All Tigers team 1965-2016 position players

Image Courtesy of Bing

Tiger fans have been fortunate to have a number of great players play for the franchise for a long time. Alan Trammel and Lou Whitaker come to mind. To me, Al Kaline is Mr. Tiger, though his best years were before 1965. With that in mind here we go.

Catcher: Bill Freehan I have to confess, I was going to go with Lance Parrish, but I looked at Freehan's stats again and gave him this position. Bill came up briefly in 1961, but came to stay in 1963. He wound down his career in 1976. All those years were spent with the Tigers.

Bill was in 11 All Star games and was a key component on the 1968 Tigers world series winners. Overall, Bill's offensive stats were a little lower than Lance's but the 60's weren't a great time for offense. Freehan finished his career with 200 home runs and an OPS of.752. He was also strong defensibly. Lance Parrish also had a fine career with the Tigers, playing 10 years for the Tigers while hitting 212 home runs. Lance also had defensive metrics to go with a good bat. His WAR for his years in Detroit was 29.9. He was a key member of the 1984 World Series championship team. His OPS with the Tigers was .796 His WAR for that time was 29.6. Not only did Lance swing a big stick, his defensive metrics were also strong. Lance wouldn't have been a bad choice either.

First base: Miguel Cabrera Miggy is simply one of the best hitters I've ever seen. Miguel hits for power and average, as well as in the clutch. I could put up a bunch of stats showing how great Miggy has been, but I'll just use a few. Miggy's OPS has been over 1.000 three times with another season at .999. He's led the league in batting average three times, slugging percentage twice, and has an OBS of.401 as of now. Miggy is in his 10^th season in Detroit and has a WAR 51.7. While Miggy is an easy choice, I'll still give a shout out to Norm cash who made good use of the right field upper deck porch of the old Tigers Stadium during the 60's.

Second base: Lou Whitaker Lou spent all 19 years of his big league career with the Tigers. He was amazing good and consistent. Whitaker had 15 seasons with a WAR of 3.0 or more. Twice Lou had seasons with a WAR of 6.7. Lou's game was amazingly balanced. He hit for average, had some power and could steal a base. Whitaker also won three gold gloves. During the 60's, Dick McAuliffe had some nice seasons after moving over from shortstop. Ian Kinsler has also performed well in reason years, but the pick is Whitaker.

Shortstop: Alan Trammell While few players have had the longevity and productivity of Lou Whitaker, one who did was his double play partner, Alan Trammel. Alan spent 20 years with the Tigers. Pretty much everything I said about Lou Whitaker applies to Alan Trammell. Alan finished up with a WAR of 70.4. Shortstop hasn't been an area of particular strength for the Tigers beyond Tammell.

Third base: Travis Fryman For years the Tigers had good glove guys with weak bats manning this position. Guys like Don Wert and Aurelio Rodriguez. Travis Fryman provided a good bat for the Tigers during the early and mid 90s. Travis was good for about 20 homers and 95 RBIs a year from 1991-97. He was also okay defensively. During his 8 years with the Tigers Travis put together a WAR of 27.4. Darrell Evans had some great years in Detroit and played a few games at third, but not enough to nail down this slot.

Left Field: Kirk Gibson The three guys that come to mind when I think of Tigers left fielders are Kirk Gibson, Willie Horton and Steve Kemp. Kemp was a pretty effective player for the Tigers from 1977-81. Willie Horton was a long time Tiger, playing with the team from 1963-76. Willie's best year with the Tigers was 1968 when he hit 36 home runs and drove in 85 runs for that world champion Tigers team. From 1984-87 Gibby put up home run totals of 27-29-28-24. His OPS ranged from .861-.882. That was enough to elevate him over Kemp and Horton.

Center field: Chet Lemon This was a close call between Chet Lemon and Curtis Granderson. In a coin toss situation I went with Lemon. The decision was primarily based on longevity. Chet played 9 years for the Tigers and hit 141 home runs and had an OPS of 846. Granderson had more offensive production for a shorter duration. In 2007 Curtis had 38 doubles, 23 triples and 23 home runs. His OPS for the season was .913. Still, Lemon gets the call though Granderson might be getting squeezed.

Right field: Al Kaline In what some might call a sentimental decision, I gave Kaline this position over Magglio Ordonez. Al started his career at the age of 18 in 1953. Even from 1965 forward, Kaline was a big contributor to the Tigers. Al played through 1974 and hit double digit home runs in ever one of those years, so he wasn't just along for the ride. Magglio spent seven seasons with the Tigers, with three of them being big offensive years. It wasn't enough to displace Al Kaline.

Designated hitter: Victor Martinez Victor barely edges out an old school, three outcome guy, Darrell Evans. Martinez has been plagued by injuries during his stint with the Tigers, but put up monster numbers in 2014. That year Victor led the league in OBS with a mark of .974 and OBP with a percentage of .409. Darrell Evans led the AL in homers with 40 in 1985. For his five years in Detroit, Darrell walked 437 times while striking out 433 times.

There's my Tigers team. Agree? Disagree? If so, why. Respectful feedback encouraged.