Monday, April 7, 2014

#724 AL Rookie Stars

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.  



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