Last Place Update

Welcome to this week's Last Place Update. The 29-49 Chicago Cubs lead by a slim margin over the 30-50 San Diego Padres for Kings of the Cellar. The 30-48 Colorado Rockies are nipping at their heels only trailing both teams by a game. The AL worst Seattle Mariners passed the Minnesota Twins and are at 34-47.

   This week's honorable mention goes to the Los Angeles Dodgers. They are 2-8 in their last ten games and 7-15 since June 8.

   The defending champion Houston Astros are making a move. They're 32-47, only 2.5 games behind the Cubs.

   Since the last update, the Cubs and Padres have been doing some winning. The Cubs are 5-1 and the Padres are 4-3 since the last update. The 1962 New York Mets were 21-57 after 78 games. Chicago is seven games off that pace. A more modern team of futility, the 2003 Detroit Tigers, were 18-60 after 78 games. At this pace, those records of futility may be safe for another year, but that's why they play the games.

   Will one of the leaders make a move and threaten one of these records? Will Houston have a late season collapse and overtake both San Diego and Chicago for last place?

  Stay tuned and have a great day!!!

Last Place Update

September 29, 2011 – This is the final Last Place Update for the Major League Baseball season.  As stated in the previous update, the 56-106 Houston Astros are MLB’s Worst Champions.  They are the only team to have more than 100 losses this season.  The 63-99 Minnesota Twins are in second and the 67-95 Seattle Mariners are in third.

The honorable mention was supposed to go to Minnesota, but they lost that, too, because their collapse didn’t cost them playoff spots.  Instead, honorable mentions go out to the 90-72 Boston Red Sox and the 89-73 Atlanta Braves for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.  The Braves went 12-21 since August 23, losing their last five games. The Red Sox went 7-20 in September.  Both teams missed the playoffs by losing the last game of the season.  At least the Astros went 9-16 in September and 14-20 since August 23.

Houston’s 2011 record was a game behind the 2010 champion Pittsburgh Pirates record of 57-105.  It’s the worst finish since 2005, when the Kansas City Royals also went 56-106.

The Last Place Updates are a tongue-in-cheek look at the worst teams, but it's also a fact that it takes a special kind of athlete to earn the privilege of wearing a professional sports uniform, whether it's for a season or a long Hall of Fame career.  Only a tiny percent of people are good enough to wear the uniform of a professional sports team whether it's a world champion team or even the cellar dwellers.  Hats off to all the MLB teams for a good 2011 season!!

Congrats to the St. Louis Cardinals and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays for doing what Boston and Atlanta couldn’t do.  Good luck to all the teams in the playoffs.

Note: The Last Place Updates for the NFL’s Kings of the Cellar begin next week.

Last Place Update - September 25, 2011

September 25, 2011 – It’s official.  The 55-104 Houston Astros will be Major League Baseball’s Worst Team of the 2011 season.  They lead the 61-98 Minnesota Twins by 5.5 games and the 66-92 Seattle Mariners by 11 games.  The Twins sealed the second worst team by doing a classic collapse toward the end of the season, unlike the Astros.

The Boston Red Sox continue to crumble in the stretch.  Again, they’re 2-8 in their last ten games, losing their last four.  If their folding continues, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays may pass them for the wild card slot.  The Sox face the Yankees tonight and finish with a three game series at Baltimore.

Today’s honorable mention is the 71-87 Colorado Rockies.  They are 2-8 in their last ten games, but they closed the door on Houston in extra innings yesterday and spanking them today 19-3.

At least the Astros went down fighting.  They were 12-13 since August 28 and will finish the season in a three game series at home against the St. Louis Cardinals.

Note: The Last Place Updates for the NFL will start after Week 4. 

Last Place Update - September 14, 2011

It's been a while since I posted one of these.  Houston has owned the cellar for most of the season with a Secretariat style lead.   But now is a good time for an update...

Good news for the Pittsburgh Pirates.  It's official.  They will not repeat as MLB’s Worst Champions.  The bad news is even though they are at an improved record of 67-82, they will have another losing season.

This year’s leader, the 51-98 Houston Astros appears to be cruising to victory for the 2011 MLB’s Worst title.  They are 9 games ahead of the 59-88 Minnesota Twins and Baltimore Orioles, who are tied for second.  The 61-87 Seattle Mariners are a game and a half behind the Twins and Orioles.

Although Houston is in last place, Minnesota is playing worse than the Astros.  The Twins have lost nine out of their last ten games and have a run differential of a league worst -164.

An honorable mention goes out to the 86-62 Boston Red Sox.  They went from contenders to pretenders by losing eight out of their last ten games and eleven out of their last fifteen games.  They have a challenge with a series against the Yankees in New York and Tampa Bay Devil Rays at home, but they also have a four game series at home next Monday verses the lowly Orioles and a three game series the following Monday to finish off the season at Baltimore.

So the countdown has begun.  Houston only needs six more losses to clinch the title.  The Astros are on pace to finish the season at 55-107, two games better than was projected in the previous last place update.