Fewest RBI by a Team Leader, 1988-2007

E-mailer Ken sent me the idea for this post. He noted that Emil Brown of the Kansas City Royals led his team last season with only 62 RBI. He thought that seemed pretty low for a team leader and was interested in a list of the lowest totals to lead a team in the last two decades. It turns out his suspicions were well-founded: Brown had the lowest total of a team leader in that span.

One potential obstacle in this list is the handling of the 1994 and 1995 seasons. In 1994, teams played approximately 115 games each before the players' strike. In 1995, teams played a shortened 144 game schedule. It wouldn't be fair to penalize teams for playing fewer games, so I merely re-calculated RBI totals based on a 162 game schedule. Thus Frank Thomas's 101 RBI in 1994 becomes 101*(162/115) = 142 RBI and his 111 RBI in 1995 becomes 111*(162/144) = 125 RBI. I realize not every team played the exact same number of games and this method isn't exact, but I think it's close enough. Any time a 1994/1995 team appears on the list, I've noted the raw total next to the adjusted total.

With all of that in mind, let's turn to the list over the last twenty seasons:

Fewest RBI by a Team Leader, 1988-2007

Rank	Team	RBI	Team Leader
1	2007 Kansas City Royals	62	Emil Brown
2	1996 Kansas City Royals	67	Craig Paquette
	1988 Philadelphia Phillies	67	Juan Samuel
4	1988 Detroit Tigers	69	Alan Trammell
	1988 Seattle Mariners	69	Alvin Davis
6	1999 Minnesota Twins	70	Marty Cordova
	1995 Montreal Expos	70	Mike Lansing (62 RBI in 144 team games)
	1988 San Diego Padres	70	Tony Gwynn
9	2003 New York Mets	71	Ty Wigginton
	1999 Florida Marlins	71	Preston Wilson
	1990 Houston Astros	71	Franklin Stubbs
12	2003 San Diego Padres	72	Mark Loretta
	1994 Pittsburgh Pirates	72	Orlando Merced (51 RBI in 114 team games)
	1992 California Angels	72	Junior Felix
	1990 California Angels	72	Dave Winfield
16	1992 San Francisco Giants	73	Will Clark
	1990 Philadelphia Phillies	73	Von Hayes
18	1997 Pittsburgh Pirates	74	Kevin Young
	1992 Boston Red Sox	74	Tom Brunansky
	1990 Chicago White Sox	74	Ivan Calderon
21	2003 Cleveland Indians	75	Jody Gerut
	2002 Tampa Bay Devil Rays	75	Randy Winn
	2001 Detroit Tigers	75	Tony Clark
	1993 Kansas City Royals	75	George Brett
	1992 Kansas City Royals	75	Gregg Jefferies
	1991 Montreal Expos	75	Ivan Calderon

Some of the names on the list as team leaders surprised me (Ty Wigginton? Mark Loretta? Jody Gerut?). I'm sure their respective front offices and managers weren't counting on them to lead their team in driving in runs, but injuries and other quirks of fate conspired to put them there. It's strange that certain years like 2003, 1990, and 1988 have more teams on the list but maybe run scoring overall was down in those seasons.

Do you think Emil Brown had any sort of incentive in his contract giving him a bonus if he led the team in RBI? If so, do you think he, or the team, ever thought he'd actually get it?