Are Colorado really that bad?
It’s only the middle of May, but the Colorado Rockies go into play today, already 161⁄2 games back in the NL West. Oh, that’s not how far back they are of the lead: it’s the distance they are behind the D-backs for fourth place. Colorado has got off to a spectacularly bad start, with a record of 7-37. That’s six and half games worse than anyone else (specifically, the White Sox), and it the most losses to this point since at least the 19th century. It’s two more than the 1988 Baltimore Orioles – and they started the season by losing twenty-one consecutive games. Remember how bad the 2021 D-backs were? They would be eleven games UP on the 2025 Rockies right now.
We are officially in 1899 Cleveland Spiders territory, a byword for sporting ineptness. That team’s owners also owned the St. Louis Perfectos, and before the season transferred the best Spiders players, including Cy Young, to the Perfectos. The 1898 Spiders (pictured above) had been decent enough, going 81-68 with seven ties, almost the same W% as last year’s D-backs. So, imagine if Ken Kendrick sold the franchise to another owner, who then took Ketel Marte, Corbin Carroll, and anyone else he fancied for his other team. That’s how the Spiders were, and ended up playing home contests in front of two-digit crowds. Wikipedia cites 56 at one point, meaning there were almost as many people in the dugouts.
The 1899 Spiders were 8-36 to this point, a game BETTER than the Rockies.
It’s not as if Colorado can claim to be unlucky either. Their opponents have scored more than twice as many runs (138-283), meaning their Pythagorean record is barely any better, at 9-35. Between hitting (-3.9) and pitching (-1.1), they are already five wins by bWAR below replacement. That batting figure is already enough to put them in the ten worst teams ever – just 0.2 better than those Spiders – and there’s still 118 games to go. This year, Colorado has the potential basically to redefine the meaning of “replacement level”, which is currently set at a .294 winning percentage, around 48 wins. To reach it, the Rockies need to go 41-77 the rest of the way. That may already be a hopeless cause.
Let’s just hope they keep losing today and tomorrow, then go on a tear until the next time they face the D-backs!