Are the Texas rangers the worst major league franchise ever ?

Question

I think they are .. I think the franchise was born a calcified mummy in 1960 , then known as The Washington Senators.
The owners dress it up and paint different smiles each season
but the organization never seems to progress somehow .

The fans seem to be cool with some guy that hits 45 homers and swings at a down and away completely out of reach with two strikes . Even when everyone in the ball park knew what was coming . The fans think bashball is all there is to baseball .
Know what I would like to see ? The Rangers steal a win on a manufactured run once in a while . Seeing the fielders back each other up would be nice . I hate seeing a ball get by the centerfielder and BOTH of the other outfielders are standing in their camping spot scratchin their *** . I want to see guys be selective at the plateso to make the pitcher throw more pitches . The Rangers campaign slogan this year is ' You need some Baseball ! ". TELL me about it !

Answer 1

You present a good argument actually. The Rangers have consistently been the folly of the AL and it never seems to improve. I would not say they are the worst franchise though but it's almost hard to disagree with you on it. They never seem to aquire any franchise players. The last franchise player they had was Nolan Ryan and they only got him through a crappy PR move by the Astros. Since then, they have had Teixera and well, who the hell else? It's not like he is a household name. He is a good player but he cannot hang with Pujols or even a Carlos Lee type.

The Rangers organization always seems to let the good ones go and they never develop pitchers. That is their biggest problem and always has been. Their pitching is awful and until they develop some farm hands, it's not going to be good for them.

Answer 2

Texacore, you may have heard of (and conveniently forgotten) names like Juan Gonzalez (1996, 1998 AL MVP), Ivan Rodriguez (1999 AL MVP), Alex Rodriguez (2003 AL MVP), Rafael Palmeiro (amazing hitter with an unfortunate end to his career), and Will Clark. The Rangers have had plenty of hitting talent. The team's great failing, and I agree with you here, has been the pitching.

Who were the last starters developed by the Rangers who played more than five seasons? Kenny Rogers (1989) and Kevin Brown (1986), maybe Rick Helling (1994), and if you squint really hard, Roger Pavlik (1992) -- and they all came during Tom Grieve's GM tenure. That's some pretty slim pickin's for a baseball generation. Now, former GM Doug Melvin was a complete idiot at evaluating pitching, but he's long gone, John Hart was no better, Grady Fuson never got a chance, and Jon Daniels hasn't yet shown himself to be better at this key aspect of the GM position. I have hope Daniels can do better -- it'd be hard to do worse -- but that's a hope based on nothing tangible. The point, it's been a long time since there was a Rangers GM who knew anything about the players who don't swing a bat. I'm not hoping for a league ERA title, just a competitive staff. That really shouldn't be so much to ask, and it's not just the home park that makes them look bad. There have been worse stretches for other teams, but right now the only reason the Rangers don't have the longest World Series appearance drought is because the team was founded (in DC) in 1961; only the Cubs have been sitting home longer.

I suppose Melvin deserves a smidgen of credit for finding Jeff Zimmerman, despite his arm later falling off, but I expect that was little more than "blind pigs and truffles" type luck on Melvin's part.

Answer 3

It is hard to call the Texas Rangers the worst franchise ever. I remember the Rangers having some very competitve teams in the mid 90's; they just could never get past the New York Yankees, who were at the height of their power at that time.

My vote for worst franchise is the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Granted this is only their 10th year, but they have never been remotely competitive. There has not even been a spark to indicate that this team may ever do something.

Note: Just to clarify Chad K's response, Washington was awarded an expansion franchise in 1962 when the original Senators were moved to Minnesota to become the Twins. This new franchise was also named the Washington Senators and they moved to Texas in 1972.

Answer 4

No and here is why look at the players they have produced Ivan Rodriguez Juan Gonzalez, if they were the worst franchise ever great players such as soriano and Arod would have never gone there to begin with.

I think the expos in my mind i hate to say it because i grew up watching the harrisburg senators minor legue baseball and loved the guys like micheal barrett and vlad and milton bradley etc.

But what went on in montreal was ridiculous and was not fair to the fans up there. I just think that the mlb let them go to waste and that is why they ended up in washington.

Just think if the 95 strike would have never happened the expos just might still be a team as they posted the best record in baseabll of 70 -41 at the strike.

So with a bit of bad luck and poor contribution from the league the fromer expos are the worst as of now but if the drays do not start winning with these great young players then we have a whole new story.

Answer 5

The owner of the Washington Senators moved the team to Minnesota in 1960. An expansion team was awarded to Washington D.C later in 1960. In 1971 the Senators moved to Arlington, TX and became the Rangers.

The Devil Rays can't be viewed as the worst franchise. Only 10 years old. Yes the diamondbacks were successful right away, but are in very large debt because of it. The Devil Rays have alot of talent on offense, just need to get some pitching. They will be successful in another 3-4 years. if they keep their young talent and add pitching.

The Expos were terrible. Had alot of big name players, but got rid of them before they made anything of themselves. We'll see what the Nationals do once their new stadium is built. Its not looking to good for them

Answer 6

I want to straighten Corey out on his argument. Your reasoning for Rangers not being the worst team because who they had, but if you use the same argument and say Expos are, you are over looking, Pedro, Vlad, Gary Carter, Dawson, Larry Walker, Randy Johnson. So that point is dead wrong by your own accord.
I would say Rangers as a team over the course of history would be up there. Cubs have to be up there too. Not since 1908 have they won it all, and that was when the league had a lot less teams.

Answer 7

To me, I don't believe any team can be called the worse franchise in history until they have played longer since the early days of the game. Texas is not one of the worst teams to be expanded. You still have Tampa Bay, who has been close to being exterminated twice, you have the Seattle Mariners, who have made the playoffs less than Texas. You also have the Expos/Nationals. They were so bad that they left Canada to make a third DC team in history. To me, they are the worse expansion era franchise.

The Phillies are closing in on becoming the first MLB team to ever lose 1000 overall games. They are the worse of the original teams.

Answer 8

i have to say the expos. born in 1969, died in just over 30 years (yes i know that they r the washington nationals now and thats my point exactly). gave up all-stars and future HOFs vlad guerrero and pedro martinez, as well as prominent players in larry walker, moises alou, marquis grissom and john wetteland. their only two good seasons were in 1981 when they won the NL east, and 1994, when they were on pace to win 105 games they were 74-40 in august when the season was cut short due to the strike). after the strike they did not resign any of those big names above, as instructed by owner claude brochu and went on to finish the next full season with almost 100 losses. the team had the worst average attendance of any ball club the last 5 years and was forced to play games in Puerto Rico to make up revenue. the team was finally re-located to washington d.c. in 2005, which plays against any more pushes to bring baseball to canada. the expos are by far the worst major league franchise ever

Answer 9

No, the D-rays without a doubt. Wash plays small ball and they have won the last 2 games by the scores of 14-1 and 14-4

Answer 10

Cubs BQ: Milton Bradley