Saturday, April 19, 2014

#23 Stan Thomas, Pitcher / Luis "Puchy" Delgado, Outfield

Stan was a pitcher that would go the Washington Senators in the 27th round of the draft in 1971. As we all know that team would move to Arlington and become the Texas Rangers in 1972. During Billy Martin's first season as manager in 1974, Stan would get his first call to the big leagues. He would spend all of the 1975 season in the hot Texas summer heat. After the 1975 season, the Rangers shipped Stan to the Cleveland Indians. Stan would stay in the bullpen for all of the 1976 season in Cleveland. After a rather good season with the Tribe, the Mariners decided to use their 9th pick in the expansion draft and choose Stan for the team. Sadly, the pitcher the Mariners got in 1977 was a disaster. Stan would go 2-6 in 13 games of which 9 were starts. Stan would not pitch for the Mariners after July of that season, and in August he was shipped off to the Yankees in a trade. After a brief stop in AAA Syracuse, Stan would make the Yankees roster in September. The Yankees would send Stan to the White Sox in that off season only to be released before spring training. He would play in the Rangers system with the AAA Tucson Toros in 1978. The next year would see Stan go south of the border literally. The Maracaibo Petroleros de Zulio would be home in 1979 and Stan would head to the Mexico City Tigres for 1980. Stan would call it quits at age 30 after two seasons in Mexico.





Sometimes in an expansion draft as you get into the later picks, some guys are just chances taken to fill out the roster. The Mariners decided with the 28th pick to take Luis Delgado out of the Red Sox organization. Luis had spent the last four years in the minors, never getting past A ball except for two games late in 1976. The Mariners would leave Puchy with the Red Sox AAA team in Pawtucket for most of the 1977 season. The Mariners did not have a farm system yet so guys were spread all of the minor leagues. When the time came to expand the rosters in September, the M's gave Luis a shot with the club. Sadly, he was not too lucky in the big leagues only getting four hits in his 23 plate appearances. The Mariners would keep Luis in the organization as a member of the AAA San Jose Missions in 1978. Near the end of the 1979 spring, the Mariners sent Puchy to the Chicago Cubs for Larry Cox. Luis would split that season between the Wichita Aeros and the Omaha Royals. Luis would be done after that season and would leave baseball at age 25.


from ootp developments

from 1977 Topps update blog

1 comment:

Douglas said...

I remember seeing Punchy play in San Jose in 1978. For all intensive purposes, he appeared to be the only "good" hitter on the team. I did recognize a lot of players for many were long washed up MLB vets.