[stevenash]

After finally conceding that his phone wasn't going to ring with any job offers, Magglio Ordonez is calling it a career. The 38-year-old Venezuelan plans to announce his retirement at Comerica Park in a ceremony the Tigers will hold before Sunday's game.

The team and location make sense. Ordonez spent the final seven seasons of his 15-year career wearing the olde English "D" and the Tigers provided him a haven to pad his bank account after the Chicago White Sox refused to roll the dice on his injury-prone body after the 2004 season.

In exchange, Ordonez turned a radical knee therapy into some great play for Jim Leyland and Co. Though he was well short of a Hall of Fame career and probably doesn't qualify for the fictional "Hall of The Very Good" either, Ordonez experienced the next best thing for a ballplayer: Making a boatload of money ($133.4 million in career earnings, according to Baseball-Reference) while posting enough memorable stats and moments to become a beloved member of Detroit Tigers history.

During his time with the Tigers, Ordonez ...

• ... made the All-Star team in 2006 and 2007.

• ... won the 2007 American League batting title with a .363 average, beating Ichiro (.351) by over 10 points and becoming the first Tiger to record the honor since Norm Cash finished with the AL's top average in 1961. Ordonez placed second to A-Rod in the AL MVP voting that year.

• ... hit two homers in the same inning in a game against Oakland on Aug. 12, 2007 and is one of only 55 players in baseball history to achieve the feat.

• ... authored one of the most memorable moments in recent Tigers history, putting the Tigers back in the World Series for the first time in 22 years with a three-run homer that finished off a sweep of the Oakland A's in the 2006 ALCS.

Year	Age	Tm	Lg	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	OPS+	TB	GDP	HBP	SH	SF	IBB	Pos	Awards
1997	23	CHW	AL	21	73	69	12	22	6	0	4	11	1	2	2	8	.319	.338	.580	.918	138	40	1	0	1	0	0	9
1998	24	CHW	AL	145	578	535	70	151	25	2	14	65	9	7	28	53	.282	.326	.415	.741	94	222	19	9	2	4	1	*98	RoY-5
1999	25	CHW	AL	157	677	624	100	188	34	3	30	117	13	6	47	64	.301	.349	.510	.858	115	318	24	1	0	5	4	*9/D	AS
2000	26	CHW	AL	153	665	588	102	185	34	3	32	126	18	4	60	64	.315	.371	.546	.917	127	321	28	2	0	15	3	*9	AS,MVP-12,SS
2001	27	CHW	AL	160	671	593	97	181	40	1	31	113	25	7	70	70	.305	.382	.533	.914	134	316	14	5	0	3	7	*9/D8	AS
2002	28	CHW	AL	153	654	590	116	189	47	1	38	135	7	5	53	77	.320	.381	.597	.978	154	352	21	7	0	3	2	*9/D	MVP-8,SS
2003	29	CHW	AL	160	674	606	95	192	46	3	29	99	9	5	57	73	.317	.380	.546	.926	139	331	20	7	0	4	1	*9/8D	AS,MVP-18
2004	30	CHW	AL	52	222	202	32	59	8	2	9	37	0	2	16	22	.292	.351	.485	.836	114	98	4	3	0	1	2	9/D
2005	31	DET	AL	82	343	305	38	92	17	0	8	46	0	0	30	35	.302	.359	.436	.795	114	133	8	1	0	7	1	9/D
2006	32	DET	AL	155	646	593	82	177	32	1	24	104	1	4	45	87	.298	.350	.477	.827	112	283	13	4	0	4	3	*9/D	AS,MVP-22
2007	33	DET	AL	157	679	595	117	216	54	0	28	139	4	1	76	79	.363	.434	.595	1.029	166	354	20	2	0	5	8	*9D	AS,MVP-2,SS
2008	34	DET	AL	146	623	561	72	178	32	2	21	103	1	5	53	76	.317	.376	.494	.869	127	277	27	3	0	6	2	*9D
2009	35	DET	AL	131	518	465	54	144	24	2	9	50	3	1	51	65	.310	.376	.428	.804	111	199	19	0	0	2	2	9D
2010	36	DET	AL	84	365	323	56	98	17	1	12	59	1	0	40	38	.303	.378	.474	.852	129	153	14	0	0	2	0	9D
2011	37	DET	AL	92	357	329	33	84	10	0	5	32	2	1	23	41	.255	.303	.331	.634	74	109	10	1	0	4	0	9D
15 Yrs				1848	7745	6978	1076	2156	426	21	294	1236	94	50	651	852	.309	.369	.502	.871	125	3506	242	45	3	65	36
162 Game Avg.				162	679	612	94	189	37	2	26	108	8	4	57	75	.309	.369	.502	.871	125	307	21	4	0	6	3

[stevenash]

Magglio Ordonez was signed by the Chicago White Sox out of Venezuela in 1991. Assigned to the Dominican Summer League that year, he hit .298 in 25 games as a 17 year old. This is much too early for him to have earned a grade. In '92, Ordonez moved up to the Gulf Coast League in North America. He struggled, hitting just .180, though he did manage to hit 10 doubles in 38 games. He would have rated as a Grade C prospect at this point, showing some power potential, but a long way from being a polished player.

