The Detroit Tigers are an absolute abomination. So are the Milwaukee Brewers.
With a good amount of luck, maybe both teams would be playing their final Major League games this season.
In six games, the Tigers have scored six runs. They are last among the 14 American League teams in scoring, having scored less than half of the runs of the 13th place team, the Cleveland Indians (14), through Sunday.
If the Tigers continue their one run per game output all year - extremely unlikely to happen, but you never know - there would be eight players who scored more runs in a single season, including Yankees greats Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig as well as Billy Hamilton of late-19th century fame, who each scored more than 162 runs in a season twice in their careers.
The Brewers, like the Tigers, were 0-6 through Sunday. The Brew Crew was - going into Monday's game against Pittsburgh - 13th among 16 National League teams in scoring, sending 22 runners across the plate. They were also dead last in team ERA, with their pitchers giving up an average of 6.71 runs per game, almost three times as high as top-ranked Montreal, which checks in at a 2.42 team ERA.
The Brewers and Tigers have been inept for long enough and merit shrinking the league a bit.
An ideal solution might be to send two of these teams - whichever two finish with the worst overall record - to Triple-A next season. If they are successful at a minor league level, then and only then can they be allowed to again play in the big leagues. The problem with the Brewers and Tigers is that, although each has sleepwalked through the last decade, they have history.
The Tigers were a top-tier team in the 1980s. They won at least 80 games eight times in the decade and won the World Series in 1984. Likewise, the Brewers were a pretty decent team in the 80s, finishing under .500 just once, and were winners of the 1982 American League pennant.
These two organizations would love to rest on their past achievements forever but shouldn't be allowed to. With TV contracts and the players' union being so strong, the demotion idea could never really happen, but until these two organizations are truly threatened, they will continue to ask fans to appreciate the past and ignore the present.
Reach the reporter at gregory.salvatore@asu.edu.
