Our Kansas City Royals now hold a narrow lead in the MLB's grand race to see who will earn next year's top overall draft pick. The Baltimore Orioles, somehow, are still neck and neck with the Royals in this season's marathon of sadness. KC still has the league's worst offense and pitching staff statistically, so our Boys in Blue should inevitably win this race by the time they wrap up the 67 games left of a season that's so disappointing it's almost historically unprecedented. After 2014 and '15 brought Royals fans to such unbelievable heights, fan morale now reaches a staggering and unexpected low-point. Morbid examinations of how the franchise arrived at this lowly state came in abundance recently, so I'd like to instead focus on KC's only important race for the rest of this season.
The Chicago White Sox currently sit six games away from "first place", and every other club is at least 11.5 games out of the race for last, making them too "good" to realistically vie for the #1 pick. It's more baffling to see Baltimore with the MLB"s 3rd-worst team ERA and team OPS than it is to see the Royals struggle this much. The Orioles have a guy currently hitting .315 with 24 dingers, and they're somehow just as bad as our Royals at the All Star break. Their problem with the offense is, well, everyone else in the lineup. Mark Trumbo is the team's second-best bat, judging by his .761 OPS. There are currently 11 Orioles with over 100 at-bats and an OPS below .700. Five of those players have an OPS below .600. Only four teams have fewer walks than Baltimore (while KC has the fewest), and only one team has less total runs scored. That team, of course, is your Kansas City Royals.
O's fans also place a lot of the blame on their starting rotation, and there's good reason for that. Alex Cobb, David Hess and Chris Tillman have combined for 33 starts for Baltimore this year. None of them have an ERA below 6. Opposing batters are hitting .313 off Cobb and .365 off Tillman. Oh, and Cobb is the team's highest-paid pitcher. If that sounds familiar, let's remember that KC's highest paid pitcher has been so awful that local media suggests the Royals should shut down Ian Kennedy for the year (and I agree.) To be this bad at the All Star break, teams apparently need to have a lot in common. At least KC spent $10.5 million less to get here.
Doug LaCerte tweets about Royals stuff and occasionally about Kanye West @DLaC67. He is usually too cool to pay attention to his Facebook.
Sunday, July 15, 2018
Monday, April 16, 2018
KC Starts Season With Bad Weather, Worse Play
Only two teams in the MLB have a worse record than our 3-10 Kansas City Royals. That's quite the change from entering last season with that "one last ride" mentality - the heartfelt notion that the core could claw its way back to postseason play and make something memorable happen one more time. Fans knew the 2018 season would be different, and somewhat dismal in comparison. The start we're seeing has been disheartening, if not completely shocking.
The Royals began their season with a streak of awful weather and similarly awful on-the-field performance. A planned exhibition game on March 26 with our Triple-A affiliate Omaha Stormchasers never happened thanks to nasty weather. On the 29th, the Chicago White Sox tied an MLB record with six Opening Day home runs against KC at the Kauffman Stadium home opener. Our Royals then lost Game 2 of the season 4-3, despite entering the 8th inning with a two-run lead. Then, the final game of that series with Chicago was postponed due to cold weather. After heading to Michigan and losing the first two games with Detroit, the last game of that series was also postponed. So, because of cold weather and superfluous off-days, the Royals began their season playing two games in seven days, and only four games in 11 days. That is not baseball. That is basically the schedule of an NCAA basketball team during March Madness.
The Royals were surely thankful to play nine games straight, before yesterday's frigid weather in KC and today's damaged dome in Toronto led to two more postponed games. Did the Royals' get into a rhythm and begin playing good ball once they got to play a more baseball-like schedule? Nope! Their 1-3 record has now plummeted to 3-10, and they've lost five straight. Thanks to all the losing and missed games, KC fans will go more than a full week without seeing a win. It's still very early, and the reasons/excuses for KC's struggles are numerous, but hope for this team already seems hard to find.
The starting rotation stands out so far as the most surprising and uplifting element of the club. KC's combined ERA for starters ranks 6th in baseball, behind the St. Louis Cardinals and four 2017 playoff teams. Finding many other statistical bright spots isn't easy. Moose has been solid enough to perhaps gift KC with a worthwhile prospect via trade before the All Star Break. Uhh, what else? Alcides Escobar and Jorge Soler are tied for second on the team with five walks each. That's something, right?
The obvious silver lining here is that each loss makes the next Royals draft pick higher, so for fans of tanking, this bad start is actually good...if we can forget about the millions of dollars KC spent to not tank this season. If nothing else, take pleasure in the novelty of the differing fan philosophies in Kansas City right now. It sure does alter the fan-base when some fans now have opposed goals for their club. I already miss the times when consistently winning was realistic enough to keep all Royals fans hoping for the same outcome. It seems the new, darker era of baseball in KC will resist such simplicity.
