The Texas Rangers are off to an abysmal start to this short 2020 season. With about 20% of the season completed in a 60 game schedule the team has 3 wins, is in last place in the AL West, and 5 games out of first place. It is the worst record in the American League and if compared to a full 162 game schedule the team would be 8-25. To project that out over 162 games shows that the team would be on track to finish the season with 122 losses. My curiosity was piqued because that is so horrid that I had to see who the worst teams in all of baseball history are.
1. Cleveland Spiders – 1899 – 134.
2. New York Mets – 1962 – 120.
3. Detroit Tigers – 2003 – 119.
4. Philadelphia Athletics – 1916 – 117.
5. Boston Braves – 1935 – 115.
6. Baltimore Orioles – 2018 – 115.
7. Washington Senators – 1904 – 113.
8. Pittsburg Alleghenys – 1890 – 113.
Frank and Stanley Robinson owned the 1899 Spiders, but do not confuse Frank Robinson the 1st MLB black player with the owner of the Spiders. Frank DeHass Robinson was a businessman, and he and his brother had two teams. Along with the Spiders, they also purchased the St. Louis Browns and renamed them the Perfectos, which later became the Cardinals. Interestingly Frank died in 1911 and his daughter Helene Hathaway Robinson Britton became the first female MLB franchise owner of the Perfectos. The name was later changed to the Cardinals, which is the same team that plays in St. Louis today.
The significance of that is that goes back to that 1899 season when the Robinson brothers took the best players from the Spiders and transferred them to the Perfectos. MLB owners at that time participated in what was termed inter-league raiding and because of the Robinson’s that led to the MLB rule that a person with interest in a club cannot own a second club interest. Another interesting bit of MLB history is that Spiders infielder Louis Sockalexis who played for the Spiders from 1897 to 1899 is credited as the first Native American to play professional baseball.
The Spiders were the original team to bring in Cy Young during the 1891 season. Other notable players for the Spiders included Cupid Childs, Nig Cuppy and Jesse Burkett all of whom are in the Hall of Fame and all were transferred to the Perfectos in 1899. That left almost no talent on the Spiders and thus the worst season in MLB history.
The 2020 Rangers do not have an interesting story to tell as a reason for being on track to finish as the second worst team in MLB history. On paper, this should have been the best pitching staff the franchise has ever put together. On paper, this team should be hitting better too. Key injuries are part of the problem this season with the early loss of Corey Kluber and Jose LeClerc plus the delay due to injury of their top setup arms in Rafael Montero and Joely Rodriguez. The team has lost some close games and the starting pitching has been in the top 5 in all of MLB so far. Yet the hitting has disappeared as key players Elvis Andrus is batting just .195 and Sin Soo Choo an even .200. Roughned Odor continues to struggle to stay health and is batting .125 and Robinson Chirinos an anemic .130. Sadly, Willie Calhoun is batting .043 and there is concern that the hit he took that broke his jaw with a baseball may have ruined the kid. In addition, Danny Santana was the best hitter on the team last season, and so far in 2020 he has been injured and batting just .059.
While batting average is not supposed to tell the whole story, it certainly indicates the lack of base hits and base hits are a key part of getting on base and driving in runs.
My original prediction for this team was 31 wins, when the schedule was released and it became evident that the hardest part of the schedule is in September so I revised that to 29 wins. However, at the current pace the team is on track to win 17 games and finish as the worse team in 2020 and the second worst team in MLB history. Sadly, this team cannot hit the baseball with regularity and efficiency so even if the pitching from the bullpen improves there is little hope of turning the season around. The schedule does not favor them going forward either.
My take is that if you are going to lose, do it with style, and if you are going to be horrible do it with style. The Rangers are doing that, but with all the controversy in the entire country in 2020, they could not pick a worse time to be this bad. What the Rangers need is a story like the 1899 Spiders, but they may be able to beat the Spiders record anyway. It might be worth a shot just to be in the record books.
What this feels like:
