(Freep.com)Rogelio CastilloMon, December 1, 2025 at 2:23 AM UTC·7 min readBuilding A Pitching Staff Took A Long TimeWhen Tigers fans look back on the post 1984 era, the lineup usually gets most of the nostalgic attention. The pitching staff is where the frustration begins. After Jack Morris left Detroit following the 1990 season, the organization entered a long, painful stretch where it searched, and repeatedly failed, to find his successor. Few names symbolize that era more than Greg Gohr, a first round pick meant to help anchor the next Tigers rotation who instead became part of a larger, systemic issue: Detroit’s near total inability to develop pitching for almost two decades.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe First Round Hope
Detroit selected Gohr 21st overall in the 1989 draft out of Santa Clara University, believing his size, fastball and competitive makeup gave him a legitimate chance to grow into a frontline starter. Scouts of the time saw a pitcher with the raw ingredients needed to follow the path Morris had blazed. Not necessarily an ace, but someone who could stabilize a rotation in transition.
Gohr moved quickly through the minors, showing flashes of why the Tigers valued him. In an organization hungry for arms, every glimpse of progress carried weight. Detroit’s rotation in the early 1990s was aging and thin and in desperate need of homegrown help. Gohr was supposed to be part of that solution.
Scouting Report: What the Tigers Saw in Greg Gohr
(as reported by Mick McCabe, Detroit Free Press)
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementBefore Greg Gohr ever threw a pitch in the Tigers’ organization, there was real belief, even excitement, about what he could become. According to reporting from Mick McCabe of the Detroit Free Press, Gohr entered the 1989 draft with a profile that checked every box Detroit was looking for in a future rotation piece.
He was not even a pitcher at first. Gohr played outfield at Bellarmine Prep in San Jose and only moved to the mound after Santa Clara coach John Oldham noticed him repeatedly unleashing strong throws from the outfield while recruiting another player. Oldham told McCabe that Gohr’s athleticism jumped out immediately: “He was really a good athlete in high school at a school with a very successful program.” What started as curiosity quickly turned into projection.
Once he committed to pitching, the tools appeared in a hurry. McCabe reported that Gohr used a JUGS gun, where his fastball routinely sat 92 to 93 mph and had touched 96 mph, which was big velocity for the late 1980s. Oldham noted that Gohr had feel for four pitches: a fastball, curve, slider and changeup. The curveball quickly became his most effective weapon, especially once he trusted it enough to throw it in the zone.
By the time he entered his junior year, Gohr had built a résumé that caught the Tigers’ attention: • A 12 5 record • A 2.52 ERA • 118 innings, 88 strikeouts and 57 walks • A 6 foot 3, 210 pound frame • Increasing velocity and confidence throughout the season
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementHis background also made him something of a late bloomer. As McCabe noted, Gohr was not recruited heavily out of high school because he was not pitching full time. He arrived at Santa Clara without a scholarship and pitched limited innings as a freshman before deciding to abandon the outfield altogether.
A strong sophomore season at 8 6 and a standout summer in northern California’s amateur leagues helped push him into first round conversations. Gohr later admitted to the Free Press that he was not invited to Cape Cod but believed he belonged there. “We played about a 50 game schedule, and I pitched every fifth day. The more I pitched, the more confidence I got.”
When the Tigers selected him 21st overall, Gohr told McCabe that hearing his name called that early “was exhilarating,” even if the team was not his childhood priority. “I have got five dollars on the Pistons,” he joked, noting he hated the Dodgers and Lakers and always rooted for Detroit’s basketball team.
Detroit saw a strong athlete with power stuff, command that was starting to come together and enough projection to justify a first round pick. The raw materials were not the issue. The Tigers believed they had finally found a pitcher with the velocity and arsenal to develop into their next homegrown starter.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementA Pattern Forms: Detroit’s Missed Generation
Greg Gohr was not alone. The Tigers spent much of the mid to late 1980s drafting arms with the hope of replacing Morris long before he even left the organization. Kevin Ritz (1985), Scott Aldred (1986) and Steve Searcy (1985) were all part of that same vision, a wave of pitching that never materialized.
Each one had tools. Each one put up numbers in the minors. And each one ultimately failed to turn into a dependable major league starter in Detroit.
Kevin Ritz showed flashes but lacked consistency and did not peak until he left for Colorado, where he finally posted a breakout year, ironically at altitude. Scott Aldred had the frame scouts adored, but injuries and wavering command derailed his path. Steve Searcy, a big lefty with real upside, dominated in the minors but could not translate it against big league hitters.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementTogether, they formed an unintentional quartet of what went wrong: talent on paper, production in spots, but development that never connected.
Gohr’s Short MLB Window
By the mid 1990s, Gohr received his chance. The Tigers, deep into a rebuild without calling it one, needed arms and were willing to let him learn on the job. Gohr’s stuff still flashed, but command problems and injuries unraveled his path. In 1995, he famously led the league in a category no pitcher wants: the highest ERA among pitchers with at least 50 innings.
Detroit traded him the next season to the California Angels for Damien Easley, one of the rare trades of that period that ended up benefiting the Tigers. Gohr, only 27 at the time, appeared in just a handful of games for Anaheim before injuries ended his MLB career.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementA System Problem, Not Just a Gohr Problem
Gohr’s career was not an isolated misfire. It was a symptom of a broader organizational failure.
From roughly 1983 until 2005, Detroit did not develop a single frontline starting pitcher. They cycled through wave after wave of highly drafted arms, including Gohr, Ritz, Aldred, Searcy, Mike Drumright, Seth Greisinger, Cade Gaspar and others, and none became anything close to a Morris level contributor. The rare exception was Justin Thompson, who was an All-Star but never could stay healthy but worth revisiting the hype surrounding him.
The infrastructure was not there. The developmental philosophy was not modernized. Pitchers were not given individualized plans, pitch data, biomechanical support or roles tailored to their strengths. Detroit simply drafted arms, hoped for the best, and watched too many careers flatten out. Here's an example of resources then. The Tigers had a roving minor league pitching coach for both Toledo and London (the Double-A affiliate in 1989) in Dyar Miller. So he had to cover two different squads.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementIn other words, Greg Gohr did not fail alone. He walked into a system that was failing him and everyone else.
Legacy of a Lost Era
Greg Gohr’s name often pops up in trivia questions, including MLB’s worst ERA in 1995, the trade for Damien Easley and his place in the long line of “next Jack Morris” pitching prospects who never arrived. But the deeper truth is simpler. He was one of many talented arms whose careers stalled because Detroit did not yet know how to turn promise into production.
It was not Greg Gohr’s fault. The Tigers were the ones falling behind. Throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s, the organization lagged in pitching development, evaluation and modern coaching techniques. Gohr walked into a system that did not have the tools, infrastructure or philosophy to get the most out of him or any young pitcher.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementHis story is less about one pitcher and more about a generation. And in that, he is a perfect chapter in the Tigers’ long, complicated history of pitching development, a history that thankfully began changing the moment Verlander stepped onto a mound in Detroit.
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