Randy Smith All-Stars

[The Ronz]

1. Phil Nevin
2. Luis Gonzalez
3. Travis Fryman*
4. Frank Catalatano*
5. Brad Ausmus
6. Gabe Kapler*
7. Juan Encarcion*
8. Tony Clark*
9. Deivi Cruz

That looks like a pretty good lineup to me!

:eek: :confused: :mad:

Randy Smith was probably the worst thing to happen to the Tigers in the last 50+ years!

* = Home grown talent

[ToledoTigerFan]

Yep, I made the same point awhile back and even added the stats of all those guys together to see what has been dumped. One terrible move or trade after another. At least the idiot resposible is llloooonnggg gone, thank God. Cruz and Encarnacion are the only two that I think were and are easily replaceable. The rest are quality players.

[qsilvr2531]

It's not a terrible lineup, but it's not great either. We have Encarnacion, Ausmus, Cruz all as holes in the lineup. And the D is pretty bad up the middle with Cruz, Cat, and Juan E.

[JuanGone]

Thank you q for making some observations. I remember not 2 months ago everyone was happy to rid our wonderful organizations of Juan, Tony, and Deivi. While I don't care that they are gone (we're terrible with 'em or without 'em), I knew later on down the line when they started hot (or lukewarm) people would say, "Oh look another guy Randy got rid of!" The truth is, most of them he had no choice. No one like Nevin, LGone asked to get out of Detroit, couldn't pay Travie (I know, this is debateable), and the others on one cared about or them hated them while they were here (minus Gabe and Cat). My point is, moves are made every year. If we kept everyone we'd still have Rob Deer and Lloyd Moseby.

[TigerCap]

What about pitchers?

[ToledoTigerFan]

Rob Deer and Lloyd Moseby aren't even relevant to this thread. Deer was dumped because he was at the end of a .220 career batting average and Moseby was dumped at the tail end of a .257 career batting average by the previous management. This thread is about the ones that got away because of stupidity, about poor moves by Randy Smith, not by the previous management. Dumped for nothing. Players that if the Tigers still had them that could generate some offense, a whole lot more than they're getting. Probably not a pennant winner but a plus .500 team, easily. A team that with a good free agent or two would at least have a chance. A team that wouldn't be 0-9 right now. Poor moves, one after another. They must've been poor moves, he got canned. Pretty good proof.

[Ranger]

I'm still convinced not having Cruz and Encarnacion on the team makes us a better team. Ausmus may not hit much but he is not a hole in the lineup - the team ERA was pretty low in 2000 and then in 2001 it went way up so you can hold Ausmus responsible for keeping the team ERA down in 2000 and Warthen doesn't get any credit for that because 2001 proved otherwise. Ausmus's defense and the way he handled the pitching staff was well worth having him on the lineup.

Fryman can/at least did play SS so he can replace Cruz. Put Nevin back at 3rd and Tony at 1st. Kapler in CF, LuGo in LF and since Higgy is homegrown, throw him back in RF and we play in Tigers Stadium.

Pitching would be - Justin Thompson, Brian Moehler, Jeff Weaver, Jose Lima (he did come up with the Tigs), a healthy Seth Gresinger(sp?)

I was happy to get rid of Juan E. and Cruz. I thought we should have gotten something in return for an All-Star in Clark but I'm not too incredibly sad at losing an injury prone 1st basman.

[Jeff]

I'll never get over fryman!

[OldTimey]

I never thought Fryman was so great. And are we still doing this? Randy Smith has been fired now.

[ToledoTigerFan]

RANDY WHO?!?

[OldTimey]

Just to talk a little mroe to my point, Palmer ahs a better OPS and more HR than Fryman. And for crying out loud, we've declared Encarnacion awesome after 9 games??? He had 16 great games with us in 2000.

Brad Ausmus is also terrible.

Also, people were dogging Clark for YEARS on this board so don't all of the sudden jump on some kind of TC bandwagon. He's doing no better than he did here last year.

[Ernest Nzigamasabo]

Bring back Dave Mlicki!!!;)

[Lord Silverkat]

has Chris Pittaro had his number retired yet?? But you got to give Randy for not signing Sid Finch

[qsilvr2531]

the team ERA was pretty low in 2000 and then in 2001 it went way up so you can hold Ausmus responsible for keeping the team ERA down in 2000

this point has been made before. My question is, which pitchers individually did better with Ausmus at catcher rather than Fick and Inge? Weaver? Not really. Sparks? Not really. Anderson? Nope.

The changes in the pitching staff (and the decision to think Mlicki's career year was for real) hurt the pitching staff much more than the change in catchers.

I liked Nevin, and thought we were screwing around with him by trying him at every position on the planet. I don't think it was a coincidence that he became a really good hitter as soon as someone gave him a regular position. LuGone wanted out because we decided that Kaplar and Encarnacion both HAD play in the majors even though Kaplar didn't have any experience in AAA and Encarnacion was walking 20 times a year while King 100 times.

Palmer has created 5.2 runs per 27 outs fr his career. Fryman has created 5.4 per 27 outs. Fryman is also a significantly better defensive player. Neither would be a good fit for this team, but Fryman would be a better one.

And releasing Clark is gonna come back to haunt us. He was better than everyone gave him credit for.

[TigersDraftPick]

Tony Clark is hitting .154 and not seeing much time with Boston...maybe his back is hurting again...we need something to fell good about

[Todd]

what about juan E hit 3 or 4 homers in the first two weeks