The Oakland Athletics are in a never-ending downward spiral. At this rate, they may be the worst team in Major League Baseball history.
The A’s lost their last home game against the Houston Astros on April 29, 1-10. The A’s are falling without wings, as their losing streak stretches to 11 games, dating back to April 18 against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
To date, Oakland’s overall record is 10-45 with a winning percentage (.182) of less than two percent. The A’s are also last in the majors in team batting average (.220), but their winning percentage is even worse.
The A’s are the first team to win just 10 games in their opening 55 since the modern era of baseball began in 1900. The A’s are on pace for 29 wins (133 games), which would be the fewest since the 1899 Cleveland Spiders (20 wins, 134 games). In modern baseball terms, they are on pace to surpass the 1962 New York Mets’ single-season record of 120 losses (40 wins).
A run differential of -199, the worst of any team in history through the first 55 games. The mound collapse has been devastating. Team ERA (6.87) is the worst in 메이저사이트 franchise history, not just this season, but since the 1930 Philadelphia Phillies (6.70). They have the second-lowest team OPS (.657) and the second-most errors (35). Pitching, defense, and offense are a total disaster.
Oakland, a cash-strapped “small market” team that made the postseason 11 times in the 2000s playing low-cost, high-efficiency “Moneyball baseball,” has sold off a string of key players in the last two years, including starting pitchers Chris Bassett (Toronto), Sean Manaya (San Francisco), and Frankie Montas (New York Yankees), catcher Sean Murphy (Atlanta), and infielders Matt Olson (Atlanta) and Matt Chapman (Toronto). The team is clearly weakened and its young players are not developing.
According to MLB.com, Oakland general manager David Post was at a loss for words. “It’s hard to explain what’s going on. It’s a situation no one could have imagined. We have young, inexperienced players and veterans who are not playing up to expectations. Add in the injuries and we’re in the situation we’re in now. No one is having fun,” he said in frustration.
Last winter’s free-agent signings of Japanese pitcher Shintaro Fujinami (one year, $3.25 million) and former KBO pitcher Drew Ruchinski (one plus one year, $3 million guaranteed) under restricted free agency have been unsuccessful. Demoted from starter to reliever, Fujinami struggled to a 1-5 record with a 12.24 ERA in 15 games, while Luchinski’s velocity dropped dramatically in the aftermath of an injury, resulting in a 4-4 record with a 9.00 ERA. “We thought the experience we had elsewhere would translate here, but it didn’t,” Post said. “Young pitchers are going to have their ups and downs, and we’re seeing the results of that now,” Post said, lamenting the team’s reliance on young pitchers.
But Post said, “We’re trying to take the positives as far as we can. “We’re trying to take the positives out of it as much as we can,” he said, adding that manager Mark Katsay is trying to stay positive and motivate the team in a situation that no one has ever been in before. “We have to learn from what we’re going through. We have to learn from it and get better. We have to learn from our mistakes. The young players are learning lessons in the big leagues right now,” he said, adding that he believes the players will grow from the harsh trials.