The Oakland Athletics are in a downward spiral. At this rate, they could be the worst team in Major League Baseball history.
The A’s lost their last game at home against the Houston Astros 1-10 on 29 September. The losing streak, which began on the 18th of this month against the Arizona Diamondbacks, has grown to 11 games, and the A’s are falling without wings.
Oakland’s overall record on the season to that point is 10-45 with a winning percentage (.182) of less than two per cent. 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. Arithmetically, the A’s are on pace for 29 wins (133), which would give them the fewest wins since the 1899 Cleveland Spiders (20). In modern baseball terms, they are on pace to surpass the 1962 New York Mets’ single-season record of 120 losses (40 wins).안전놀이터
Have a run differential of -199, the worst of any team in history through their opening 55 games. The mound collapse has been devastating. Team ERA (6.87) is the worst in 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). It’s a total disaster, pitching and fielding alike.
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 that 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 this situation. 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 were both unsuccessful. Fujinami, demoted from starter to reliever, struggled to a 1-5 record and 12.24 ERA in 15 games, while Luchinski’s velocity dropped significantly as he battled back from an injury, falling to a 4-4 record and 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 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 head coach 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.