He was pretty consistent along the way, with a 6-5 home record, a 6-5 road record, a 6-5 record in the first half of the season, and 6-5 after the break. His ERA before the All-Star break was 3.62, and after the break it was 3.63. Even by month, his ERA was 3-something every month except one.

Something Sparky probably liked even better than the consistency, was that Milt was doin’ his job great against the best teams in the division (Milwaukee, Baltimore, and Boston), going 5-3 on the strength of a 3.49 ERA. Detroit was only 9-22 against those three teams when Milt wasn’t pitching.

Even the Royals, who were a 90 win team in the AL West, had their troubles hitting Milt Wilcox in 1982. On April 20th, he tosses a 1 hit shutout against them. Later in the summer, he throws another 5 shutout innings against them.

That means that against four of the elite American League clubs that season, Milt Wilcox posted a 2.90 ERA and went 7-3 (.700) with just 1 no decision. That’s really really good. What makes those number even crazier, is that when it wasn’t 1982, his numbers against these same four clubs were downright awful— 4.79 ERA, 23-38 (.377), and 30 no decisions.

It was just that kind of rare season. He was consistent as they come, but also out of whack with his career stats, and somehow managed to beat some of the league’s best lineups….that couldn’t normally beat.

The next season, Milt Wilcox would nearly throw a perfect game on April 15 against the White Sox. He only had to get 1 more out, when pinch hitter Jerry Hairston singled to center.

Not long after that, Milt’s skills began a slow fade off into the sunset. Maybe they were already fading in ’82, but after that season his ERA fell below average for the rest of his career. Even in 1984 when he won 17 games and helped lead the Tigers to a World Championship, his ERA was a fat 4.00.

He eventually wound up in Seattle, finishing his career as he finished the June 12, 1986 game for the Mariners against the White Sox. Ironically, the last batter he faced in his career and the last batter he got out, was Jerry Hairston.

When Jack entered the Tigers training camp in ’82 though, he tied for the AL lead in wins the previous year & looked to build on his success. Manager Sparky Anderson must’ve felt good about his chances at a playoff spot. Unfortunately, things didn’t work out that way.

Jack’s overall stats were average in 1982, and he wasn’t even the best pitcher in the Tigers rotation. He had the lowest ERA+ at 100, gave up more hits per 9 IP, and nearly the highest HR’s allowed rate at 1.3. He did lead the team in wins with 17, but he also led it in losses too. In fact, his 16 losses mean he lost more games than any of the other pitchers won.

If we look at the strength of his opponents though, we can see exactly what his problem was—

Essentially, Jack Morris was a Cy Young candidate against bad teams, but he couldn’t even compete against good teams. I mean, the good teams didn’t just beat Morris in ’82, they slaughtered him.

Further, when Morris allowed 2 runs or less, he was 12-1, with 1 no decision. Of those 14 starts though, he only faced 1 team over .500, which makes for a pretty weak 12-1. His record in the other 23 starts, was 5-15 with 3 no decisions. So fortunately for Jack & Detroit, Morris got to face weak teams almost twice as often as strong teams. That covers over the fact that his year was even worse than the 17-16 record, 4.06 ERA, and 100 ERA+ suggest.

For his career, Jack Morris won 62% of his victories by beating inferior lineups. This amazes me.

That’s 92 games over .500 in his career against bad teams, 24 games UNDER .500 when he faced good teams, and his ERA was very different in the two situations. That kind of ruins the whole myth about him being a big game pitcher.

I also can’t help but notice that his 3.57 ERA against sub-.500 teams, is higher than Dave Stieb’s and Bob Welch’s entire career ERA’s (facing good and bad lineups).

That being said, Morris was still a premier pitcher in his day. At his peak, from ’83-’87, he had a 120 ERA+, 3.38 ERA, .635 winning percentage, and 70 CG.

Kemp was a 1st pick of the 1st round of the 1976 amateur draft. The Tigers brought him to the major leagues after only 125 games in the minors. It’s pretty surprising to me that Kemp didn’t get a single vote for Rookie of the Year in 1977 after he swatted 18 homers, drove in 88 RBI’s, slugged .422, and scored 75 runs. Compare that to Bump Wills who got 4 1st place votes whacking just 9 HR’s, 62 RBI’s, and slugged .410. Steve Kemp should’ve gotten a little more attention from the start.

From 1977-1981, he was one of baseball brightest young stars. In fact, for players under age 27 during that period who had more than 2000 plate appearances, Kemp had the 9th highest OPS+ and 3rd highest RBI total, behind only Jim Rice and Eddie Murray. He also had a talent for drawing walks more than striking out, helping him to a .376 OBP.

Detroit probably thought he was fading since he only knocked in 9 HR’s in 105 games in 1981, because on November 27, Kemp was traded to the Chicago White Sox for another young star, Chet Lemon. Kemp went on to have a very season in Chicago, his only year there.

It was an interesting year for Kemp in Chicago, his only year there. The first full month of the season he hit .300/.388/.420, but couldn’t find his home run swing, collecting only 3. Another month passes and he still only added 1 more home run to his total. When the All-Star break hit, he only had 8 HR’s, but he had driven in 51 while scoring 35 more himself (minus the HR’s that counted as RBI’s).

His slugging rose 20 points in the second half of the season, to help him reach 19 home runs after the second game of a double header at Comiskey Park against the Mariners on Sept 27. He also drove in his 98th run that day. There were five games left, and Steve Kemp looked sure to pull off his 3rd season of 20+ HR’s and 100+ RBI’s. In those last five games though, he only hit .118 with 4 walks and struck out 5 times, falling short of the 20 HR/100 RBI mark.

After 1982, he moved on to the Yankees for a couple years and then faded out. My personal memory of Kemp is from the ’83 season, and watching him smack a big home run into the Yankees right field upper deck. I immediately went out to my backyard with my Yankees hat on and started pretending to be Steve Kemp for the rest of the afternoon. My memory might be a bit off though, because I couldn’t find a game from that year where Kemp hit a home run in the afternoon in Yankee Stadium, assuming only the weekend games were afternoon ones. So maybe it was 1984, or maybe the Yanks played a rare afternoon game during a weekday that summer.

Three impessive Steve Kemp career stats…

• 96 PA’s as a pinch hitter, he posted a .406 OBP
• When the bases were loaded, he drew 7 walks, batted .333, slugged .531
• In 531 PA’s in the 6th inning… 21 Hr’s, 73 RBI’s, .299/.380/.489