What If? 2003 Mike Maroth

Playing on one of the worst teams in history, Mike Maroth went 9-21 for the 2003 Tigers.  Some of that wasn’t his fault, as the team was truly awful in all aspects.  Today, we’re going to help him out.

Maroth attended William R. Boone high school in Orlando, FL.  The Braves have produced a handful of major leaguers, but probably the only ones that you might have heard of are catchers Ron Karkovice and Joe Oliver, and pitcher Paul Wilson.  He went on to star play for the Golden Knights of Central Florida in college, who have actually produced fewer MLB players than his high school.

Maroth was drafted in the third round of the 1998 draft (85^th overall) by the Boston Red Sox, two spots behind Barry Zito.  Zito was drafted by the Rangers, but decided to not sign and return for one more year at UC Santa Barbara, while Maroth would be sent to the GCL Red Sox for his first taste of the minors.

Come to think of it, that's
about all that Ryan
Thompson is famous for too.

Over his year and a half in the Red Sox minor league organization, he went 14-10 with 112 strikeouts and 50 walks.  But in 1999, the Red Sox were in a division battle with the New York Yankees, and wanting to shore up their bullpen, they sent Maroth to the Detroit Tigers for Bryce Florie at the trade deadline on July 31^st.  Maroth was just getting started, while Florie was a little over a year from being most remembered from being hit in the face by a Ryan Thompson line drive.

For the remainder of the 1999 season through 2001, Maroth would go 19-27 in the Tigers minor leagues.  However, in 2002, he turned it around, going 8-1 with a 2.82 ERA and 51 strikeouts vs. 22 walks.  Maroth’s time had come.

He was called up on June 8^th, 2002 to start against the Philadelphia Phillies.  The Tigers ultimately lost the game 2-1, but Maroth earned a no decision, going seven innings, giving up seven hits and no runs while walking two and striking out one.  He would get his first career victory in his next start against the Arizona Diamondbacks.  Two games into it was the only time he’d be over .500 for his career.

By 2005, Maroth improved to 14-14 on the season, and in 2006, at the age of 27, it looked like he was finally putting it together.  On May 14^th, his record sat at 5-2 with a 2.18 ERA.  Even in those two losses, he only gave up four runs in each game, but the Tigers couldn’t score, putting up two runs in one game, and none in the other.  He would have another decent outing, but then on May 25^th, he’d give up six runs in 1/3 of an inning.  The injury bug had struck.  He didn’t come back until September, and then only threw four games out of the bullpen.  He was left off of the post season roster as the Tigers went all the way to the World Series, eventually losing to the St. Louis Cardinals.

Somewhere deep inside, I still don’t like Mike Maroth after almost seven years.  On June 22^nd, 2007, he was traded from the Detroit Tigers to those Cardinals for a player to be named later.  That player was Chris Lambert, who would give the Tigers a record of 1-3 with a 7.90 ERA over 10 games.  But judging by the stats, I declare the Tigers the winners of this trade.

The 2007 Cardinals were a perfectly OK team.  Coming off their World Series win, expectations were high in St. Louis.  However, the team went 78-84 and completely missed the playoffs.  A large part of this was starters Kip Wells and Anthony Reyes, who would go a combined 9-31 on the season.  In obvious need of starting help, the Cardinals acquired Maroth.

Maroth’s first start with the Cardinals was arguably the best of the season for him.  He had a no decision, but went 7 1/3 innings, giving up just one run on a solo home run by Mets’ rookie Carlos Gomez.  Russ Springer would finish the 2007 campaign with an 8-1 record, but his only loss of the season would come that day as Shawn Green hit a walkoff home run in the 11^th inning, giving the Mets the 2-1 victory.

For the rest of the season, Maroth plain sucked.  There’s really no other way to say it.  You can sprinkle in some four-letter adjectives around it, but the main idea is the same.  He would lose his next four starts before becoming the mop up guy in the bullpen.  He had one more start that season, but only went 1 2/3 innings, giving up six hits and 2 runs in that start.

Overall for the Cardinals in 2007, he was 0-5 with a 10.66 ERA.  In 38 innings, he gave up 71 hits, 45 earned runs, 11 home runs, and had 23 strikeouts vs. 17 walks.  He pitched his last game of his career on September 24^th, throwing one inning and somehow not allowing a run in a 13-5 loss to the Brewers.

His 21 losses in 2003 was the first 20 loss season since the A’s Brian Kingman lost 20 in 1980, and no one had lost as much as 21 since three pitchers lost 22 in 1974.

Bonderman:  What the hell man?!

But hey, America is about second chances, right?  In order to give Maroth a fighting chance, we’re going to allow 2003 Maroth to pitch with softball rules, at least the rules of the league that I play in.  Batters are going to start with a 1-1 count on them, and if they have a strike on them and hit two foul balls, it’s a strikeout.  We’re just going to allow this for Maroth though (sorry 6-19 Jeremy Bonderman).  We’ll see what Maroth’s stats are after the season, and what effect that had on the Tigers’ abysmal record.

After looking at this further, let’s just go ahead and send Maroth into Beast Mode.  Rather than limiting him to the same number of batters, let’s keep him the same number of PITCHES.  Therefore, he’ll be able to go further into games.  We’ll just project the balance of pitches that were thrown by the bullpen to get up to the same number of pitches that he had for the game.  Here we go!

Seeing how you don’t want to read through 33 paragraphs of every start, let’s just look at how he did each month.