The Sox moved Ordonez up to full-season Hickory in the South Atlantic League in '93, and again he struggled, hitting just .216 with a .333 SLG. He would have rated as a Grade C- prospect, toolsy with some power potential, but with no actual evidence that he would develop. His best attribute was age: he was still just 19.At 20, Ordonez began his breakthrough. Playing for Hickory again, he hit .294 with 11 homers, .431 SLG, 45 walks, 57 strikeouts in 490 at-bats in '94. While his walk rate wasn't spectacular, his strikeout rate was quite low for an emerging power hitter. Eddie Epstein gave Ordonez a Grade C in the first edition of the Minor League Scouting Notebook. I would likely have gone with Grade C+, given his power spike and still-young age.Moving up to the Carolina League for 1995, Ordonez slumped somewhat, hitting just .238, although he maintained nearly identical power production: 12 homers, 24 doubles compared to 11 homers and 24 doubles the previous year (in virtually the same number of games).

His strike zone judgment remained steady as well. I did not put him in the 1996 book, but he would have rated a Grade C, coming down slightly from '94, but still showing potential.Ordonez was promoted to Double-A for 1996, and did quite well, hitting .263 with 41 doubles and 18 homers. His plate discipline remained steady and scouting reports were generally positive, although he wasn't rated as one of the best prospects in the league. Baseball America, for example, didn't have him on their Top 10 Southern League prospects list. I gave him a Grade C+ in my book for 1997, with the notation that "it wouldn't surprise me if he had a very good season in 1997."My intuition there worked out very well: Ordonez .329 with 29 doubles and 14 homers in Triple-A in '97. This earned him a Grade B+ going into 1998. I wrote "I don't think Ordonez is going to be a full-scale megastar, but he should have a very rewarding career." Ordonez played 145 games for the White Sox in '98, hit .282/.326/.415, decent numbers, then broke out in 1999 as a 25-year-old, hitting .301/.349/.510 with 30 homers.He ended up playing 1848 major league games, hitting .309/.369/.502 in 7745 plate appearances, with 294 homers, 651 walks, 852 strikeouts, and a 125 OPS+. A six-time All-Star, his list of comparable players (according to Sim Score) contains several borderline Hall of Famers: Moises Alou, Chuck Klein (HOF), Paul O'Neill, Carlos Lee, Bob Johnson, Will Clark, Brian Giles, Dante Bichette, Del Ennis, and Fred Lynn.Using the more sophisticated WAR metric, Ordonez posted a 39.6 career WAR, putting him in the "Hall of the Very Good Outfielders" neighborhood with Wally Moses (40.9), Gavvy Cravath (40.2), Carl Furillo (39.7), Kirk Gibson (39.5), Ginger Beaumont (39.5), Rico Carty (39.4), and Tommy Holmes (38.9). In other words, Magglio wasn't a megastar, but he had a very rewarding career.

Ordonez is a good example of a tools player who developed the skills to make those tools meaningful. While his minor league production was not spectacular or even significantly above-average until he reached Triple-A, he always showed a low strikeout rate, an adequate number of walks, and a good number of doubles.

[stevenash]

I loved Mags, vastly underrated.
I also loved Mags because he put a boatload of money in my pocket as a fantasy outfielder.
Every time I seemed to start him, he's homer.

Nice career Mags, job well done.

[boeing power]

Very good hitter,

Hit .300 nearly every season

[shooms79]

you are absolutely correct. solid player and always a threat at the plate. I would always stockpile him in fantasy baseball on the cheap. Steady as a metronome...and tended to be a sleeper bc people would go for the big names of a particular year

[stevenash]

you are absolutely correct. solid player and always a threat at the plate. I would always stockpile him in fantasy baseball on the cheap. Steady as a metronome...and tended to be a sleeper bc people would go for the big names of a particular year

He got me 500 bucks once as a minimum priced (salary) OF/DH

I remember one game I got Mags dirt cheap, allowed me cap room for A-Rod (5 years ago A-Rod) Mags hit two out, A-Rod hit 2 out with 8 RBI.......