1998 Detroit Tigers season

1998 Detroit Tigers
Major league affiliations
American League (since 1901) Central Division (since 1998)
Location
Tiger Stadium (since 1912) Detroit, Michigan (since 1901)
1998 information
Owner(s)	Mike Ilitch
Manager(s)	Buddy Bell, Larry Parrish
Local television	WKBD (Ernie Harwell, Al Kaline) FSN Detroit (Kirk Gibson, Josh Lewin)
Local radio	WJR (Frank Beckmann, Lary Sorensen, Jim Price)
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The 1998 Detroit Tigers finished in fifth place in their first season in the American League Central Division with a record of 65-97 (.401), 24 games behind the Cleveland Indians. The Tigers were outscored by their opponents 863 to 722. The Tigers drew 1,409,391 fans to Tiger Stadium in 1998, ranking 11th of the 14 teams in the American League.

Contents 1 Offseason 2 Regular season 2.1 Season standings 2.2 Transactions 2.3 Roster 3 Player stats 3.1 Starting pitchers 3.2 Relief pitchers 4 Farm system 5 References

Offseason

• November 11, 1997: Melvin Nieves was traded by the Detroit Tigers to the Cincinnati Reds for Paul Bako and Donne Wall. ^[1]
• November 18, 1997: Travis Fryman was traded by the Detroit Tigers to the Arizona Diamondbacks for Gabe Alvarez, Joe Randa, and Matt Drews (minors). ^[2]
• December 16, 1997: Billy Ripken was signed as a Free Agent with the Detroit Tigers. ^[3]
• December 22, 1997: Joe Oliver was signed as a Free Agent with the Detroit Tigers. ^[4]
• March 25, 1998: Doug Bochtler was purchased by the Detroit Tigers from the Oakland Athletics. ^[5]

Regular season

Season standings

AL Central	W	L	Pct.	GB
Cleveland Indians	89	73	.549	--
Chicago White Sox	80	82	.494	9.0
Kansas City Royals	72	89	.447	16.5
Minnesota Twins	70	92	.432	19.0
Detroit Tigers	65	97	.401	24.0

Transactions

• July 16, 1998: Joe Oliver was released by the Detroit Tigers. ^[4]
• July 20, 1998: Billy Ripken was released by the Detroit Tigers. ^[3]

Roster

1998 Detroit Tigers
Roster
Pitchers 14,51 Matt Anderson 45 Doug Bochtler 26 Doug Brocail 58 Will Brunson 46 Frank Castillo 56 Dean Crow 55 Roberto Duran 39 Bryce Florie 50 Seth Greisinger 41 Denny Harriger 59 Todd Jones 57 Greg Keagle 38 Brian Moehler 36 Brian Powell 44 Sean Runyan 49 A. J. Sager 27 Scott Sanders 52 Marino Santana 22 Justin Thompson 36 Tim Worrell		Catchers 32 Paul Bako 33 Raul Casanova 41 Robert Fick  7 Joe Oliver 30 Joe Siddall Infielders 20 Gabe Alvarez 29,27 Frank Catalanotto 17 Tony Clark  8 Deivi Cruz  9 Damion Easley 20 Jeff Manto 19 Joe Randa 14 Billy Ripken 43 Jason Wood		Outfielders 13,12 Kimera Bartee 37 Trey Beamon 29 Gerónimo Berroa 34 Juan Encarnación 28 Luis Gonzalez  4 Bobby Higginson 20 Pete Incaviglia 21 Brian Hunter 51 Gabe Kapler 10 Bip Roberts 30 Andy Tomberlin		Manager 25 Buddy Bell 15 Larry Parrish Coaches 35 Rick Adair (pitching) 31 Larry Herndon 33 Perry Hill (third base) 18 Fred Kendall 15 Larry Parrish (bench) 48 Jerry White (first base)

