The train wreck that is the 2023 Oakland Athletics

This post is not about why the A's are terrible, nor is it about raising ticket prices, pursuing multiple land deals in another city, nor trading away absolutely every player throughout their entire system that is not nailed down.

No, this is the post setting the groundwork for periodic (maybe daily?) updates to see how far this team can fall compared to other teams all time.

At the end of the year, we can just watch the losses mount up and see where they end up all time. Will they lose 100 games (almost certainly)? 110 (probably)? 117, like the franchise record 1916 Philadelphia Athletics (it could happen)? 120, like the 1962 New York Mets (they are on pace to pass it)? 134, like the 1899 Cleveland Spiders (probably not)?

 But we have to wait until August and September to see them roll up that list.

I want to know when they pass milestones in fewest wins. When do they win their 21st game, passing the Spiders? 36th, passing both the 1916 and 1919 A's? 41st, like the Mets?

So I started tracking the least number of wins all time. It turns out that this is frustrating.

Using Baseball References's Stathead service, I got a list of all MLB teams ever, and sorted them by wins ascending. As of this writing, the A's have 10 wins, and sit 24th on this all-time list. On first blush, this does not seem possible. However, this list includes teams from the National Association, which had a short schedule and had teams not finish the season, and the Union Association, which had many teams not finish the season. Here is the top 10 from that list:

Rank	W	L	%	Year	Team	Lg
1	0	6	0.000	1873	Baltimore Marylands	NA
1	0	11	0.000	1872	Washington Nationals	NA
3	1	12	0.077	1875	Keokuk Westerns	NA
4	2	42	0.045	1875	Brooklyn Athletics	NA
4	2	21	0.087	1873	Elizabeth Resolutes	NA
4	2	16	0.111	1884	Wilmington Quicksteps	UA
4	2	12	0.143	1875	Philadelphia Centennials	NA
4	2	7	0.222	1872	Washington Olympics	NA
4	2	6	0.250	1884	St. Paul White Caps	UA
10	3	26	0.103	1872	Broolyn Eckfords	UA

Boy, that's a lot of dreck. That's not really major league baseball in my mind. On this table, the A's are #24:

Rank	W	L	%	Year	Team	Lg
21	9	56	0.138	1876	Cincinnati Reds	NL
21	9	38	0.191	1875	Baltimore Canaries	NA
21	9	28	0.243	1872	Brooklyn Atlantics	NA
24	10	40	0.200	2023	Oakland Athletics	AL
24	10	19	0.345	1871	Cleveland Forest Cities	NA
26	12	51	0.190	1884	Washington Nationals	UA
26	12	30	0.286	1884	Richmond Virginians	UA

Hmm. The 1899 Spiders lost 20. Where are they on this list? They are #46. The A's have some ground to make up. 1916 A's are #144; 1962 Mets are #174.

Other drawbacks with this list: Every 2020 team except the Dodgers is on this list before the Mets since nobody else won more than 40 during the Pandemic. All of the 2023 teams are still on this list.

BTW, the Kansas City Royals are 15-35, and are #30 on this list. They have to win 6 more games to pass the Spiders.

OK, so this is still not that useful a table. How about only doing the American League? Of course, that gets rid of the Spiders and the Mets. However, the A's currently are #1 on this list. Woohoo. Of course, #2-25 are all from 2020 or 2023. The next team not from those years on this list are those 1916 Phildelphia A's (36-117), at #26. Even after the 2023 teams mostly pass the 1916 A's, those 2020 teams won't. Still not really want I want.

How about since 1900? Well, that still excludes the Spiders, but it captures a lot of the really famous bad teams. However, it is still polluted with 2020, and temporarily, 2023. The A's are #1 on this list,  and those 1916 A's are at #56, but everything in between is still from 2020 and 2023. Yuck.

So, I reran with everything from 1871, but with a minimum of 100 games, except for 2023. Those teams will pass most of the really bad teams, so the table will clean up eventually. In this table, the A's are #1, the 2023 Royals are #2, and the Spiders are #3. All but five teams have won more than 20 games in 2023 so far, and three teams have won 20, so the next games they win will put them past this putrid excuse of a team. The next one not from 2023 in the table is the 1889 Louisville Colonels (27-111), at #23. Nine 2023 teams have passed them so far.

The next target for the A's is thus winning 21 games, passing the 1899 Cleveland Spiders. I am confident this will happen. Just wondering whether it will happen in June, July, or August!