Team 97: The 1904 Detroit Tigers

• Year: 1904
• Record: 62-90
• Win %: .408
• Win % Change: -70 from the year before
• Run Differential: -122
• Pythagorean Record: 61-91
• AL Finish: 7th of 8
• Manager: Ed Barrow and Bobby Lowe
• Best Transaction: Traded Billy Lush to the Cleveland Naps for Ed Killian. This trade took place the January before the 1904 season and it appears to have played out in the Tigers favor. Lush was a weak hitting utility guy and Killian put together a pretty decent career with the Tigers. Killian won 99 games with the Tigers and topped the 20 win mark twice.  Lush meanwhile played only one more season in the bigs before calling it a career.
• Worst Transaction: Nothing really to speak of here. A few minor deals here and there, but nothing to write home about.
• Upper: The Tigers outfield was pretty good in 1904. The rest of the offense struggled throughout the season, but the outfield was solid.  Sam Crawford smacked 16 triples and stole 20 bases, all at the age of 24.  Jimmy Barrett was also decent in the outfield as he led the team with a .268 batting average (yeah, .268 led the team).  Barrett was primarily a singles hitter though as only 15 of his 167 hits went for extra-bases.
• Downer: The middle of the infield was a real mess. They got consistent play from Charley O’Leary and Bobby Lowe, unfortunately, both of them were terrible offensive players.  O’Leary, the shortstop, hit .213 with an OPS+ of only 63 while Lowe hit .208 with an OPS+ of 58.  When a quarter of your offense is that feeble, it’s really hard to win ball games.
• Summary:  This was a rough season, but it was a young team.  Sam Crawford was only 24 and pitchers George Mullin, Ed Killian, and Wild Bill Donovan were all in their 20s.  It took some time for this team to come together but you could start to see it coming together with these key pieces.  The Tigers would go on to win 17 more games in 1905 and made the World Series three years in a row starting in1907.  Mullin and Killian each threw over 300 innings in 1904 and the Tigers hit only 11 home runs all season.  A different era.

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