How bad are the 2023 Oakland A’s? 10 Weird & Wild facts that would amaze the ’62 Mets
Posted by
JD (aka Jason Dean)
May 19 '23, 15:49
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By Jayson Stark
Talk about your wacky weeks of baseball …
A pinch runner stopped running long enough to hit a grand slam! … Another guy hit a home run that came down, technically, before it left his bat! … And a historic on base-streak finally came to an end on a “hit!”
But we’ll get to all that shortly. Because this is the Weird and Wild column. And it doesn’t get much Weirder (or Wilder) than what’s going on in Oakland these days.
Spider-Men 2023 — Into the Oakland-Verse?
When I think of the Oakland A’s, I want to think of the good stuff. Reggie! Rickey! Catfish! Vida! Dave Stewart’s eyeballs piercing holes in every hitter! I’ll even settle for Brad Pitt!
But sadly, Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill aren’t making any major motion pictures about the 2023 Oakland A’s. This isn’t Moneyball. This is Funnyball. This isn’t the Bash Brothers. This is the Crash Brothers.
This A’s team, which most of America works so hard to avoid watching, has a chance to do things that have never been done. But by that, I don’t mean win the World Series. I mean out-lose the 1962 Mets.
Except the more you examine these A’s, the ’62 Mets aren’t the “ugh-ernaut” we should be comparing them to. They’re conjuring up memories of Harry Colliflower’s 1899 Cleveland Spiders. And did anybody ask for those memories? Not even any descendants of Harry Colliflower.
As I type this, these A’s are an incomprehensible 10-35. They have the worst run differential (minus-161) after 45 games of any team in the history of the American League. And there’s probably a better chance that you could name five of their paying customers than five guys on their roster. Which is saying something, considering they’re last among all four major sports in actual paying customers per contest.
“They’re the worst team I’ve ever scouted,” said one longtime scout who dug in on them earlier this year.
“I honestly think,” said an executive from a team who saw them in April, “that that’s the worst team I’ve ever watched in my career.”
So how can that be, you ask? Hey, that’s what the Weird and Wild column is here for — to deliver answers to pressing questions like that. So here come 10 Astounding Facts on the 2023 Oakland Crash Brothers.
1. They’re making the ’62 Mets look like the ’86 Mets! Choo-Choo Coleman’s 1962 Mets are the modern standard for Worst Freaking Team Ever. They went 40-120. They finished 60.5 games out of first place. They had a minus-331 run differential. And yet …
Those Mets were a spectacular 12-33 after 45 games. That’s two games better than these A’s. Those Mets had only a minus-92 run differential at this stage. The A’s have that spread beat by almost 70 runs. Of course, at the 45-game milepost, those Mets were also in the middle of losing 17 games in a row, but we digress.
At least the ’62 Mets had already rolled up four two-game winning streaks and one three-game winning streak. These A’s, on the other hand, have no two-game winning streaks against teams not named the Royals.
So it’s hard to even put them in the same conversation with those Mets. And I can’t believe I just wrote those words. But that just means it’s time to ask a question seldom asked …
2. Is it possible the A’s are even worse than those 1899 Spiders? OK, let’s be honest. Over the long haul? No way the 2023 A’s are going to wind up worse than a Spiders team that went 20-134, including a sensational 1-40 down the stretch. That can’t be done.
But through these teams’ first 45 games? It’s closer than you could even fathom. Two weeks ago, the Spiders actually had a better record (7-25) than these A’s (6-26). One week ago, they were still dead even, at 8-31 apiece. Now, the A’s have opened up a two-game lead. Can’t beat that for drama.
There’s also this fun little competition:
LAST TWO TEAMS WITH AT LEAST A MINUS-161 RUN DIFFERENTIAL
(After 45 games)
2023 A’s — minus-161
1899 Spiders — minus-192
(Katie Sharp / Baseball Reference)
But this duel isn’t over. More from Harry Colliflower and the Spiders as we go along!
3. The A’s still haven’t had a one-game losing streak! I’m not kidding. The one thing they seem to be especially adept at is: When they start losing, they keep losing.
It’s a weird (and also wild) niche, but it’s a niche all the same. They’ve ripped off losing streaks of 3-6-7-2-5-3-5-3 (not counting their loss Wednesday that started a new streak, still in progress).
So how hard is it to go this deep into a season without any one-game losing streaks? I asked our friends from STATS Perform. And it turns out there have been 10 other teams in the modern era that have pulled it off in the first 45 games. However …
Most of those teams had an unfair advantage, which we could sum up this way: They mixed in a lot more winning than this squad! So in truth, only one team in modern history has ever done what these A’s have done:
• Not just no one-game losing streaks. But also …
• Only won two in a row once!
