1996 Detroit Tigers season

The 1996 Detroit Tigers had a record of 53–109 for what was, at the time, the most losses (109) and worst winning percentage (.327) in team history -- both of which since been surpassed twice by the 2003 and 2019 teams.

1996 Detroit Tigers
Major League affiliations
Location
Other information
Owner(s)Mike Ilitch
General manager(s)Randy Smith
Manager(s)Buddy Bell
Local televisionWKBD
(George Kell, Al Kaline)
PASS
(Ernie Harwell, Fred McLeod, Jim Price)
Local radioWJR
(Frank Beckmann, Lary Sorensen)
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With a number of capable batters (Cecil Fielder, Tony Clark, Bobby Higginson, Alan Trammell, Rubén Sierra, and Damion Easley), the team scored a respectable 783 runs. However, the 1996 Tigers lacked pitching, allowing their opponents to score 1,103 runs and posting a team ERA of 6.38. No team in American League history and only one in major league history (the 1930 Philadelphia Phillies) has given up more runs. No pitcher on the team had more than 7 wins. Of the 109 games the Tigers lost, 58 were by four or more runs, a record for the number of games lost by such a margin.[1] The Tigers made more unwanted history when they were swept 12–0 by the Cleveland Indians in the regular season series, losing all twelve games played while being outscored, 79–28. The 1996 Tigers did not have a winning record against any AL opponent.

Regular season

Opening Day roster

Season standings
AL East W L Pct. GB Home Road
New York Yankees 9270 0.568 — 49–31 43–39
Baltimore Orioles 8874 0.543 4 43–38 45–36
Boston Red Sox 8577 0.525 7 47–34 38–43
Toronto Blue Jays 7488 0.457 18 35–46 39–42
Detroit Tigers 53109 0.327 39 27–54 26–55

Record vs. opponents
1996 American League Records

Sources:
Team BAL BOS CAL CWS CLE DET KC MIL MIN NYY OAK SEA TEX TOR
Baltimore —7–66–64–85–711–29–39–37–53–109–47–53–10–18–5
Boston 6–7—8–46–61–1112–13–97–56–67–68–57–66–68–5
California 6–64–8—6–64–96–64–87–54–87–66–75–84–97–5
Chicago 8–46–66–6—5–810–37–66–76–76–75–75–78–47–5
Cleveland 7–511–19–48–5—12–07–67–610–33–96–68–44–87–5
Detroit 2–111–126–63–100–12—6–64–86–65–84–86–64–96–7
Kansas City 3–99–38–46–76–76–6—4–96–74–85–77–56–65–8
Milwaukee 3–95–75–77–66–78–49–4—9–46–67–54–96–75–7
Minnesota 5–76–68–47–63–106–67–64–9—5–76–76–67–58–5
New York 10–36–76–77–69–38–58–46–67–5—9–33–95–78–5
Oakland 4–95–87–67–56–68–47–55–77–63–9—8–57–64–8
Seattle 5–76–78–57–54–86–65–79–46–69–35–8—10–35–7
Texas 10–3–16–69–44–88–49–46–67–65–77–56–73–10—10–2
Toronto 5–85–85–75–75–77–68–57–55–85–88–47–52–10—

Game log
1996 Game Log: 53–109 (Home: 27–54; Away: 26–55)
April: 9–18 (Home: 5–6; Away: 4–12)
May: 4–23 (Home: 1–11; Away: 3–12)
June: 10–17 (Home: 6–7; Away: 4–10)
July: 12–14 (Home: 6–7; Away: 6–7)
August: 14–15 (Home: 9–7; Away: 5–8)
September: 4–22 (Home: 0–16; Away: 4–6)
Legend:           = Win           = Loss
Bold = Tigers team member

Detailed records

Notable transactions
  • March 22, 1996: Melvin Nieves was traded by the San Diego Padres with Raul Casanova and Richie Lewis to the Detroit Tigers for Sean Bergman, Todd Steverson, and Cade Gaspar (minors).[2]
  • March 31, 1996: Curtis Pride was signed as a Free Agent with the Detroit Tigers.[3]
  • April 27, 1996: Joe Boever was selected off waivers by the Pittsburgh Pirates from the Detroit Tigers.[4]
  • July 31, 1996: Cecil Fielder was traded by the Detroit Tigers to the New York Yankees for Rubén Sierra and Matt Drews (minors).[5]
  • July 31, 1996: Chad Curtis was traded by the Detroit Tigers to the Los Angeles Dodgers for John Cummings and Joey Eischen.[6]
  • August 6, 1996: Todd Van Poppel was selected off waivers by the Detroit Tigers from the Oakland Athletics.

Roster
1996 Detroit Tigers
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

 Outfielders Manager

Coaches

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
CBrad Ausmus7522656.248422
1BTony Clark10037694.2502772
2BMark Lewis145545147.2701155
3BTravis Fryman157616165.26822100
SSAndújar Cedeño5217935.196720
LFBobby Higginson130440141.3202681
CFKimera Bartee12021755.253114
RFMelvin Nieves110431106.2462460
DHEddie Williams7721543.200626

Other batters

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
Chad Curtis104400105.2631037
Cecil Fielder10739197.2482680
Curtis Pride9526780.3001031
Alan Trammell6619345.233116
Rubén Sierra4615835.222120
John Flaherty4715238.250423
Chris Gomez4812831.242116
Phil Nevin3812035.292819
Mark Parent3810425.240717
Damion Easley216723.343210

Pitching

Starting pitchers
Player G IP W L ERA SO
Felipe Lira32194.76145.22113
Omar Olivares251607114.8981
Greg Gohr1791.7487.1760
Justin Thompson1159164.5844
Todd Van Poppel936.32411.3916
Scott Aldred1143.3049.3536
C. J. Nitkowski1145.7238.0836

Other pitchers
Player G IP W L ERA SO
Brian Williams401213106.7772
Greg Keagle2687.7367.3970
A. J. Sager2279455.0152

Relief pitchers
Player G W L SV ERA SO
Gregg Olson433085.0229
Mike Myers831565.0169
Richie Lewis724624.1878
José Lima395635.7059

League leaders and award winners

Worst seasons in Detroit Tigers history
Worst Seasons in Detroit Tigers History
RankYearWinsLossesWin %
1 2003 43 119 .265
2 2019 47 114 .292
3 1952 50 104 .325
4 1996 53 109 .327
5 2002 55 106 .342

Farm system
See also: Minor League Baseball
Level Team League Manager
AAA Toledo Mud Hens International League Tom Runnells
AA Jacksonville Suns Southern League Bill Plummer and Larry Parrish
A Visalia Oaks California League Tim Torricelli
A Lakeland Tigers Florida State League Dave Anderson
A Fayetteville Generals South Atlantic League Dwight Lowry
A-Short Season Jamestown Jammers New York–Penn League Bruce Fields
Rookie GCL Tigers Gulf Coast League Kevin Bradshaw

LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Jacksonville
Visalia affiliation shared with Arizona Diamondbacks[7]

See also

References
  1. "Team Pitching Game Finder: From 1913 to 2017, (requiring run_diff<=-4)". Baseball Reference. Retrieved August 1, 2017.
  2. https://www.baseball-reference.com/n/nieveme01.shtml
  3. https://www.baseball-reference.com/p/pridecu01.shtml
  4. https://www.baseball-reference.com/b/boevejo01.shtml
  5. Cecil Fielder Statistics Baseball-Reference.com
  6. https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/curtich01.shtml
  7. Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball". Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 1997
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