Author: Mike McClary

Upbeat guy.

Happy Birthday, Travis Fryman

The five-time All Star turns 40 today.

Fryman, the Tigers’ first-round selection (#30) in the 1987 draft, spent parts of the first eight seasons of his 13-year career in Detroit and with some sorry teams. In his seven full seasons, he hit .272 and averaged 20 homers and 93 RBI — and wore #24.

On Nov. 18, 1997, GM Randy Smith sent Fryman to the Diamondbacks for Gabe Alvarez, Joe Randa and minor leaguer Matt Drews. Two weeks later, the D-backs dealt Fryman, Tom Martin and cash to the Indians for Matt Williams. Go figure.

Fryman played five seasons in Cleveland, highlighted by his 2000 campaign: .321 – 22 HR – 106 RBI. Two years later — his last in the bigs — at the age of 33, he cratered and hit .217, with 11 homers and 55 RBI.

(Aside: I remember when he visited Comerica Park the first time as a member of the Indians and he essentially said the park was okay but had too many Tigers around the exterior. He might be right, but at the time, man, I was indignant!)

Today, Travis Fryman is the manager of the Indians’ Class A Mahoning Valley (Ohio) Scrappers in the New York-Penn League. He debuted with the Scrappers last season. (Do yourself a favor and check out what the Scrappers have in store for their fans on July 18. Sweet mercy.)

In case you were wondering, Baseball-Reference.com estimates that Fryman made more than $47 million in his career. Chances are, those earnings are helping make it a happy birthday.

At least we hope so.

The Trade, 25 Years Later

Want to feel old? Try this on for size:

It was a quarter-century ago — March 24, 1984 — that the Tigers acquired relief pitcher Willie Hernandez and first baseman Dave Bergman from the Philadelphia Phillies for catcher John Wockenfuss and outfielder Glenn Wilson.

And the insanity that was the Summer of ’84 began.

In case you’ve forgotten, Hernandez won the American League MVP and Cy Young awards after saving 32 games with an 1.92 ERA and 140.1 innings in 80 pitching appearances.

Good times.

George Kell: 1922-2009


Sad news from Swifton, Arkansas, today.George_Kell

I grew up with George Kell and he will always be my favorite broadcaster — apologies to Ernie.

Two years ago I had the honor of interviewing him on the podcast. If you haven’t listened to it, and you want to hear his voice again, check it out here.

I’m sure I’ll write more later but feel free to use the comments to share your memories of George Kell.

2009 Player Profile: Adam Everett

Adam Everett #4

  • Height: 6′ 0″ | Weight: 180
  • 2008 Stats: .213 – 2 HR – 20 RBI

Adam EverettIt’s difficult to get a clear picture of new Tigers shortstop Adam Everett based on his 2008 performance with the Twins. He had just 158 at bats (which produced a .213 average) and appeared in only 45 games for the Twins defensively due to a bum throwing shoulder. However, it’s not so much Everett’s production at the plate that concerns Tigers fans – anything close to .250 would suffice – it’s his glove work.

Jim Leyland and the Tigers’ faithful look to the 31-year-old to fortify (along with third baseman Brandon Inge) the left side of the infield. But how can he inject some offense into the lower third of the lineup in 2009? By focusing on the parts of the strike zone he favors; for Everett that’s above the belt from the heart of the plate to the outside corner.

The bottom line is that the Tigers wouldn’t have signed Everett to man a keystone position if they didn’t see him as a defensive upgrade to the departed Edgar Renteria.

2009 Player Profile: Brandon Inge

Brandon Inge #15

  • Height: 5′ 11″ | Weight: 190
  • 2008 Stats: .205 – 11 HR – 51 RBI

Brandon IngeBrandon Inge began last season as the Tigers backup catcher and ended it as the third baseman for 2009. In between was yet another sub-par offensive performance for a player that, as recently as 2006, seemed locked in as a power-hitting, Gold Glove-caliber defensive whiz. Perhaps the shift from full-timer to part-time super-sub weighed on Inge in ’08, pushing his average to .205.

Unfortunately, there’s little positive Inge can take away from last season; he struggled against righties and lefties alike, and, outside of the fastball, opposing pitchers had little problem fooling Inge. But he and the Tigers view 2009 as a fresh start.

At the plate, Inge will look to rediscover the power that generated 27 home runs in ’06. To do that he’ll need to focus on his strengths, particularly turning on pitches on the inner half of the plate, and avoiding the urge to pull the ones on the outer edge.

In 2009, chances are that Inge will save more runs with his defense than he’ll drive in with his bat. Yet the stability he’ll enjoy as the Tigers regular third baseman could ignite an offensive resurgence.

2009 Player Profile: Gerald Laird

Gerald Laird #8

  • Height: 6′ 1″ | Weight: 225
  • 2008 Stats: .276 – 6 HR – 41 RBI

LairdHead.jpgBefore most general managers had checked into their Las Vegas hotel rooms at the Winter Meetings last December, the Tigers acquired catcher Gerald Laird to fill a gaping hole in their lineup. A career .255 hitter, Laird enjoyed one of his finest offensive seasons in 2008, hitting .276 with nine home runs and 41 RBI in 95 games for Texas.

Laird has shown a tendency to get off to a fast start at the plate, hitting over .300 in the first half of both ’08 and ’06, and as catchers often do, losing steam after the All Star Break. One can forgive Tigers fans that think of Laird as an offensive force: against the Tigers at Comerica Park last season he hit .571, but only .250 in all games against Detroit.

Looking ahead to 2009, Laird will need to lay off the curveball — and avoid chasing the low offerings — if he hopes to match last season’s output. Watch for pitchers to throw inside on him where they had the most success in ’08.

Wednesday Walewanders

company man.JPGI’m down to my last box of Girl Scout Cookies — Thin Mints, don’t you know — but despite this unfortunate circumstance, I present the Wednesday Walewanders.

  • Rob Neyer yesterday linked to this list of The Worst Contracts in Baseball and, no, the entire Tigers roster does not appear. But there is some significant Detroit representation: five lousy contracts. Take a peek for yourself. What do you think? How bad is it?

  • With the positive reaction to Edwin Jackson‘s Tigers debut last week I thought I’d check in on Matt Joyce‘s Spring Training so far. And based on this, it has not been a good one — at least not yet.

  • Happy Birthday to former Tigers outfielder Hiram Bochachica, perhaps the best name ever. He’s 33 today. On July 25, 2002, the Dodgers traded Bocachica to the Tigers for a player to be named later and minor leaguer Tom Farmer. The Tigers sent Jason Frasor to the Los Angeles Dodgers to complete the trade on Sept. 18 of that year. Frasor’s still hanging around as reliever for the Blue Jays.

  • The no-brainer continues.

  • I’ll admit that I was watching the Manny Ramirez saga more closely than I typically would. Why? Because I was bracing myself for Ken Williams‘ and the White Sox’s stealth swoop-in-and-sign. You know they were thinking about it.

  • Of course I like Marcus Thames. Who doesn’t? I’d just rather see Brent Clevlen make the team this year.

Finally, a public-service message wrapped in a question. Since launching The Daily Fungo in 2006, I’ve been trying to avoid running the ubiquitous Google ads for two reasons:

  1. No one likes them.
  2. No one clicks them.

Now the question: If I were to drop some ads into the site — very few and very unobtrusive — would it bother you as a reader? I’m not sure that I am going go to bring in ads, but I wanted your thoughts. (If I did decide to run ads, don’t be afraid to click them.)