Day 8: Joel Zumaya did great until he learned about Guitar Hero. Who started great, but ended up just ok?

25 comments

  1. Honestly miggy. Still a legend but numbers from 2008-2015/2016 obviously are a stark difference of 2017-2023. That’s 7-8 years of hall of fame and 7 years of meh to down right awful.

  2. Austin Jackson.. I thought he would be tigers CF for 10+ years. Never forget “ohh Jackson”

  4. Magglio. Cemented himself as a Tigers legend within the first three seasons (still maintain he should have been MVP in ‘07), but slowly dropped off as he became more injury prone in his last few seasons (including going .255 with a -1.4 WAR in his final season.) Still solid in his later years, just not the game-changer he was in the mid 2000s

  6. Mickey Cochrane. Vital to the first Tiger’s WS win. Great production relative to position and results (the Yankees win the 1935 pennant without him, imo). Age related regression to being ok.

  8. Michael Fulmer. Rookie of the Year and looked to be a future ace but ended up as a backend reliever.

  10. Daniel Norris? How do you top getting a home run on your first ever professional baseball at bat? 8 years with us and has a 99era+

  11. This is a tough sell here, but as soon as I saw this chart, I thought of him. Mike Maroth. The sell here is started great.

    In his first full major league season, the man managed to win 9 actual games on one of the worst baseball teams of all time. He also managed to lose 21 games, but again, we are talking about the worst baseball team of all time. He was the pitcher of record for 30 games, a feat that is hardly touched in modern baseball.

    To put it in perspective, he was the winning pitcher for 20.9% of our wins that year. Skubal was the winning pitcher of record for us this year in 20.9% of our wins. Which is why it seemed like he’d be great if our team didn’t suck.

    All this had me so energized for him to start his career. He was going to be the guy. The next year he was solid going 11-13 on a 90 loss team. He was pretty mid after that. He was hurt for part of ‘06 and didn’t make the playoff roster. We traded him in 2007, which is my argument for why it didn’t end badly.

    Mike Maroth: started great and ended okayish.

  13. Okay, I have the answer, but once again is gonna be too old.: Cecil Fielder WAR of 6.5 with 51 bombs his first year with us and out of Japan. 3.8 WAR and 44 bombs second season. All within a relatively dead-ball era in terms of home runs (pre-steroid).

    Either physical health or pitchers figured him out but ended with a 0.6 and 0.7 WAR in his last season and a half with us. Still managed 31 home runs in the second to last season before we traded him. He was simply “ok” by the end. But that beginning, LAWD ALMIGHTY

    I remember first getting into baseball in 90 as a young lad, and it was just after that 51 bomb season. There on out Cecil Fielder was my favorite player. And We were awful and got worse and worse (as did he). But him getting traded to the Yankees for Reuben (sp?) Sierra and Matt Drews broke my 10 year old heart. Although it didn’t in any way, whatsoever, prepare me for Grant Hill and Barry Sanders.

  17. Skeeter Barnes was my first choice. But on second thought, unforgettable Eric King makes his case as well.

  18. I feel like a few ‘started great, then aged’ are kinda cop-out answers to this one (Victor, Mags, Miggy…).

  19. How the literal fuck does Joel Zumaya beat The Bird?

    Dude was the best pitcher in all of baseball his rookie season. Only to never pitch another full season.

  21. Zumaya my hero. Didn’t consider factoring in injuries for somebody that ended bad. Thought more so along the lines of like if Tork’s career were to end right now, it ended bad and there’s no significant injuries to blame.

  24. Alex Avila was great for the first 29 games of his career in 2009, then crazy good in 2011. Rest of his Tigers career he was fine but never had a season like 2011 ever again.

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