Tyler Houston

[Michael Trzinski]

Tyler Sam Houston was born in Las Vegas, Nevada in 1971. Houston was drafted second overall behind pitcher Ben McDonald in the 1989 MLB Amateur Draft by the Atlanta Braves. It took Houston seven years to make his big-league debut. He opened the 1996 season with the Braves and played 33 games without a start. In late June, he was traded to the Chicago Cubs. The lefty swinger had a great finish to the season, hitting .339/.382/.452 across 115 at-bats.

Houston spent 1997 and 1998 with the Cubs, playing a total of 167 games. The following year Houston played 100 games with Chicago before being traded to Cleveland at the end of August. After playing 13 games in September for the Indians, he was given his release. The Brewers signed him in early 2000.

Henry Blanco (32 starts), Raúl Casanova (16), and Houston (16) were a three-headed catching monster through mid-June, but after infielder Sean Berry was released, Houston played mostly at the corner infield spots. Houston caught on September 12 and would never don the ‘tools of ignorance’ again in his major league career. Houston hit a career-high 18 homers and 43 RBI while hitting .250/.292/.493 across 284 at-bats.

In 2001, Houston was having a nice season, hitting .298/.347/.489 in mid-July when he went down with a stress fracture in his right foot and missed almost all the rest of the season. His final hitting line was .289/.343/.472 with 12 home runs across 235 at-bats.

Houston got the vast majority of playing time at third base in 2002 and was hitting .302/.347/.459 in 76 games when he was traded to the Dodgers in late July in what essentially was a ‘salary dump’ for Milwaukee.

Houston played 35 games for Los Angeles and was released after the season. He was signed by the Philadelphia Phillies and played just 54 games in an injury-riddled season. He retired from baseball with a hitting line of .265/.312/.423 across 1,805 at-bats with 84 doubles and 63 home runs.

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