A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
The Colorado Rockies are having a bad year - not just bad, record-breaking terrible. They're the worst team in modern Major League Baseball history at this point in the season. They have nine wins and 44 losses. Every other team has won at least 17 games. They're so bad that the Denver Post has a, quote, "futility tracker" up on their website. For more, we're joined by the Denver Post's longtime Rockies reporter Patrick Saunders. Patrick, why are things so stinky at Coors Field?
PATRICK SAUNDERS: Oh, my God, we have such a long list. They're one of the worst hitting teams, one of the worst pitching teams. They're young. They've had key injuries. My opinion? The front office is behind the times. You could go on and on, A, but there's a lot of reasons.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah. This team has had a lot of bad moments, and the season's very, very young. But tell us about the situation with the manager, Bud Black, who actually got a vote of confidence at one point.
SAUNDERS: Yeah, I talked to general manager Bill Schmidt one afternoon, Saturday afternoon, and he told me that there had been no decisions yet. That night, the Rockies went out and lost to the San Diego Padres 21 to nothing at home. The next day, they finally won a game, and then immediately after the game, they told us that they had fired Bud Black and the bench coach Mike Redmond. Timing was kind of weird, although we could kind of see it coming.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah. How is the team, I mean, the players themselves - I mean, they're the ones that are losing the games - how are they taking it?
SAUNDERS: Interesting you ask. I checked with a bunch of guys yesterday. They thought the move to fire Buddy was needed, as much as they loved him. I'm surprised at how good their attitude has been, considering how bad the team has been. Sure, they're frustrated. They're embarrassed. But they keep hanging in there, and I got to give them credit for it. I would be pulling my hair out by now.
MARTÍNEZ: So you would think, then, Patrick, that if a team is this bad that fans are not going - right? - they're just deciding not to spend their money on such a bad team. Is that the case in Denver?
SAUNDERS: You know, it's not. They're about middle of the pack in terms of overall attendance. Just had the Yankees in this weekend, so they had huge crowds. You got to remember, Coors Field is kind of a baseball paradise for people, and the Rockies draw from all over. People come into town and book their vacations and decide, oh, let's go to a Rockies game to see the Cubs or the Dodgers or the Yankees, whoever. It's kind of a quandary. The Rockies are terrible, but they always draw.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah, and Coors Field is a beautiful place to watch a baseball game. I've seen a lot of games at Coors Field. Any hope, though? That's the thing. I mean, you know, for baseball, it's a daily game. And sometimes you don't want to, you know, maybe be too sad over one loss. But is there any hope for the Rockies this year, next year, 10 years from now?
SAUNDERS: Not this year.
MARTÍNEZ: (Laughter).
SAUNDERS: You know, I crunched the numbers the other day, and they are pretty much going to clinch (laughter) their third consecutive 100-loss season. Everybody thought the timeline might be that 2026 would be the year the Rockies might be near 500, maybe even been a contender, but that looks a long way off now. They'll have lost their seventh consecutive losing season this year, and I can see No. 8 coming around the bend.
MARTÍNEZ: And it's like, the ownership, right? I mean, why don't they do anything? Got about 20 seconds. Can they do anything? Is it possible?
SAUNDERS: Yeah, they can. They could revamp the front office. They could bring in some outside blood to get a new perspective on things, but so far, they've been hesitant to do so.
MARTÍNEZ: Patrick Saunders is the Denver Post's Rockies reporter. Patrick, thanks a lot.
SAUNDERS: Oh, you're sure welcome. Thank you.
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