he could not find in the majors.  I doubt it will result in a return to the majors. Once a player ends up playing in the Netherlands League, he generally stays in the Netherlands.

Kingsale got several opportunities to prove himself in Baltimore before they waived him in 2001.  He never hit over .250 for the Orioles.  The Mariners claimed him off waivers , but they only gave him 18 at bats before waiving him again.  The Padres claimed him this time and handed him the regular centerfield job in 2002.  He responded by hitting .278 and stealing 9 bases.  The Padres then traded him to the lowly Tigers in 2003 for catcher Mike Rivera (NL Stan Papi Award winner in 2006).  In Detroit, Gene joined the ranks of Gary Pettis and Kimera Bartee by hitting a measly .208 as the regular centerfielder.  They gave up on him after 120 AB’s.  It was his last year in the majors.

In addition to being a star of the Netherlands, Gene’s other claims to fame are that he was the first major leaguer to come from Aruba and he was also knighted by the person in Aruba who does that type of thing (likely a major baseball fan).

You can view Gene’s stats at www.baseball-reference.com:

Gene’s Stats

The second Iorg brother is being inducted into the Hall of Scrubs. Like his brother Dane, Garth was a valuable utility infielder in the 80’s. He was a right-handed third base platoon partner to Rance Mulliniks for Toronto Blue Jays. Garth spent his entire career in Toronto after being drafted from the Yankees organization as te 46th pick in the 1976 expansion draft.

Garth’s best year was in 1985 when he helped the Blue Jays win a division title with a .313 average and 7 homers in 288 at bats. He fell to a .210 average in his last year in 1987.

Even though Garth spent his entire career with one of the Tiger’s biggest rivals, he is getting a lot of attention recently in Detroit due to the rise of his son, Cale, as the Tigers’ top shortstop prospect. Unlike his father and uncle Dane, Cale projects as a superstar shortstop in the mold of Alan Trammell.

Garth’s oldest son, Isaac, played in the minors and reached AA in the Braves organization before ending his career in 2004. His second son, Eli, is currently playing in AA for the Astros organization.

With Cale emerging as a future Tigers’ star, the talk of the Iorg family should continue for a long time in Detroit and should remain positive. That was not the case in the 80’s when Garth often led the Blue Jays to victory over the Tigers with several clutch hits. He always came in to face the Tiger’s weak left handed pitching and he usually delivered .. except in 1987.

In his last major league at bat that year, Garth faced the Tigers’ lefty Frank Tanana. With the tying run in scoring position and a division title at stake, Garth grounded to Frank for the final out of the game. The Tigers won the division but fell to the Twins in the playoffs.

Hopefully Garth’s son will soon help the Tigers win many more division titles and a World Series or two.

You can view Garth’s stats at www.baseball-refernce.com:

Garth’s stats

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After a three year stint in Japan, Tony Bernazard signed with the Tigers before the 1991 season in what he hoped would be a grand return to Major League Baseball.  The Tigers’ GM, Bill Lajoie, was on a roll with signing  free agents from Japan after picking up Cecil Fielder the year before, so it seemed like Tony would surely have a career season in Detroit.  At the time, I was a major Tiger fan and produced a weekly newsletter about their off-season.  It was a minor publication.  My parents were the only subscribers.  In my column, I predicted that Tony would surpass his season high home run total of 17 that he had for the Indians in 1987, and he would surpass is season high stolen base total of 23 in 1983 to become the first Tigers second baseman to have a 20-20 season.

I was wrong on both counts.  Bill Lajoie was wrong, too.  Tony was a major flop.  He had 12 at bats, hit .167 and was released in May.  It was his last season in the majors.  I had forgotten about him altogether until I recently went on a trip to Frankenmuth, Michigan.  The hotel I stayed at proudly displayed a photo of Tony that was taken at a Tigers’ Fest in 1991.  I found it rather strange that the hotel owner would find something remarkable enough about meeting Tony to put him up on his wall of fame.  Tony did have a decent major league career.  Just not for Detroit.

Prior to going to Japan, Tony did have one decent year as a starting second baseman for the Indians in 1986.  He hit .301 with 17 homers and 73 RBI.  His other years in the majors were mostly mediocre.  He did have one very bad year in 1984 for the Indians as well.  He hit .221 with an awful slugging percentage of .287.

In 1983, Tony was the starting second baseman on the White Sox, a team that was headed for the division championship, but he was traded in the middle of the season to the lowly Mariners for Julio Cruz, who was a much faster second baseman.  He spent the rest of the year playing for the Mariners before being traded to the Indians in the off-season for Gorman Thomas and Jack Perconte. 

After 3 years in Cleveland and a half-season in Oakland, Tony played for the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks in Japan.

Tony is currently a Vice President in the New York Mets front office and is often considered a candidate for General Manager positions in the majors.

 You can view Tony’s stats at www.baseball-reference.com

Tony’s stats