APRIL

Real Maroth was not good in April of 2003.  He lost all six of his starts, including a 3-1 loss to the Twins on Opening Day.  His ERA was 5.88.  In 33 2/3 innings, he gave up 22 earned runs, and had 19 strikeouts vs. just five walks.  But as I said, that team was just awful.  In those six starts, the Tigers scored a combined 10 runs.  They would finish April with a 3-25 record.

Softball Maroth somehow wasn’t much better.  He was also 0-6 at the end of the month.  His ERA was negligibly better at 5.82.  In 38 2/3 innings, he gave up 25 earned runs, and had 47 strikeouts vs. 21 walks.  But things would get better for Softball Maroth.

MAY

Real Maroth would earn his first victory of the season on May 23^rd, as the Tigers held on for a 3-2 win over the White Sox.  In six May starts, the Tigers scored 19 runs, so he also had another four losses.  His ERA improved to 5.24.  In 34 1/3 innings, he gave up 20 earned runs, and had 13 strikeouts vs. 10 walks.  Something else to note is that on May 1^st, he had a no hitter going through seven innings, but then he gave up four runs in the top of the eighth inning, and the Tigers lost to the Orioles 6-4.  May would be the only month that the Tigers would win more than 10 games, going 11-18.

You might want to leave him in
for one more out, coach.

Softball Maroth was brilliant in May.  He went 4-1 in six starts with a 2.05 ERA.  In 44 innings, he gave up 10 earned runs, and had 56 strikeouts vs. 25 walks.  He nearly had two shutouts, but unfortunately since we have to limit him to the same number of pitches, manager Alan Trammell had to take him out of back to back starts where he went 8 2/3 innings.  C’mon coach!  We’ll have to add three more wins to the Tigers total now, so with Softball Maroth, the Tigers improve to 17-36.

JUNE

June was another horrible month for the Tigers.  They went 5-22.  You can’t really blame Real Maroth though.  He went 2-2 in five June starts with a 3.19 ERA.  In 31 innings, he gave up just 11 earned runs, and had 14 strikeouts vs. six walks.  One could argue he was a bit better than Softball Maroth.

Softball Maroth went 3-2 for the Tigers in June.  He had a 3-2 record with a 4.06 ERA.  In 37 2/3 innings, he gave up 17 earned runs, with 38 strikeouts vs. 22 walks.  We’ll tack on another win for the Tigers, and halfway through the season, they now sit at 23-57.

JULY

In July, Real Maroth would go 2-3 over five starts, but the Tigers were doing all they could for him, scoring a combined 19 runs in those two victories.  His ERA was 6.96.  In 32 1/3 innings, he gave up 25 earned runs, and had 11 walks vs. 12 strikeouts.  The Tigers would go 9-17 that month.

Softball Maroth was much better.  He went 3-2 with a 3.51 ERA.  In 41 innings pitched, he gave up 16 earned runs, and had 39 strikeouts vs. 22 walks.  Improving by one victory, those Tigers now stood at 33-73.

AUGUST

By the time that August rolled around, the Tigers were just ready for the season to end.  They went 6-23 as the limped towards the finish.  Real Maroth went 1-4 with a 5.70 ERA.  In 36 2/3 innings, he gave up 23 earned runs, and had 15 strikeouts vs. nine walks.

We’re pretty much going to reverse those numbers for Softball Maroth.  He went 4-1 that month with a 2.94 ERA.  In 46 innings, he would give up 15 earned runs, and had 53 strikeouts vs. 30 walks.  Adding an additional three wins to the Tigers total, they now sit at 42-93.

SEPTEMBER

Thankfully, September would end one of the worst seasons in Major League history.  The Tigers went 9-18 to finish at 43-119.  Real Maroth actually had a winning month, going 3-2 in five starts, but he had a 7.71 ERA.  In his three wins, the Tigers scored 27 runs.  In 25 2/3 innings, he gave up 22 earned runs, and had 15 strikeouts vs. eight walks.

Softball Maroth went out with a bang.  He went 4-0 with a 4.15 ERA.  In 34 2/3 innings, he gave up 16 earned runs, and had 40 strikeouts vs. just 12 walks.  Adding another victory to the Tigers’ total, they would finish at 52-110.  So it was still an ugly season, but not in an almost-history-setting type of way.

OVERALL

Overall, Real Maroth, in 33 starts, along with the 9-21 record, gave up 231 hits in 193 1/3 innings, including 34 home runs.  He only had 87 strikeouts vs. 50 walks.  He gave up 131 runs, with 123 earned runs.  His WHIP was 1.453, and his ERA was 5.73.  He was only part of the problem for the Tigers that season, along with previously mentioned Jeremy Bonderman, Nate Cornejo (6-17), Adam Bernero (1-12), Gary Knotts (3-8), and Matt Roney (1-9).  Those were all the starters that had more than 10 starts that season.

I deeply pondered to whom I would compare Softball Maroth.  And then it hit me.  Bobby Witt.  In his heyday, Witt was always among the leaders in walks, but always had a lot of strikeouts as well.  While he rarely was close to the lead in total strikeouts, he finished in the top 10 five times for K/9 ratio.  One could argue that his best season was in 1990.  Let’s compare that to Softball Maroth.

	IP	W	L	H	R	ER	BB	SO	ERA	WHIP
1990 Witt	222	17	10	197	98	83	110	221	3.36	1.383
Softball Maroth	242	18	12	194	99	99	132	273	3.68	1.347

In 2003, Softball Maroth was tied for second in the majors in innings pitched, tied for sixth in the majors in wins, and led the majors in walks AND strikeouts.

In conclusion, letting Maroth start with a 1-1 count really helped him out in 2003.  Thanks for nothing, Maroth.  You could have at least feigned injury in 2007.