Make that AL East Rookie Pitchers... John Curtis, Mickey Scott, Rich Hinton ....A three
player mixed bag…One journeyman starter whose career went into the mid 80’s… Two obscure
pitchers who were able to hang on into the later part of the 70’s….All slated
to be part of the AL East Division
Rich
Hinton: Tucson native and AU drafted five times from the years 1965 to 1969…. Even
though Topps perceived him as rookie 1971 Hinton already had a 3-4 record for
the White Sox….The first of three separate occasions the incredibly well
traveled (15 transactions) lefty played for the Southsiders….1971 also
represented a career high in wins…acquired by Yankees for 72 …. pitched 16
innings for the bombers…but mostly played in AAA and then Texas….then a series
of trades too numerous to list interspersed with minor league demotions …Last big
club was Seattle in 1979…Finished career 9-17, 4.87 ERA
John
Duffield Curtis…bespectacled, literate fellow…came into 1972 with 2-2 record in Red Sox fall call up…In 1972, After
a short time in AAA performance for Rouge Hose was above par, 11-5 a starter replacing
hurlers like the aging Ray Culp and Gary Peters in the rotation…The his rookie
debut along with Carlton Fisk and resurgence of Luis Tiant accounted largely for
the Red Sox contention into the East pennant race….Raised his win total to 13….plus
ranked 4th in AL shutouts…Traded to the Cards for the next season
starting 9 years in the NL….later stops included 3 year stints for Giants,
Padres, and Angels….Did not exceed 10 wins in mostly in 5th or spot
starter roles…Did compliment a few bullpen corps but only had 11 career saves mostly in …finished
with 89 wins and 3.97 ERA
Mikey
Scott ….Real name was Ralph Robert … Began pro ball in the Yankee organization
as a starter…traded to White Sox for the 1970 season but wound up the season in
Baltimore’s AAA Rochester club starting a exclusive relief role…Orioles must
liked what they saw and obtained outright for 1971…His career was buoyed by a
9-1 record there and he was called up to the big club in 1972….a situational reliever
at best….most active year was 1975 when he made 50 appearances for the Angels
working as a mop up man in losing efforts...end of career was 8-7 3.72 ERA.
Special note: Just received a copy of the 1971 Complete Handbook of Baseball for a bargin $5 on Ebay...so I'll be mining some information from this source.
No comments:
Post a Comment