1958 Detroit Tigers season

The 1958 Detroit Tigers season was a season in American baseball. The team finished fifth in the American League with a record of 77–77, 15 games behind the New York Yankees.

Offseason

November 20, 1957: Bill Tuttle, Jim Small, Duke Maas, John Tsitouris, Frank House, Kent Hadley and a player to be named later were traded by the Tigers to the Kansas City Athletics for Billy Martin, Mickey McDermott, Tom Morgan, Lou Skizas, Tim Thompson, and Gus Zernial. The Tigers completed the deal by sending Jim McManus to the Athletics on April 3.
December 11, 1957: Dave Philley was purchased from the Tigers by the Philadelphia Phillies.
February 18, 1958: Jay Porter and Hal Woodeshick were traded by the Tigers to the Cleveland Indians for Hank Aguirre and Jim Hegan.
March 27, 1958: Pete Wojey and $20,000 were traded by the Tigers to the Cleveland Indians for Vito Valentinetti and Milt Bolling.

Regular season

Notable transactions

June 15, 1958: Ray Boone and Bob Shaw were traded by the Tigers to the Chicago White Sox for Bill Fischer and Tito Francona.
June 23, 1958: Vito Valentinetti was traded by the Tigers to the Washington Senators for Al Cicotte.
June 30, 1958: Mickey Lolich was signed as an amateur free agent by the Tigers.

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
C	Red Wilson	103	298	89	.299	3	29
1B	Gail Harris	134	451	123	.273	20	82
2B	Frank Bolling	154	610	164	.269	14	75
SS		131	498	127	.255	7	42
3B	Reno Bertoia	86	240	56	.233	6	27
LF	Charlie Maxwell	131	397	108	.272	13	65
CF	Harvey Kuenn	139	561	179	.319	8	54
RF	Al Kaline	146	543	170	.313	16	85

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
Coot Veal	58	207	53	.256	0	16
Ozzie Virgil Sr.	49	193	47	.244	3	19
Johnny Groth	88	146	41	.281	2	11
Jim Hegan	45	130	25	.192	1	7
Gus Zernial	66	124	40	.323	5	23
Ray Boone	39	114	27	.237	6	20
Tito Francona	45	69	17	.246	0	10
Charley Lau	30	68	10	.147	0	6
Bob Hazle	43	58	14	.241	2	5
Lou Skizas	23	33	8	.242	1	2
Milt Bolling	24	31	6	.194	0	0
Bill Taylor	8	8	3	.375	0	1
Tim Thompson	4	6	1	.167	0	0
George Alusik	2	2	0	.000	0	0
Steve Boros	6	2	0	.000	0	0
Bobo Osborne	2	2	0	.000	0	0
Jack Feller	1	0	0	----	0	0
George Thomas	1	0	0	----	0	0

Pitching

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
Frank Lary	39	260.1	16	15	2.90	131
Paul Foytack	39	230.0	15	13	3.44	135
	35	219.2	14	12	3.52	177

Other 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
Billy Hoeft	36	143.0	10	9	4.15	94
Herb Moford	25	109.2	4	9	3.61	58
George Susce	27	90.2	4	3	3.67	42
Al Cicotte	14	43.0	3	1	3.56	21
Bob Shaw	11	26.2	1	2	5.06	17
Herm Wehmeier	7	22.2	1	0	2.38	11

Relief pitchers

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

Player	G	W	L	SV	ERA	SO
	44	3	4	5	3.75	38
	39	2	5	1	3.16	32
Bill Fischer	22	2	4	2	7.63	16
Vito Valentinetti	15	1	0	2	3.38	10
Joe Presko	7	0	0	2	3.38	6
George Spencer	7	1	0	0	2.70	5
Lou Sleater	4	0	0	0	6.75	4
	2	0	0	0	9.00	0
Don Lee	1	0	0	0	9.00	0

Farm system

LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Birmingham, Valdosta