Detroit Tigers set milestone

It took the Detroit Tigers the entire 162 game season, but they finally pulled it off.

With the San Francisco Giants winning their final regular season game and the Tigers once again succumbing to the Minnesota Twins, the Motown puddy-tats are now the (not so) proud owners of the worst record in all of Major League Baseball. Thud.

True, they finally bit the long overdue bullet and went into full scale rebuild mode a few weeks back. Also true is they escaped the notoriety that would have come with a 100 loss season. Barely. But their final record of 63-99 is there for all to see.

This, after a 6-2 start. In other words, the Tigers went a woeful 57-97 after the first week. A whopping 40 games under .500.

Gone is manager Brad Ausmus. Don't be surprised if he re-surfaces as the skipper of another team before long. Though he had no managerial experience before getting hired by the Tigers, he's now had a few years to learn the proverbial ropes. And the Tigers' collapse shouldn't be laid at the feet of Ausmus. He can only play the cards he's dealt. It wasn't his fault the Tiger brass showered aging players beyond their primes with outrageous long-term contracts. To boot, Ausmus is an upstanding guy. Friendly, open, and most importantly honest with the media. No whining and no excuses. It just is what it is.

The Tigers were a flawed team even before they pulled the trigger on the salary/player dump. Not enough quality starting pitching. Little to no team speed.  A suspect defense at many positions. And a batting practice quality bullpen. Only the rosiest of optimists gave them much of a shot at making the playoffs before the season even began.

[For the record, yours truly saw them as maybe an 80 win team, third or fourth place in their own division, but playoffs? Highly unlikely.]

Now gone are long time ace Justin Verlander, who's tearing it up since he landed in Houston. The Astros are a very talented young team who look to be serious World Series contenders for several years.

Also gone is J. D. Martinez. He's smacking the ball all over the park for Arizona, also a playoff team.

Alex Avila, son of general manager Al Avila in Detroit, got shipped out. Though he was never a sparkling defensive catcher, he was having his best season ever with the bat.

Justin Upton was having a very good season, but he's now with the LA Angels. Though they fell short of the playoffs, where would you rather be as winter approaches? Detroit or southern California?

The lone bright spot for the Tigers appeared to be Nicholas Castellanos. Long considered little more than a "journeyman" player, who was at best a mediocre fielding third baseman, NC had a break out year with the bat. He hit about .275, not shabby at all, but also clubbed 25 homers and drove in over 100 runs.

But the bullpen got even worse, if that's possible. It was almost painful to see the relievers coming into the game because you just knew they were going to get lit up. No lead was safe once those guys started going to the mound. The aforementioned Ausmus probably put in at least a few miles walking from the dugout to the pitcher's mound and back to remove the present pitcher and bring on the next dose of cannon fodder for the opposing hitters.

It should be noted that a few of the "kids", either "prospects" acquired from other teams or brought up from the minors, made fairly good showings.

But this comes as little surprise. After all, this was the first time opposing pitchers had faced them, so didn't know their strengths and weaknesses at the plate. You can bet all this will be pored over and diagnosed during the off-season through film study and the like. Whether or not the young Tigers can or will be successful in their sophomore seasons remains to be seen indeed.

For now, the immediate future of the Tigers looks fairly bleak. It's entirely possible, perhaps probable, they'll continue to stink it up for the next few years. Any new manager they bring in, regardless of his baseball acumen or experience, is still going to be stuck with the same rag-tag bunch that felled Ausmus.

But dang. 63-99? Who woulda thunk it? Such a Hindenburgish performance brings to mind old Warner Bros. toon Pepe LePew. El stinko.

Yep, they set a milestone alright.

Dead last.

Thud.