In the words of the great Henry Rollins and his weekly KCRW radio show, “As-salamu Alaikum fanatics!”
I hope Rollins hasn’t copyrighted that greeting.
And anyways, in this instance it’s Tigers fanatics!
OK, so it’s day two of our 20-day, 40-player introduction of current Tigers listed on the club’s 40-man roster headed into spring training.
Yesterday, we were introduced to a true infield prospect who will probably be spending most of his playing days down in Toledo this season, Hernan Perez. The 20-year-old Venezuelan who, for the past three years, the Tigers have been grooming at second base and shortstop in their minor league affiliations.
Young Hernan is another good reason to get down to Toledo to catch some minor league ball—especially when the Tigers are out of town and you need to get your baseball fix!
Hopefully, Perez is a name and face we will all come to know well in the coming seasons.
Secondly, we also took a look at the Tigers’ All-Star catcher from last season, Alex Avila. We reinforced and reminded ourselves of a lot of what we already knew about this valuable piece to the Tigers clubhouse, both as a defensive and offensive player, and as a true baseball professional.
As far as today goes, if I weren’t the person blindly picking the pieces of paper out of the coffee cup, I would think this whole exercise in getting to know our team was rigged.
Believe it or not, the first name that was drawn for today was, of course…do I even have to say it?
Prince Fielder.
And I have to say: I don’t even know how I feel about this. Ever since Prince was signed a week or two ago, we’ve been flooded with information on the guy. So, in a sense, everybody could probably use a break from the Fielder mania.
But at the same time, how appropriate that the roster cup gods chose for Prince to be drawn on only the second day.
We’ll get to Prince’s introduction and bio in a moment, but let me also fill you in on the second player to whom we are to be introduced today: Joaquin Benoit.
Holy Cow, talk about two big names on the Tigers roster. And they’re both relative newcomers to the team.
Let’s get started with the first player whose name was drawn, the Detroit Jungle’s own, Prince-and-the-New-Power-Generation-Fielder.
As everyone knows, Prince is the son of Cecil, who played for the Tigers in the 1990’s. A lot of you may not remember the days when Cecil was here in Detroit. But for those who do, you can’t forget those glory years when to hit 40-50 homers in a season meant stardom, adulation and a song written for you on the radio (96.3FM).
While he was with Detroit, Cecil was a three-time All-Star in 1990, 1991 and 1993; and he won the Silver Slugger Award in 1990 and 1991 as well.
Cecil hit 51 homers in 1990 and 44 in 1991. When he hit 50 in 1990, Cecil was the first player to do so in a single season since George Foster of the Cincinnati Reds, who hit 52 in 1977. And that was how Cecil got a song written for him on the radio.
Cecil was known for being something of a slow base runner, and some of you may remember being in the stands of old Tiger Stadium with the crowd chanting, “Run, Cecil, Run. Run, Cecil, Run,” whenever he was on first. Those were good times in Detroit.
Here’s an assignment though: how many players have hit 50 home runs since Cecil did it in 1990? Or perhaps the better question is, how many players have hit 50 or more home runs since the strike in 1994?
Aw shucks, we won’t get into that. This 20-day, 40-player introductory extravaganza is intended to be positive and informative, not negative and conspiratorial!
But here’s the answer anyway: according to Wikipedia, in the 17 years between George Foster’s 52 home run season with the Cincinnati Reds in 1977 and the 1994 strike, a total of two players hit 50 homers in a season (Foster and Fielder).
In the 17 seasons between 1995 and 2011, 24 (count ‘em, t-w-e-n-t-y–f-o-u-r) players have hit 50 or more home runs in a season.
Moreover, in the 33 seasons between 1961 and the 1994 strike, a grand total of only five players hit 50 or more home runs in a season. And those players were Mantle, Maris, Mays (two Yankees and a Giant), Cincinnati’s Foster and Papa Fielder. That’s why it was total insanity in Detroit in 1990 when Cecil did what he did.
Moving on, it’s worth noting that Cecil won a World Series title in 1996 with the New York Yankees after being traded from the Tigers in July of that same year.
Cecil played for five teams across 13 seasons (seven with the Tigers) and ended his career with a .255 batting average, 319 home runs and 1,008 RBI.
That gives us just a little insight into our current Fielder’s old man. Now let’s dig a little into his son, the player currently known as Prince.
Prince Fielder
Prince was born in 1984, which is a good omen for Tigers fans. He spent six years of his youth between the ages of 6 and 12 right here in Detroit while his dad played for the Tigers between 1990 and 1996.
In 2001, Prince was 25 when he began playing with the Nashville Sounds, the Brewers’ minor league, Triple-A affiliation.
In June of the 2005 season, Prince was called up to play as a DH during interleague play. He was then sent back down before being called up again later in the year to be used as a pinch-hitter for the remainder of the season.
In December 2005, Brewers first baseman Lyle Overbay was traded to Toronto, opening the door for Prince to become Milwaukee’s starting first baseman in the 2006 season.
In seven seasons, Prince has hit a total of 230 home runs (50 in 2007). His career batting line thus far is .282/.390/.540 with 656 RBI, 566 BB, 571 runs and 779 strikeouts in 3,527 at-bats.
That’s roughly one home run every 15 at-bats and one strikeout every 4.5.
Over 7 seasons, Prince’s 162 game average is 37 home runs, 106 RBI, 93 runs and 126 strikeouts.
Prince is a three-time All-Star (2007, 2009, 2011), a two-time Silver Slugger Award winner (2007, 2011) and the 2007 NL Hank Aaron Award winner.
I guess the royal question everyone wants to know the answer to is what will the next nine years bring?
Joaquin Benoit
Our second player today is the 34-year-old Dominican relief pitcher, Joaquin Benoit. For those of you who don’t already know, JB is 6’3”, 220 lbs.
That’s a lot of mound presence.
He comes at you with a mid-90s fastball, a mid-80s slider and a low-80s changeup.
Joaquin first signed with the Texas Rangers when he was only 16 and started playing in the majors in 2001 at the age of 23. He played eight years for the Rangers through the end of the 2008 season but missed the entire 2009 season after having surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff.
Then came the 2010 season with the Tampa Bay Rays; he was lights out, finishing the season with a 1.34 ERA and a phenomenal .68 WHIP.
In 2010, Benoit allowed only 30 hits, 11 walks and nine earned runs in just over 60 innings pitched, striking out 75 batters.
In November 2010, our Tigers went out and got him, signing him to a three-year, $16.5 million contract.
In 2011, Joaquin got off to a rough start with the Tigers, which may have had something to do with acclimating himself to being north of the 35th parallel. But he finished strong, pitching 61 innings over 66 games and allowing 47 hits and 22 runs, 20 of which were earned.
Benoit’s 2011 regular season ERA was 2.95 and his WHIP was 1.05. He finished with 63 strikeouts and 17 walks having faced a total of 241 batters.
Joaquin’s 2011 postseason was excellent. He appeared in five games pitching a total of 7.2 innings and allowing only four hits, one earned run, three walks and nine strikeouts.
JB’s 2011 postseason ERA was 1.17 with a 0.91 WHIP.
Joaquin was a crucial part of the Tigers greatest moment in 2011, which came in Game 5 of the ALDS against the Yankees in New York. In that game, he recorded five outs, striking out Nick Swisher with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 7th with Granderson on 3rd, Cano on 2nd and Teixeira on 1st and the score 3-2 in favor of the Tigers.
That’s four out of 40 so far, leaving 36 remaining roster players to go over the course of the next 18 days.
We’ll see who the roster cup gods draw for us tomorrow.
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