They might break the record, but as another poster alluded to, that new record won't last long. Strikeouts are trending upward and there's no telling where it will stop.
Maybe expansion Mets bad. Worse than expansion bad maybe. This 3 (4?) year stretch will be worse than the most recent expansion teams. The Marlins, Rockies, and Diamondbacks got good quickly and were producing winning teams by year 3. The Diamondbacks won the World Series in their 4th year and the Marlins won it in their 5th. It took the Rays longer but their win total was still in the 60's right off the bat. Expansion teams generally don't come out of the gate pinching pennies and don't have 75% of their roster making the minimum. Sometimes they get good young players, but they also get a few vets to help them get started, something we're not really interested in doing right now. The DBacks had Matt Williams and Devon White to go with Travis Lee. The Rockies had Andres Galaraga, Vinny Castilla, and Dante Bichette. The Marlins had younger guys (at the time) like Gary Sheffield and Jeff Conine. Looking back over those rosters, I'd say those expansion teams definitely had more talent than ours.
Depends on how much we break it by. The current record is a little over 1,500. It's very early, but we're on pace for 2,000. If that held, that wouldn't simply break the record, it would shatter it. While the trend is upward, it would be awhile before you saw that again.
To get there (2000 Ks), you'd have to have guys like Wallace and Carter strike out something like 400 times or so. If those guys continue at their current paces, they won't be on the team in May, so it's hard to fathom continuing anywhere close to the necessary pace to get to 2000.
Agreed this isn't expansion bad this is purposefully and intentionally bad. This is we want to make sure we will suck so even adding a decent FA will not happen bad. This team could very well break any and all futility records. Any player that shows the least bit of competence seems to be immediately shipped out. I wouldn't be surprised if Altuve is moved this year. In 25 years of watching sports the only thing that comes close to this kind of management is the Duncan tanking. All I know is in two years once Springer, Singleton, DDJ, Correa, and the rest of the young guys start making their way into the majors the pocketbook better open big time.
Altuve is young enough that he'll still be relatively young when we plan on competing again. He's probably in our future plans, maybe the only player who is, so he's the one I'd be most shocked if he got traded. Guys in their 30s and late 20s like Maxwell, Ankiel, Pena, Norris, Harrell, etc. If those guys are able to create trade value then you can pretty much kiss them goodbye. They'll be "over the hill" (some already are) by the time we're ready to compete and if they're not in our future plans, there's little reason to keep them. But somebody like Altuve will be (hopefully) entering his prime when we start actually trying to win again. And he's our best player. If there's one player who's most likely to still be on the roster a few years from now, it's probably Altuve.
This is all true, but then it will depend on who replaces those guys...while we have some very highly thought of prospects in the pipeline, i'm not sure any of those guys are close enough to replace the strikeout kings we now have
The record for losses is 120. That looks like a lock right now. The team OPS right now is .509. The next worst OPS in the AL is Seattle at .649. It's kind of freaky the way the veterans are already talking about how they can't give up. Like what? The season is 10 days old.
Actually Miami might challenge Houston for worst record. Aside from Giancarlo, they're truly awful Time to trade Norris and ensure maximum futility! Our draft choice is at stake!
Apparently the team is willing to bench a guy for swinging at the first pitch to insert a strikeout machine in Ankiel.
Just a passing observation, but all those worried about how tough the AL West would be. Well, its the weakest division in all of baseball right now. Go figure.