How did our high hopes for the MLB season turn out?
Well, the Oakland Athletics finished at the bottom, 50-112, .309 winning percentage. That’s bad, but it isn’t quite historically bad: Wikipedia’s list cuts off at .300.
Kansas City finished slightly better: 56-106, .346.
Colorado: 59-103, .364.
And the White Sox: 61-101, .377 winning percentage.
Lawrence asked me last night which of the remaining teams I favored to go 0-17.
My answer: da Bears and Carolina. I don’t believe the Vikings are that bad, and Denver at least has a coach who’s won a Superbowl.
How did that work out for me? Actually, pretty well.
NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-17:
da Bears
Carolina
da Bears play Washington on Thursday this week, while Carolina plays Detroit at noon next Sunday. Right now, the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network favors Washington (but not overwhelmingly) and Detroit (overwhelmingly). I’ll be joining FotB pigpen51 in rooting for the Lions, and the entire civilized world in rooting for an asteroid strike on FedEx Field.
I should have put this in this week’s update, but I didn’t think to check the schedule until after I posted.
Denver (0-3) plays da Bears (0-3) at noon on Sunday.
Minnesota (0-3) plays Carolina (0-3) at noon on Sunday.
This means a few things:
1. I will probably try to post the loser update on Sunday afternoon after the games end, assuming I’m not napping.
2. We’re going to have two 0-4 teams. Unless there’s a tie, which I would not rule out.
3. It looks like Sunday is the last day of the MLB regular season, so I will probably post a special loser update on Monday for that.
NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-17:
Denver
Minnesota
da Bears
Carolina
70-20? That sounds more like a score from a low-scoring college basketball game, not a NFL one.
In other news, the worthless Chargers won, as did the Texans. But we still have Carolina.
NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-17:
New England
Cincinnati
Houston
Denver
Los Angeles Chargers
Minnesota
da Bears
Carolina
Arizona
Still a little early for any predictions on who will win the Owen 17 award this year, but I am kind of wondering if this could be the year for Houston. Or even better, the worthless LA Chargers.
NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-17:
Kansas City
Buffalo
New England
Cincinnati
Pittsburgh
Tennessee
Indianapolis
Houston
Denver
Los Angeles Chargers
New York Football Giants
Minnesota
da Bears
Carolina
Arizona
Seattle
So not only did Detroit win, they beat the defending champions. Not only did the Giants lose (sorry, Manhattan Infidel) but they got curb-stomped by the Cowboys.
(On a side note, “The Cowboys” is a pretty good, though I wouldn’t say great, John Wayne film.)
The Browns won. The Texans lost. The worthless Chargers lost. The worthless Bills lost, even though Aaron Rodgers may be out for the season.
I think it is too early to predict a trend. But it wouldn’t shock me if Detroit won the Thanksgiving game this year.
The NFL regular season starts tonight.
The loser update returns next Tuesday.
Thank you for attending my TED talk.
The All Star break is upon us. It seems like a good time to update the fortunes of hapless the Oakland Athletics.
Tragically, they seem to have gotten a little better: they are currently at 25-67, for a .272 winning percentage. If this continues, that would put them at about 118 losses: that’s bad, tending towards historically bad, but not as bad as I’d like to see. (I’m personally rooting for at least 120 losses, if not more.)
Interestingly, Kansas City is only slightly better: 26-65, .286, 115 losses if trends continue.
And Dillon Lawson is out as hitting coach of the New York Yankees.
We are into the baseball season, but not as far in as I would like to be. I sometimes try to post a loser update around the All-Star break.
But I did decide I wanted to throw up a link to this:
“Why the worst MLB teams of 2023 are historically bad“.
There are a lot of stats in the article for you baseball people, but summarizing:
Oakland is currently 8-30, for a winning percentage of .211. That works out to 127 losses this season if trends continue. The 1962 Mets lost 120 games, and the 2003 Tigers lost 119.
MLB teams that still have a chance to go 0-162:
None.
Kansas City, Philadelphia, and Washington are all 1-4 right now.
It has been a few days. Where are we in the season?
MLB teams that still have a chance to go 0-162:
Philadelphia
MLB teams that still have a chance to go 0-162:
Boston
Cleveland
Detroit
Kansas City
Houston
LA Angels
Miami
Philadelphia
Washington
Cincinnati
Milwaukee
St. Louis
Arizona
San Diego
San Francisco
In other news, the Astros lost to the White Sox yesterday. As we all know, this means they won’t be able to sell beer at Minute Maid Park this year…
…because they lost the opener.