Worst Teams over Multiple Years

[Hasbro]

Don Cherry was one of the hilites of the rockies in colorado when he was there coach.he could not even get them into the playoffs with Lanny McDonald.it was a bad team cant blame don cherry for that.

Scary thing is firing Cherry was probably a mistake given the situation. He was about the only thing that got fans in Big Mac and got the team publicity. But by then the team was already too far gone. They'd already started threatening to move to Jersey and the front office wasn't going to grow a brain anytime in the near future.

 

[Alan Jackson]

The Nordiques were pretty bad from, what, around 1988-1992 or so?

 

[Fish on The Sand]

But the Royals, while mismanaged, have absolutely zero chance to begin with because of baseball's absurd salary disparity. Teams like the Royals, Pirates, the old Expos, and other once-proud franchises have been forced to wallow in the basement for over a decade because Bud Selig and the Players Association are more than content to let salaries skyrocket and drive them out of business. Imagine if a team in the NHL today were spending only $10 million a year on player payroll. They'd be finished on October 5th. But you're right; they are terrible, it's just that they're basically terrible by default.

How come the A's and Twins are perennial contenders? The Indians seem to have no problem fielding a good team the last 4 seasons. None of them spend over 30 million a year on contracts. The cause is entirely mismanagement.

 

[Barrasso35]

Having said this, I think the Kansas City Royals all around crappiness deserves mention in this despite it being a hockey board. Their crappiness transcends sports. Anything that one could possibly do in baseball, they are consistantly among the worst at.

Its an absolute joke that teams like the Pirates, Royals, Brewers, and Devil Rays can maybe make the playoffs once every 15-20 years and wind up wandering the wilderness after that while the big dogs like the Yankees and Red Sox can pretty much punch their cards for the playoffs the moment the season starts.

I'll second that... Kansas City Royals are the worst major North American sports franchise of the last two decades. The Pirates aren't far behind.

As for the topic at hand, I would have to say the pre-Mario era Penguins. They only made the playoffs a couple times and were pretty much the LA Clippers of hockey. Thank God we picked the right year to tank

Yes... 1967-1984 Pittsburgh Penguins probably stunk the worst consistently. They had their good years and their good players but they were mostly really bad. Even after Mario it took them a few years to get going.

 

[Kyle McMahon]

How come the A's and Twins are perennial contenders? The Indians seem to have no problem fielding a good team the last 4 seasons. None of them spend over 30 million a year on contracts. The cause is entirely mismanagement.

Last year Oakland and Minnesota both spent over $60 million on player contracts, and routinely spend that much. That amount is still well below the league average, but both those clubs are exceptions to the general rule. Billy Beane (Oakland) is often regarded as the best GM in baseball, and Minnesota has the good fortune of having the league MVP playing for just a fraction of market value because he's still too young for free agency. Kansas City and Tampa Bay are at the opposite ends of the spectrum, they have low payrolls and are poorly managed. The best examples I can think of are Cincinnati and Milwaukee. They have below average payrolls and at least decent management. Neither has made the playoffs in a long time, though the Reds were close last year and the Brewers are leading their division by a solid margin this year. So every once in a while a blind squirel will find a nut; even the hapless Royals finished above .500 in 2003, but generally the small market teams in baseball are toast by May 1st.

 

[JaymzB]

Last year Oakland and Minnesota both spent over $60 million on player contracts, and routinely spend that much. That amount is still well below the league average, but both those clubs are exceptions to the general rule. Billy Beane (Oakland) is often regarded as the best GM in baseball, and Minnesota has the good fortune of having the league MVP playing for just a fraction of market value because he's still too young for free agency. Kansas City and Tampa Bay are at the opposite ends of the spectrum, they have low payrolls and are poorly managed. The best examples I can think of are Cincinnati and Milwaukee. They have below average payrolls and at least decent management. Neither has made the playoffs in a long time, though the Reds were close last year and the Brewers are leading their division by a solid margin this year. So every once in a while a blind squirel will find a nut; even the hapless Royals finished above .500 in 2003, but generally the small market teams in baseball are toast by May 1st.

Being a fan of the Expo's, one of the best franchises at developing players in all of baseball from the late 80's on...I cannot stand the way salary's are in the MLB, and will never be a fan of the sport again.