If you’ve been a Phillies fan long enough, you’ve most likely suffered through some really bad baseball teams. The post 2012 rebuild era was a fertile ground for this experience, including one year where the Phillies had the privilege of being the worst team in baseball. For some others, the late 90s and early 2000s evoke memories of an empty Veteran’s Stadium and putrid baseball. Point is, the Phillies are no strangers to being among the league’s worst. After all, their inaugural season in 1883 holds the fifth worst win percentage in MLB history at .173 and they were the first professional sports franchise to “achieve” 10,000 losses.
But this year’s Colorado Rockies feel different. They entered Wednesday with a record of 8-40 through 48 games. For perspective, the Phillies had won 8 of their last 10 entering play Wednesday. Colorado has a winning percentage of just .167. They are already outpacing the 2024 White Sox, who lost 121 games and were one of the worst teams in the modern era. If that .167 winning percentage manages to hold until the end of the season, it would be the third worst all-time in MLB history, behind only the 1899 Cleveland Spiders (.130) and the 1876 Cincinatti Reds (.138).
The Rockies have always struggled to field a pitching staff due to the challenges related to playing in Colorado’s altitude, but their 5.88 team ERA would be the tenth worst all time. Ryan Feltner has the lowest ERA among their starting pitchers at 4.75. Four of the pitchers to have started at least three games for the Rockies this season have an ERA over 6.
By the law of averages and the weirdness of baseball, it’s likely that the Rockies will improve this year, at least a little bit. They may end up not being “top three all-time” bad but fall back upon the 2024 White Sox path into “among the worst of the modern era” bad. Not really a consolation prize, but the distinction is relevant.
So, watching the Rockies up close this week had me thinking. What’s the worst baseball team you’ve ever seen live? Is it one of the 2010s Phillies? Or the late 90s-early 2000s? Was it even the Phillies? Or was it last year’s White Sox? Have you seen enough of this year’s Rockies to hand them that dubious title?