Team 90: The 1918 Tigers

• Year: 1918
• Record: 55-71
• Win %: .437
• Win % Change: -73
• Run Differential: -81
• Pythagorean Record: 54-72
• AL Finish: 7th of 8
• Manager: Hughie Jennings
• Best Transaction: Purchased Marty Kavanagh.  This is a stretch, but Kavanagh is the only player the Tigers brought on bored prior or to or during the 1918 season.  Kavanagh was a former Tiger that was brought back for the stretch run.  Kavanagh hit .273 in 13 games (OPS+ 133) during this period before calling it a career once the season ended.  Told you it was a stretch.
• Worst Transaction: Selling George Burns to the New York Yankees.  Burns was a regular for the Tigers from 1914-1917 before being shipped off to the Yankees.  The Yankees then shipped him to Philadelphia on the same day.  That season, 1918, Burns led the AL in games played, hits and total bases.  Burns stuck around in the big leagues for 16 seasons, winning the AL MVP award in 1926 as a member of the Cleveland Indians.  This one does not look good.
• Upper: The performance of Ty Cobb.  Cobb was his usual dominant self in 1918 despite missing a couple of weeks due to assorted injuries.  Even though he missed some time, Cobb still played enough ball to lead the league in triples as well as in batting average and on-base percentage.  The Tigers offense was a joke in 1918 so it really is amazing that Cobb was able to put up such terrific numbers even though the opposition likely pitched around him whenever they could.
• Downer: WWI.  I don’t want to sound like a jerk, but WWI robbed baseball of some terrific talent during this time period.  The Tigers were no different.  Many Tigers ended up serving in the Armed Forces and as a result missed good chunks of the 1918 season and forced some pretty awful players into full-time duty.  One example of this is at catcher.  Archie Yelle was the Tigers main catcher in 1918, though he played in only 56 games.  In those 56 games, Yelle hit a pathetic .174 (OPS+ 29).  Seriously, have you ever seen an OPS+ that low for a club’s regular?  Pretty awful.  Interesting side note, Yelle played in only 87 career games and retired with an OPS+ of 24.
• Summary: Part of what makes this team so disappointing was how far they fell.  In 1915, they won 100 games and won 87 games in 1916.  To fall so far so fast is pretty remarkable.  In spite of their issues, this team got pretty years out of Bobby Veach and a young Harry Heilmann that provided some hope for the future. Hooks Dauss was the staff ace, but he had a losing record and an ERA+ of only 89.  In fact, the pitching staff had a collective ERA+ below 80, one of the worst in club history.

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