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If you have followed baseball at all these last two years, you know that these aren’t records that are normally associated with winning baseball teams.
At their current pace, this year’s Houston team is on pace to lose at least 111 games. What Jeff Luhnow and others are doing to turn around the losing in Houston looks great, but it doesn’t hide the fact that the product the Astros are putting out on the field is historically bad.
Since 1962, only one team (the 2003 Detroit Tigers) has lost more than 108 games in a single-season. The 2003 Detroit Tigers were pretty awful, but it’s not like they were bereft of talent. That team featured a young Jeremy Bonderman in the rotation and Fernando Rodney pitched out of the bullpen.
That Tigers team also had Dmitri Young, Carlos Pena, Omar Infante, Andres Torres and Cody Ross. Looking at the current Astros’ roster, I don’t see anywhere close to that level of talent.
The 1962 New York Mets, led by Casey Stengel, played some of the worse baseball the Polo Grounds ever saw. In their starting lineup, Frank Thomas was the only hitter to post a 100+ OPS+. An OPS+ of 100 is generally considered league average.
The Mets starting rotation was slightly better, but you could make the argument that not one of their starters pitched at an above-average level. The Astros are actually fairly comparable to this Mets team, in terms of how awful their major-league performances have been.
To be honest, it’s kind of confusing how a major league team could be this bad. I know they’re in a rebuilding process and not necessarily worried about the on-field product in the majors right now, but this is amazing.
Jed Lowrie and Jose Altuve are both solid players, but the Astros don’t have any other hitters in their lineup that pitchers should be at all afraid of. On the pitching side, Jordan Lyles is promising but he has been horrendous in the majors this year. Lucas Harrell has been a pleasant surprise, but his strikeout to walk ratios keep him from being much more than a #3 starter.
Enjoy this Astros team while you can because you might not see another baseball team this bad until… Well, I guess the Astros might be just as bad in 2013. If not worse.
2013 is going to be another very rough year for the Astros and their fans. With no big prospects likely to make a huge impact in the majors next season, their roster won’t be that much better than it was this year.
Not to mention, Houston is moving to the AL West. Baseball is unpredictable unlike any other sport or game. However, if you make one bet on the 2013 MLB season, picking the Astros to finish last in the A.L. West isn’t a bad bet.
This article was originally published at MLB Reports.
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