Tiger Season

After fading badly in September, the Tigers finished with a 72-90 record. 73 wins would have been nice--a full 30 better than the 43-119 record they compiled a year ago. (On the other hand, had the Tigers won the season finale they would have denied the Devil Rays their opportunity to notch the first 70 win season in their seven year history.)

(The team might have approached 80 wins had they had the services of stopper Ugueth Urbina during the final drive. He left the team on September 1st to return to Venezuela after his mother was kidnapped.)

Despite tailing off badly at the end, there was a lot to be impressed by in the 2004 team.

• When Marcus Thames hit 2 homers in the 161st game, this became the first team in ML history to have 11 players with 10 HR
• Ivan Rodriguez' .334 was the 7th best BA in the ML
• As a team, the Tigers batted .272--#8 in the ML and in their division (Cleveland batted .276)
• Their slugging average of .449 was also #8 in the majors and #2 in the division (Chicago hit for .457
• Their OBP was mediocre--.337 for #14
• The pitching was poor. The 4.93 ERA was #30
• Despite having Pudge and Inge combine to throw out 41 felons (#6), the opponents stole 71 bases

(not yet done with this one.)