While everybody zeroes in on the playoff chases in the final week of the MLB season, I naturally tend to zag in the other direction. I know I won’t have to worry about hearing about who’s about to clinch a playoff spot. I have always been curious about how the bad teams finish out the regular season when the end is in sight, but they still have to go through the motions.
Having grown up in the Bay Area when the Giants and A’s were both non-contenders, this was kind of an ordinary late-September feeling in the early ‘80’s. But it meant the tickets were even cheaper and the crowds were lighter and there more for the experience than the actual game.
And in 2012, when the Houston Astros were still in the National League, they had more than 100 losses and met up with the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field in the final weekday regular season series of the year. When the Astros beat the Cubs in the first game of that series, it meant that both teams had over 100 defeats, making it the first time two 100-loss teams had played each other in 50 years…
So ever since then, I always make a point of looking for the worst possible final weekday series of the season. I don’t look at the final weekend, because crowds are always artificially inflated for “Fan Appreciation Weekend” wherever you go. The Monday-to-Thursday games? Yeah, you’re on your own there buddy.
I have a few rules for figuring out the “worst” series. Rule one: neither squad can be in playoff contention. So that means, for example, the Colorado Rockies are out because they’re in Seattle to face the AL-West-leading and playoff-bound Mariners.
Although, as suspected by this space on Friday, the Rockies won two of three against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Azusa and Cucamonga over the weekend to finally get past the 41-win barrier- thus avoiding having the worst MLB record since 1901- and are now at 43-113. This is an absolutely astounding accomplishment for a team that started their first 50 games a remarkably horrible 8-42, the worst start in MLB history since the 1880’s, and weren’t even at 20 wins by July 1st. They need to win only one more game to have exactly as many wins post-All-Star-break as they had pre-All-Star break- 22- in almost 40 fewer contests. It has been quite the turnaround, technically speaking…
(Considering Friday’s column revolved almost entirely around the number 22, I shouldn’t be surprised by this at all.)
The pun I like to use in this situation is, “The Rockies are so bad they couldn’t even break the all-time record for worst team.”
Anyway, the “playoff contention” rule eliminates more than half the series right there. At first glance one would think the San Francisco Giants-St. Louis Cardinals series would potentially qualify as the worst, but no, since they are both technically (but not really) still alive for the third NL Wild-Card spot.
The Jekyll-and-Hyde Giants are currently 77-79. So, they need to win four of their last six to at least go .500 on the season. Remarkably they had never gone exactly .500 in franchise history before 2022, and then they came within a game of it last year at 80-82, and here they are with a chance to do it yet again…
Although considering the stat from last Monday- that they were .500 in their last 500 games- this should not be surprising at all…
Again, I must stress that this is not the fault of manager Bob Melvin. This kind of mediocrity is coming from higher than the manager within the organization. They are much more interested generating money in the new buildings across McCovey Cove than they are in putting an actual winning baseball team together…
A curious thing: those buildings across McCovey Cove used to be empty parking lots owned by the team. And who conveniently bought up every parking area around the ballpark they could before turning those empty parking lots into buildings and taking away all the parking spaces? Why, the San Francisco Giants, of course…
The other two series that I really can’t believe are disqualified because of the “playoff contention” rule are Minnesota at Texas, because Bruce Bochy’s Rangers are still hanging around in theory, and Kansas City at the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Azusa and Cucamonga, because the Royals are just one game away from elimination.
So that leaves just two candidates for “Worst Weekday Series of the Final Week”: Tampa at Baltimore and Washington at Atlanta. Coincidentally, these matchups are of the worst two teams in their respective league’s Eastern Divisions.
Surprisingly, the winner for the “Worst” series is actually Washington at Atlanta. This surprises me because this will be the first time the Braves will have missed the playoffs since 2017, and they were widely picked to continue that streak this season.
But everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong, and entering the final week of the season they actually have the exact same record as Baltimore, at 73-83. I don’t know if you recall the first two months of the season, but the Orioles, who before the season were widely picked to be a force in the AL playoff chase, were an absolute disaster. They were very bad- not as bad as the Rockies, but pretty bad- and fired their manager, Santa Rosa native Brandon Hyde, in mid-May, when they were 15-28.
So, for the Orioles to “rebound” from that and get to 73 wins, the same number as the Braves, is more than curious. Does that say more about the Orioles are the Braves? Seems to me that it says a little about both of them.
At least they weren’t 15-and-a-half games up in their division and might miss the playoffs altogether. The Detroit Tigers led the AL Central by that number in July, and now their lead is just one game over the Cleveland Guardians. And Detroit is at Cleveland this week for three games that will decide the division. If the Tigers end up coughing that lead and missing the playoffs, it will be the largest blown lead in MLB history- like, ever.
The 1951 Brooklyn Dodgers were 13-and-a-half game leaders over the New York Giants before Bobby Thomson and all that, and though the “Miracle” Boston Braves of 1914 were in last place on July 4th, they were “only” 15 games back before their staging their comeback over the Giants that season…
Most of those players from 1914 were still on the 1916 Braves, and they probably should have won the NL pennant that season as well, but they happened to run into the buzzsaw that was the Giants that September, who won a still-MLB record 26 games in a row that month.
You can read all about that Giants winning ways in my book, “26 In A Row,” and learn why Braves pitcher Lefty Tyler, who significantly helped that 1914 Braves comeback, also plays a key role in the streak…
As for this year’s New York Mets? They had the best record in the majors in mid-June at 45-24 (notably, that’s more wins than the Rockies will probably have all year) and spent a wild $340 million on the roster. And going into the final week?
They are in a dead heat with the Cincinnati Reds for the third and final NL Wild Card spot. In the final week, both teams play one team already in the playoffs and one team definitely not in the playoffs, so this drama may go into the weekend…
Remember how the wail around the Mets used to be that the old the owners didn’t spend enough to win? Well, $340 million seems an awful lot like “enough to win,” and if they don’t make the playoffs and the Reds do, then grab your popcorn!
And the Reds? They are a team that is so cheap that a couple of years ago the owner essentially told fans to stuff it and they’d consider selling the team and letting it move out of town if they got a good offer.
That’s the team the Mets are going to sink below in the final week? Whooo, buddy…
But before that? Plenty of good seats still available in Atlanta, Baltimore, and Oracle Park this week.
Parking, however? Well, that’ll cost ya…
The Giants are not unique in seeking to scarf up every available parking space and charging big bucks to put your car in one of them. When I lived in Detroit, Tiger Stadium owned essentially no parking for fans. Corktown, the local neighborhood, benefited by turning vacant lots into parking lots where you could count on your car being watched. The Tiger bosses (pizza makers) hated that and decided to put no money into upkeep of the historic stadium (built in 1912). That stadium could have been saved. But money won out and now you can drive into Detroit from the suburbs, park in a lot owned by the team and never have to actually experience the city. Perfect for all those honkies who haven't otherwise ventured below Eight Mile for decades. I still have my Save Tiger Stadium bumper sticker.