Player stats

Note: G = Games played; AB = At Bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting Average; HR = Home Runs; RBI = Runs Batted In

Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
Paul Bako	96	305	83	.272	3	30
Tony Clark	157	602	175	.291	34	103
Damion Easley	153	594	161	.271	27	100
Joe Randa	138	560	117	.254	9	50
Deivi Cruz	135	518	118	.260	5	45
Luis Gonzalez	154	547	146	.267	23	71
Brian L. Hunter	142	595	151	.254	4	36
Bobby Higginson	157	612	174	.284	25	85
Geronimo Berroa	52	126	30	.238	1	10
Frank Catalanotto	89	213	60	.282	6	25
Gabe Alvarez	58	286	46	.231	5	29
Juan Encarnacion	40	164	54	.329	7	21
Joe Oliver	50	155	35	.226	4	22
Bip Roberts	34	113	28	.248	0	9
Kimera Bartee	57	98	19	.194	3	15
Billy Ripken	27	74	20	.270	0	5
Andy Tomberlin	32	69	15	.217	2	12
Joe Siddall	29	65	12	.185	1	6
Trey Beamon	28	42	11	.262	0	2
Raul Casanova	16	42	6	.143	1	3
Jeff Manto	16	30	8	.267	1	3
Gabe Kapler	7	25	5	.200	0	0
Jason Wood	10	23	8	.348	1	1
Robert Fick	7	22	8	.364	3	7
Pete Incaviglia	7	14	1	.071	0	0

Note: pitchers' batting statistics not included

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Justin Thompson	34	222.0	11	15	4.05	149
Seth Greisinger	33	221.3	14	13	3.90	123
Brian Moehler	21	130.0	6	9	5.12	66
Frank Castillo	27	116.0	3	9	6.83	81
Brian Powell	18	83.7	3	8	6.35	46

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	SV	ERA	SO
Tim Worrell	15	61.7	2	6	0	5.98	47
Greg Keagle	9	31.7	0	5	0	5.59	25
Todd Jones	65	63.3	1	4	28	4.97	57
Sean Runyan	88	50.3	1	4	1	3.58	39
Doug Brocail	60	62.7	5	2	0	2.73	55
Doug Bochtler	51	67.3	0	2	0	6.15	45
Matt Anderson	42	44.0	5	1	0	3.27	44
Bryce Florie	42	133.0	8	9	0	4.80	97
A. J. Sager	31	59.3	4	2	2	6.52	23
Dean Crow	32	45.7	2	2	0	3.94	18
Roberto Duran	18	15.3	0	1	0	5.87	12
Denny Harriger	4	12.0	0	3	0	6.75	3
Scott Sanders	3	9.7	0	2	0	17.69	6
Marino Santana	7	7.3	0	0	0	3.68	10
Will Brunson	8	3.0	0	0	0	0.00	1

Farm system

Level	Team	League	Manager
AAA	Toledo Mud Hens	International League	Gene Roof
AA	Jacksonville Suns	Southern League	Dave Anderson
A	Lakeland Tigers	Florida State League	Mark Meleski
A	West Michigan Whitecaps	Midwest League	Bruce Fields
Short-Season A	Jamestown Jammers	New York-Penn League	Tim Torricelli
Rookie	GCL Tigers	Gulf Coast League	Kevin Bradshaw

LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: West Michigan^[6]

References

• 1998 Detroit Tigers season at Baseball Reference

1998 MLB season by team AL East Baltimore • Boston • New York • Tampa Bay • Toronto AL Central Chicago • Cleveland • Detroit • Kansas City • Minnesota AL West Anaheim • Oakland • Seattle • Texas NL East Atlanta • Florida • Montréal • New York • Philadelphia NL Central Chicago • Cincinnati • Houston • Milwaukee • Pittsburgh • St. Louis NL West Arizona • Colorado • Los Angeles • San Diego • San Francisco 1998 All-Star Game • 1998 World Series

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