Detroit Tigers – Five Players Who Turned Into Pumpkins

Chris Shelton

You probably saw this coming. Few Detroit Tigers players encapsulate the fleeting nature of MLB success quite like Chris Shelton, who sandwiched a poor career around two stunning stretches of success. Most people remember his run to begin the 2006 season, when Shelton famously hit .471 with 9 home runs and 17 RBIs in the first 13 games of the season.

But that scorching start to 2006 was just a continuation of the arguably more impressive run he went on in 2005. From May 31, 2005 to May 31, 2006, Shelton hit .301 with 29 home runs and 87 RBIs in 160 games, good for 3.9 fWAR.

Then he turned into a pumpkin. By the end of July, Shelton was back in Toledo, and he played in only 50 more games in his big-league career, batting just .220 with 2 home runs.

Armando Galarraga

Armando Galarraga will forever be known for that fateful night in June 2010 when he lost his perfect game on a blown call by first-base umpire Jim Joyce. But his subsequent forgiveness of Joyce, and the grace with which he handled the incident, arguably helped Galarraga achieve a greater level of notoriety than he would have from the perfect game alone, because he otherwise had a very mediocre career.

But, back in 2008, Armando Galarraga was one of the few bright spots in a terrible Detroit Tigers season, and he looked like a future rotation stalwart. The club had traded for Edgar Renteria, Miguel Cabrera, and Dontrelle Willis, among others, but by the end of the season sports radio hosts were calling Cabrera a bust, saying Justin Verlander was another Jeremy Bonderman, and declaring Armando Galarraga the team’s real ace.

Galarraga did pitch well that season, compiling a 13-7 record with a 3.73 ERA over 178.2 innings, and his 4.0 bWAR was tied for the 5th highest for any Tigers pitcher in the decade. But Galarraga’s underlying stats, including a .236 BABIP and a 4.88 FIP, suggested he was extremely lucky in 2008.

And sure enough, he turned into a pumpkin. Galarraga posted a 5.64 ERA in 2009 , began 2010 back in Toledo, and in 2011 Detroit traded him for two minor-league pitchers. He threw just 66.2 more innings at the MLB level, and by 2015 he was out of baseball.

Quintin Berry

Detroit Tigers fans generally regard 2012 as a good, if ultimately disappointing season. The team won the AL Central and made it to the World Series, only to suffer an embarrassing sweep against a seemingly inferior San Francisco Giants team.

But the Tigers actually weren’t all that great in 2012. They started the year 4-0, but spent much of the season hovering around .500, and they were 18-20 and four games out of first place on May 17th, when starting center fielder Austin Jackson went down with an abdominal strain. Detroit tried Don Kelly and Andy Dirks in center field, but Kelly went just 1-for-19 and they got desperate, taking a chance on a 27-year-old minor-league free agent named Quintin Berry.

Berry ended up being electric. He recorded a bunt double in his first game, got hits in his first six games, and in the roughly three weeks Jackson was out, he hit .288 with 7 steals in as many chances. Berry’s speed helped catalyze the offense, he soon assumed regular left field duty, and through 55 games he was hitting .286 with 15 steals. He ended up setting an American League record by finishing the season with 21 steals without ever being caught.

But of course Berry turned into a pumpkin. A very fast pumpkin, but a pumpkin nonetheless. Much of his early success was due to batted-ball luck — his BABIP was .407 through his first 46 games. But over his next 47 games it dropped to .278, causing his batting average to fall to .211. Berry didn’t hit for power (.096 ISO) and despite his speed he proved to be a defensive liability in the outfield, so without his luck he wasn’t much help to the team.

He didn’t make the club out of spring training in 2013, was claimed by the Royals, and then traded to the Red Sox, where he won a World Series. After leaving Detroit he saw just 14 more regular-season at-bats in the bigs, but as a pinch runner he managed eight more steals.

Jerry Ujdur

I have to be honest, I’ve never heard of Jerry Ujdur, but apparently he was a bit of a legend in Duluth, and he threw hard for his era. He was drafted by the Detroit Tigers out of the University of Minnesota in the 4th round in 1978, three rounds after they took fellow Big Ten product Kirk Gibson. Ujdur came up in late 1980, earning a win in his first career start, but posting an ugly 7.59 ERA over 21.1 innings. He also saw four starts in the strike-shortened 1981 season, but struggled to a 6.41 ERA.

Then came 1982, when Ujdur suddenly found magic. He joined a rotation of Jack Morris, Dan Petry, and Milt Wilcox, and went 10-10 with a 3.69 ERA over 25 starts. Ujdur threw seven complete games, and finished second on the staff with 2.3 bWAR. But his BABIP was just .222, and he managed to strand more than 80% of his baserunners despite a measly 11.7% strikeout rate.

Udjer quickly turned into a pumpkin, with early season struggles sending him back to the minors in 1983. The following year he was cut in spring training and briefly joined Cleveland, but that didn’t last either. He pitched just 48.1 big-league innings after his successful 1982 campaign, and he retired with a career 12-16 record and a 4.78 ERA.

Brennan Boesch

Brennan Boesch pulled off a very rare feat: he turned into a pumpkin twice. It was a shame too, because he was awfully fun to watch in the batter’s box. A 3rd round pick out of Cal in 2006, Boesch didn’t reach the majors until he was 25, but once he arrived he announced his presence with authority.

Through 65 games in 2010 (up to the All-Star game) Boesch hit .342 with 12 home runs, and while his BABIP was elevated (.384), his walk (7.9%) and strikeout (17.6%) rates were reasonable. At the time he had produced 2.6 fWAR, which was good for 21st in baseball and ranked just behind Albert Pujols. He had massive raw power and a penchant for late, impactful homers. He probably should’ve been an All-Star.

But then he turned into a pumpkin. After the All-Star break he hit just .163 with 2 homers in 68 games. His walk rate (7.8%) stayed the same and his strikeout rate rose a bit (21.2%), but the killer for him was his BABIP, which plummeted to .201. It wasn’t just bad luck, as pitchers learned Boesch couldn’t lay off breaking balls low and inside. He didn’t always miss them, but he almost never hit them hard. He probably could’ve used a quick tune-up in the minors, but he didn’t get it, and instead went the final 43 games of the season without a homer.

Then 2011 rolled around and it seemed like Boesch had made the proper adjustments. He got off to a fast start, hitting .319 in April. He struggled through May, but then he went on a tear until the All-Star break, batting .372 with 8 home runs and 1.8 WAR in just 35 games. It looked as though he wasn’t a fraud, just an incredibly streaky hitter.

But once again, pumpkin season came early for Boesch. In the second half of the year he hit just .219 with 4 home runs. His collapse wasn’t as stark as the year before, but the symptoms were the same, including a higher strikeout rate and an 80-point drop in his BABIP. He didn’t have a chance to climb out of it (or dig himself deeper) because he tore a ligament in his thumb in September.

Brennan Boesch did hit a few more big home runs for Detroit…

…but this time he turned into a pumpkin for good. Boesch muddled through a rough 2013 season, batting just .240/.286/.372 with 12 home runs in 132 games, and the Tigers released him the following spring after they signed Torii Hunter. Boesch made his way to the Yankees, Angels, Reds, and Red Sox organizations, but he played just 101 more big-league games, and officially retired in 2017.