Race to the Bottom

The record for the lowest batting average by a championship qualifier since the dead ball era is .179, shared by Rob Deer of the 1991 Tigers and Dan Uggla of the 2013 Braves. The two are in an exact tie; each player had 80 hits in 448 at-bats. In fact, their stat lines are remarkably similar:

	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG
Deer	134	448	64	80	14	2	25	64	89	175	.179	.314	.386
Uggla	136	448	60	80	10	3	22	55	77	171	.179	.309	.362

Even though these seasons look almost identical, Deer's was significantly better in context. According to Baseball-Reference.com, he earned 1.0 WAR for his, but Uggla was below replacement level, at -1.1 WAR.