So what’s the other team to match that nearly impossible feat? Here’s a hint: That fine outfit did it as recently as 91 years ago. Which brings us to Urbane Pickering’s 1932 Red Sox, who started 9-32 on their way to 43-111. How ’bout that for dazzling company!
4. The A’s have trailed, at some point, in every game but two! So as we’ve mentioned, the A’s have won 10 games.
• In eight of them, they didn’t take a lead for good (or at all) until the eighth inning or later.
• In six of them, they had a lead of anywhere between one run and six runs, blew that whole lead but then pulled off a late-inning magic trick to win anyway.
• In the weirdest tidbit of all, the 10-win A’s somehow have more walk-off wins (four) than a Rays team that has won 32 games (but has just three walk-offs).
• But getting back to the No. 4 not-so-fun fact, only twice all season have the A’s made it through an entire game without trailing at some point. The first was April 12, when they blew a 3-0 lead against Baltimore but never fell behind. The other was May 5, in Kansas City, when they jumped out to a 9-2 lead … turned that into a 9-8 lead but hung on to win, 12-8.
So think about how hard that is — to be 45 games into a season and have found yourself trailing in 43 of them. I asked the great Katie Sharp of Baseball Reference if that was as rare as it seemed. And, well, yep! Last team to do that? Right you are. Those ’62 Mets (also 43 of 45).
5. They have an 8.73 ERA on the road! Look, this is a team with a 7.13 ERA, period. So it’s not as if they’re the 1995 Braves at home, either. But when they leave home? Hoo, boy.
Essentially, when these A’s work their magic on the road, they’re turning every hitter in baseball into 2013 David Ortiz.
2023 hitters vs. road A’s — .300/.395/.572
2013 Big Papi vs. the world — .309/.395/.564
And there’s no need to ask if that 8.73 road ERA would be a record. It wouldn’t merely break the current record (since earned runs became an official stat in both leagues in 1913). It would obliterate it by more than two runs a game! John Wasdin’s 1996 A’s (6.55 road ERA) are guaranteed to be following this category closely.
6. Their rotation has a 7.54 ERA! A’s starters are averaging a little over four and two-thirds innings a start. I’m not sure if that’s good news or bad news.
A’s hitters have scored 173 runs this year. Opposing hitters have put up 191 runs just against the Oakland rotation.
It’s a good thing the Royals showed up on their schedule — because before that, the A’s had played 32 games this year without a starting pitcher winning any of them. And yep, that would be a record. Against teams not known as the Royals, Oakland starters are 0-22 with a 7.97 ERA. Does that seem good? Or not so much?
And yes, they’re also in a commanding lead in the race for highest starting pitching ERA since 1913. Felipe Lira’s 1996 Tigers are the reigning record holders (at 6.64). I’m guessing those guys are also now huge A’s fans.
7. They’ve given up at least 10 runs 15 times already (in 45 games)! Here’s some upbeat news. It’s not as if no team has ever done that. Katie Sharp did find one team since 1901. And that group did it a mere 100 years ago.
That was Lefty Weinert’s 1923 Phillies, who actually coughed up double figures 16 times in their first 45 games, on the way to doing it 34 times all year. But the A’s have set the modern AL record, which used to be held by those 1996 Tigers, with 14.
8. It took them just 37 games to fall 10-plus games out of next-to-last place! It’s hard enough to drop 10 games out of first place in a month and a half. Think how hard it is to plummet 10 games out of next-to-last place.
It took those Cleveland Spiders 68 games to pull that off. It took the ’62 Mets 96 games to do it. So who knows where this is leading. But let’s just throw this out there. The Spiders wound up 35 games out of next-to-last. Can the A’s beat that? I’m taking the under!
9. It’s a good thing there’s a lot of foul territory in the Coliseum! The Coliseum in Oakland may not lead the league in paying occupants. But it always leads the league in one category that is now coming in exceptionally handy for this team:
Foul territory.
That’s because, when the other team hits a ball that lands in fair territory, its batting average is .376! Its OPS is 1.034! Stan Musial hit .376 in 1948. And the A’s are transforming the entire league into Stan Musial. What is happening?
10. Am I only allowed to list 10? I haven’t even mentioned yet that 18 A’s pitchers have a negative Wins Above Replacement — and two more are at zero WAR on the nose. … Or that the Rays just gave up their 150th run of the season this week. Whereas the A’s gave up their 150th run on April 19. … Or that A’s hitters barely have more hits (347) than A’s pitchers have runs allowed (334). … Or that on those rare occasions when this team takes a lead, opposing hitters turn into 2015 Miguel Cabrera (.339/.432/.658). … Or that, as Joe Sheehan wrote in his newsletter this week, the A’s are 7-7 in one-run games — which means that in all other games, they’re 3-28. So does that mean they have a knack for winning the close ones? I want to believe yes. Which means I also want to believe they can’t possibly out-lose the ’62 Mets. But yikes. Time to pick up the pace!
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