# 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
### Season standings

vteAmerican League :
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB | Home | Road |
| New York Yankees | 92 | 62 | .597 | — | 44‍–‍33 | 48‍–‍29 |
| Chicago White Sox | 82 | 72 | .532 | 10 | 47‍–‍30 | 35‍–‍42 |
| Boston Red Sox | 79 | 75 | .513 | 13 | 49‍–‍28 | 30‍–‍47 |
| Cleveland Indians | 77 | 76 | .503 | 14½ | 42‍–‍34 | 35‍–‍42 |
| Detroit Tigers | 77 | 77 | .500 | 15 | 43‍–‍34 | 34‍–‍43 |
| Baltimore Orioles | 74 | 79 | .484 | 17½ | 46‍–‍31 | 28‍–‍48 |
| Kansas City Athletics | 73 | 81 | .474 | 19 | 43‍–‍34 | 30‍–‍47 |
| Washington Senators | 61 | 93 | .396 | 31 | 33‍–‍44 | 28‍–‍49 |

### Record vs. opponents

1958 American League recordvte Sources: :
| Team | BAL | BOS | CHW | CLE | DET | KCA | NYY | WSH |
| Baltimore | — | 10–12 | 9–13–1 | 10–11 | 10–12 | 12–10 | 8–14 | 15–7 |
| Boston | 12–10 | — | 10–12 | 12–10 | 10–12 | 12–10 | 9–13–1 | 14–8 |
| Chicago | 13–9–1 | 12–10 | — | 12–10 | 10–12 | 12–10 | 7–15 | 16–6 |
| Cleveland | 11–10 | 10–12 | 10–12 | — | 14–8 | 10–12 | 7–15 | 15–7 |
| Detroit | 12–10 | 12–10 | 12–10 | 8–14 | — | 12–10 | 12–10 | 9–13 |
| Kansas City | 10–12 | 10–12 | 10–12 | 12–10 | 10–12 | — | 9–13 | 12–10–2 |
| New York | 14–8 | 13–9–1 | 15–7 | 15–7 | 10–12 | 13–9 | — | 12–10 |
| Washington | 7–15 | 8–14 | 6–16 | 7–15 | 13–9 | 10–12–2 | 10–12 | — |

### 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.

### Roster
## 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 | Billy Martin | 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 |
| Jim Bunning | 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 |
| Hank Aguirre | 44 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 3.75 | 38 |
| Tom Morgan | 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 |
| Mickey McDermott | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9.00 | 0 |
| Don Lee | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9.00 | 0 |

## Farm system

| Level | Team | League | Manager |
| AAA | Charleston Senators | American Association | Bill Norman and Bill Adair |
| AA | Birmingham Barons | Southern Association | Cal Ermer |
| A | Lancaster Red Roses | Eastern League | Johnny Pesky |
| A | Augusta Tigers | Sally League | Bill Adair, Stan Charnofsky and Wayne Blackburn |
| B | Durham Bulls | Carolina League | Chuck Kress |
| C | Idaho Falls Russets | Pioneer League | Al Lakeman |
| D | Montgomery Rebels | Alabama–Florida League | Schoolboy Rowe and Neil Berry |
| D | Valdosta Tigers | Georgia–Florida League | Stubby Overmire |
| D | Decatur Commodores | Midwest League | Frank Carswell |
| D | Erie Sailors | New York–Penn League | Steve Gromek |
LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Birmingham, Valdosta