The Oakland Athletics have the worst record in MLB.
That’s probably not a surprise for anyone: they are 30-80, which is actually not that far from the second-worst squad in baseball, the Kansas City Royals (35-75).
Still, when you look at each team’s run differential, you see just how bad the A’s have been in 2023.
Thankfully, Codify Baseball has them all.
MLB run differentials so far this year:
159 TEX ATL
137 TB
107 LAD
79 CHC
75 SD
62 BAL
61 HOU
43 SEA
43 BOS
39 TOR
33 MIN
27 SF
15 LAA
13 PHI
8 NYY
-1 CLE
-2 MIL
-4 ARI
-19 CIN
-22 NYM
-26 STL
-26 MIA
-84 PIT
-93 WSH
-95 DET
-97 CWS
-157 KC
-160 COL
-274 OAK— Codify (@CodifyBaseball) August 4, 2023
You can actually look at this and use tiers to divide the teams and analyze them.
The Rangers, Braves, and Rays are in the first tier, the elite.
Then, you have the Dodgers close.
The Cubs, Padres, Orioles, and Astros form the third tier, and from that point forward, there are lots of teams relatively close to each other.
Then, we have the truly bad teams: the Pirates, Nationals, Tigers, and the White Sox.
After those, we have the “horrible” tier: the Royals and the Rockies.
And after the Royals and Rockies, we have the A’s on a tier of their own with a -274 run differential.
One would think a team with a -157 or a -160 differential would be the absolute worst in the league, but then come the A’s with their -274 balance and prove that anything can happen in baseball: the good and the bad.
The worst thing of all is that the A’s record and run differential are more of a reflection of the ownership and front office, not the players.
If the players are not good enough to be major leaguers and are put in a position to be in MLB, it’s definitely not their fault.
They don’t put themselves on the field: someone is making that call.
And that someone (owner John Fisher) is making that call because he wants to save money.
There is no other way around it.
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