Thursday, July 25, 2019

July 25

John Tener (1863)
Cy Williams (1913)
Whitey Lockman (1926)
Larry Sherry (1935)
Buddy Bradford (1944)
Fred Scherman (1944)
Mick Kelleher (1947)
Biff Pocoroba (1953)
Marc Sullivan (1958)
Doug Drabek (1962)
Torey Lovullo (1965)
Ed Sprague (1967)
Billy Wagner (1971)
Guillermo Mota (1973)
Javier Vazquez (1976)
Santiago Casilla (1980)
Alex Presley (1985)
Pitcher/outfielder John Tener was the president of the National League and also became governor of Pennsylvania.  For 1914-1915, he did both jobs at the same time.
Cy Williams was a long-time major league scout, working for the Detroit Tigers for thirty years.
Left-hander Frederick John Scherman, Jr. did not play for the Twins, but started his career in their organization.  Born and raised in Dayton, Ohio, he had a rare bone disease when he was young, and wore a leg brace from age six to age nine, walking only with crutches.  As soon as the leg brace was removed, he began playing little league baseball.  Eventually, he attended Ohio State and was signed by Minnesota as a free agent in 1964.  He had a fine year at Class A Orlando, going 14-13, 2.33 with a WHIP of 1.11 in 201 innings.  He was then drafted by Detroit in the first-year player draft.  He spent the bulk of his career with the Tigers.  He pitched well throughout his minor league career but was promoted slowly, reaching AA for two games in 1966 and reaching AAA in 1968.  He had been a starter, and had pitched fairly well in that role, but was shifted to the bullpen in 1967.  He flourished in that role, but went back to the starting rotation at AAA in 1969.  He made ten starts there and was in the big leagues for a substantial part of the season, but was rarely used.  In 1970, however, Scherman became an integral part of the Detroit bullpen and remained one for four years.  He had twenty saves in 1971 (when he threw 112 relief innings) and twelve more in 1972.  He had a down year in 1973, though, and was traded to Houston after the season.  The leg disease had left one leg shorter than the other, and at this point in his career this caused him to develop back trouble.  He did not do much for the Astros and was sold to Montreal in June of 1975.  He was with the Expos for a year and a month and was released in July of 1976.  He pitched in AAA for Pittsburgh in 1977, but had a nondescript year and his playing career came to an end.  He apparently coached in Japan for a while.  At last report, Fred Scherman was the owner of Fred Scherman Jr. Lab Consultants in Tipp City, Ohio.
Outfielder Alexander Crawford Presley was with the Twins for about a month at the end of 2013.  Born and raised in Monroe, Louisiana, he went to the University of Mississippi and was drafted in the eighth round by Pittsburgh in 2006.  He wasn't terrible in his early years, but he didn't really start to hit until 2010, when he hit .350 with a .932 OPS in half a season at AA and then hit .294 with an .809 OPS when promoted to AAA for the second half of the season before getting a September call-up.  He started 2011 back in AAA, but when he hit .333 there he came back to the majors in late June and was the Pirates starting left fielder except for a month he missed due to injury, batting .298.  He was again the starting left fielder in 2012 but did not hit, eventually losing playing time to Starling Marte.  He was splitting 2013 between the majors and AAA when he was traded to the Twins along with a player to be named later (Duke Welker) for Justin Morneau at the end of August.  He was the Twins starting center fielder the rest of the season, batting .283/.336/.363 in 113 at-bats.  He went into spring training of 2014 with a shot at retaining the job, but was waived at the end of March and claimed by Houston.  He was a fourth outfielder for the Astros that season but played more often than not, starting at all three outfield positions. He apparently was injured for the first half of 2015, but came back to the Astros in July.  A free agent after the season, he signed with Milwaukee.  He hit only .198 in part-time play, however, and was released on the first of July.  He signed with Detroit about a week later and spent most of the season in AAA.  He started 2017 in AAA as well, but was called up in late May and did a surprisingly good job for the Tigers, batting well .314 in 245 at-bats.  It didn't do him much good, though.  A free agent, he signed with Baltimore for 2018 and was sent to AAA.  He batted .275 with an OBP of .344, but was still released in mid-May.  He signed with the White Sox a week later, but batted just .198 in 101 at-bats and was released again in late June.  That brought his playing career to an end.  His big league numbers are .263/.306/.388 in 1401 at-bats, not great but certainly respectable.  No information about what Alex Presley has been doing for the last year or so was readily available.

No comments:

Post a Comment