Stumbling to ignominy

It's been said that it's difficult for a baseball team to lose 100 games in a season. Try telling that to the Royals.

I’ve thought about this quote from Tommy Lasorda quite a bit this summer:

“No matter how good you are, you're going to lose one-third of your games. No matter how bad you are, you're going to win one-third of your games. It's the other third that makes the difference.”

It’s so simple and I do think it captures the essence of the 162-game schedule. Of course, Lasorda offered his thoughts on wins and losses before the Wild Card era, three divisions, interleague play and the idea of rebuilding became acceptable. There are a few more 100-win teams these days than 20-odd years ago. The same goes for the teams that lose 100.

It’s so basic: Every major league team is going to win 54 games. Every major league team is going to lose 54 games. It’s the other 54 games that separate the good teams from the bad. Simple. And generally true.

I have a question: What happens when a team loses all 54 of those “other third” ballgames?

The Royals stumbled (quite literally on Sunday) to their 100th loss of the season. It was the sixth time in franchise history they’ve hit the century mark for defeats. All of those seasons have come in the 21st century. Losing 100 games is dreadful no matter how you slice it. It’s probably worse now with the internet because of the accessibility of Baseball-Reference where, with just a couple clicks of a button, you can see the seasons where the Royals have lost 100 or more games. The problem with this season though is the Royals are at 100 losses and there are still three full weeks of games to play.

Yikes.

The franchise record for defeats in a season is 106, set back in 2005. That was a season after the team dropped 104 games and Tony Peña decided the best way to rally his charges was to take a shower while still in his uniform. It was a year later, 2006, when the Royals lost 100 games, that Buddy Bell unleashed his axiom on Royals fans that still resonates today.

“I never say it can’t get worse.”

Bell was responding to a question from a reporter asking if his team had hit rock bottom as they skidded to their 10th loss in a row.

Keep Bell’s response in mind as the Royals plumb new depths in the next couple of weeks. They will surely surpass the franchise record for defeats. They will, almost assuredly, finish with around 110 losses. Should that happen, they will have lost every single game of the middle third that Lasorda mentioned.

Royals general manager JJ Picollo has used the word “evaluation” to describe what the 2023 season has been about. I have another word that starts with the letter E to describe this year for the Royals.

Embarrassing.

Most 100-loss seasons since 1969:

Royals - 7
Tigers - 6
Mariners - 5
Padres - 5
Pirates - 5

Using the same group of losers above, let’s see how many World Series championships each franchise has since 1969:

Royals - 2
Tigers - 1
Mariners - 0
Padres - 0
Pirates - 2

I’m not listing that to prove some sort of point. I just looked at the teams above and thought, of that group, the Royals had the most recent success.

Of course, all those franchises have different circumstances surrounding the losses and wins (or almost wins.) The Mariners 100 loss seasons are spread over four decades, but they’ve never been to a World Series. Four of San Diego’s five 100-loss seasons came in the first six years of their existence, joining the National League at the same time the Royals became members of the AL in 1969. The Pirates’ two World Series Championships both came in the 1970s, meaning their wins are further in the past than the Royals’ pair of titles.

For the Royals to have posted all seven of their 100-loss seasons since 2002 is quite something. That they managed to win a World Series title in between two stretches of gross ineptitude is amazing.

Through the first 30-odd seasons of the Royals’ existence, it was truly a source of pride among those associated with the organization that the team had never plummeted to triple-digits in the loss column. The Padres and Expos, the two National League expansion teams in 1969, both lost 110 games in their inaugural season. The Pilots dropped 98. The Royals only lost 93.

After their first season, the Pilots were bought by a group led by used car salesman Bud Selig and moved to Milwaukee where they became the Brewers. They lost 100 games for the first time the same year as the Royals—2002. The Brewers have since staked out a competitive place in the NL Central. Since their nadir, they’ve been to the postseason six times and won their division on three occasions. The one thing they haven’t done is win a pennant.

It’s such an odd juxtaposition, these losses coming so soon after a World Series title. Triumphing in October is an extremely difficult task. A brilliant regular season is far from a guarantee of postseason success. Yet getting to the playoffs has never been easier. Once the Royals managed to turn things around, I don’t think anyone thought October baseball would be an annual event in Kansas City. I think the expectations were that the team would take the lessons from the lean years and refuse to repeat those times. Sure, there could be down years, but the organization should be competitive in some manner on the regular.

That the plummet from the apex was as quick as reaching baseball’s promised land is staggering. That they haven’t been able to pull out of the tailspin is disappointing as hell.

I’m not sure of the exact definition of chutzpah, but asking the public for millions of dollars to build a stadium when you’re playing to crowds of 10,000 in a facility that’s more than fine while losing 110 games certainly fits the bill.

As I contort myself into finding positives to take from this season, I’ve been slowly talking myself into tying all of this together into the Royals and Bobby Witt Jr. coming together for a substantial contract extension. It makes sense, doesn’t it? Owner John Sherman needs to build some sort of goodwill before his vision for a downtown stadium goes to the public for a vote. The product on the field certainly doesn’t generate that. The only guy on the team who has broken out, the only guy who has shown promise for the future has been Witt.

If Sherman is smart (I know), he’ll get his people together with Witt’s representation the minute the season ends in an attempt to keep the potential cornerstone of the franchise in Kansas City for the next 10 to 12 years. It will cost them, though. Trying to spend your way out from under losses while pining for a new home isn’t cheap.

It will be an incredibly important winter for the Royals. The offseason is always critical as the team attempts to improve going into the following season. Coming off a winter where the Royals’ big free agent splash was Jordan Lyles, the status quo isn’t going to work. The team can’t sit back and expect improvement from the current roster to pull them from the depths. They have to formulate a plan and that plan has to come to fruition.

I thought this Royals team would win somewhere in the neighborhood of 72 games. They’re going to win about 52.

Never say it can’t get worse.