Team 75: The 1994 DetroitTigers

• Year: 1994
• Record: 53-62 (season shortened by strike)
• Win Percentage: .461
• Win Percentage Change: -64
• Run Differential: -19
• Pythagorean Record: 56-59
• AL Finish: Ninth of 14
• Manager: Sparky Anderson
• Best Transaction: Signed Francisco Cordero as a free agent.  Cordero never spent much time with the Tigers, but he helped the Tigers trade for Juan Gonzalez and has been a pretty dominant closer in the bigs for about a decade.  He’s currently overpaid with the Reds but has 250 career saves.
• Worst Transaction: Signed Tim Belcher as a free agent.  Belcher was a former No. 1 pick, and the Tigers gave him $3.4M to be their ace in 1994.  Belcher absolutely sucked.  If it weren’t for the player’s strike, Belcher probably would have lost 20 games and beat Mike Maroth to punch.  Belcher started only 25 games and put up a 7-15 record, and had a 5.89 ERA to boot. Yikes.  Belcher departed as a free agent, and put together a pretty decent run from 1995-1998.
• Upper: The amazing play of Mr. Tony Phillips.  Phillips continued to amaze at the age of 35, and he posted an outstanding on-base percentage of .409, easily the best mark on the team.  The ageless Phillips smacked 19 homers and 19 doubles and walked 95 times in only 114 games.  Phillips also led the team with 13 steals and chipped in by playing the outfield, and a little second base.  I think the Tigers could sign him right now, and he would lead the team in walks in 2010.
• Downer: The strike.  No way around this one.  Baseball and the Tigers lost a lot of fans because of the player’s strike.  Play stopped in August, and baseball was forced to finish its season without a World Series.  This wasn’t a great Tigers team by any stretch, and the Tigers ranked last in the AL in attendance.  When you add the strike on top of those two factors, 1995 was going to be a tough sell to state of Michigan.
• Summary: The club limped out of the gate, going 7-14 in April, and found itself playing to a nearly empty Tiger Stadium.  The team turned it around in May by going 16-11.  However, there was a rumble of a strike throughout the season, and by July there was no more ignoring the elephant in the room.  Cecil Fielder and Kirk Gibson each hit over 20 homers with the 37-year-old Gibson’s 23 homers being particularly impressive.  The starting rotation was a real mess as veterans Belcher, Mike Moore, and Bill Gullickson all had ERAs over 5.40.  Mike Henneman anchored the bullpen and led the club with only eight saves.