Doug LaCerte writes about the Royals and the Chiefs while neglecting his Facebook page and Twitter feed @DLaC67 in similar fashion.
The Royals began their season with a streak of awful weather and similarly awful on-the-field performance. A planned exhibition game on March 26 with our Triple-A affiliate Omaha Stormchasers never happened thanks to nasty weather. On the 29th, the Chicago White Sox tied an MLB record with six Opening Day home runs against KC at the Kauffman Stadium home opener. Our Royals then lost Game 2 of the season 4-3, despite entering the 8th inning with a two-run lead. Then, the final game of that series with Chicago was postponed due to cold weather. After heading to Michigan and losing the first two games with Detroit, the last game of that series was also postponed. So, because of cold weather and superfluous off-days, the Royals began their season playing two games in seven days, and only four games in 11 days. That is not baseball. That is basically the schedule of an NCAA basketball team during March Madness.
The Royals were surely thankful to play nine games straight, before yesterday's frigid weather in KC and today's damaged dome in Toronto led to two more postponed games. Did the Royals' get into a rhythm and begin playing good ball once they got to play a more baseball-like schedule? Nope! Their 1-3 record has now plummeted to 3-10, and they've lost five straight. Thanks to all the losing and missed games, KC fans will go more than a full week without seeing a win. It's still very early, and the reasons/excuses for KC's struggles are numerous, but hope for this team already seems hard to find.
The starting rotation stands out so far as the most surprising and uplifting element of the club. KC's combined ERA for starters ranks 6th in baseball, behind the St. Louis Cardinals and four 2017 playoff teams. Finding many other statistical bright spots isn't easy. Moose has been solid enough to perhaps gift KC with a worthwhile prospect via trade before the All Star Break. Uhh, what else? Alcides Escobar and Jorge Soler are tied for second on the team with five walks each. That's something, right?
The obvious silver lining here is that each loss makes the next Royals draft pick higher, so for fans of tanking, this bad start is actually good...if we can forget about the millions of dollars KC spent to not tank this season. If nothing else, take pleasure in the novelty of the differing fan philosophies in Kansas City right now. It sure does alter the fan-base when some fans now have opposed goals for their club. I already miss the times when consistently winning was realistic enough to keep all Royals fans hoping for the same outcome. It seems the new, darker era of baseball in KC will resist such simplicity.
Doug LaCerte writes about the Royals and the Chiefs while neglecting his Facebook page and Twitter feed @DLaC67 in similar fashion.
Thursday, March 29, 2018
It's Opening Day, Let's Enjoy the Simple Things
We're hours away from the moment when our Kansas City Royals take the field at Kauffman Stadium and begin a new season. Baseball analysts that predict success for KC this year are tough to find, but that has nothing to do with the simple joy that all baseball fans feel swelling up in them on Opening Day. Do not forget how beautiful the crack of the bat sounds, and how it magically sounds just a little more special when it really matters. Do not let anything negative about this season take that unique pleasure away from you today.
Sorry. I just wanted to get sentimental before we talk about stuff like stats and numbers, especially since most of the stats and numbers are not uplifting this time around. Here is the most important and frightening one to remember right now: 142,000,000. That is the total amount of American dollars on contracts belonging to Alex Gordon and Ian Kennedy. Both now return from extremely disappointing seasons. Both of them are at least 33. If the young pieces come together to form something resembling a winning baseball team, all the pressure falls on Gordo and Kennedy. If both continue to underperform, they will ensure that this will be a losing season for the Royals.
If anyone can have a noteworthy spring, it's Ian Kennedy. I guess Gordon's abysmal spring is noteworthy in the same way a young child dropping an ice cream cone is noteworthy, in that it makes me and everyone who witnessed it very sad, but I mean noteworthy in a postiive way. After Kennedy posted the highest ERA of any full season in his career, he looked way more solid in the Cactus League than I would've imagined. His 18 innings pitched was a team high, as were his 23 strikeouts, and his seven walks allowed would suggest that his command is back for now. If he can bounce back, it means the Royals' starting rotation suddenly looks pretty okay instead of awful. "Pretty okay" isn't a compliment many people want to receive, but it's a significant improvement from "awful", right?
There is reason to believe the 33 year-old right-hander can be better than last year's 5.38 ERA. As I said, that was easily his worst year of full-time pitching. He pitched more innings and recorded an ERA below 4.3 in each of the three seasons prior to 2017. Let's not forget about the guy who recorded a 3.68 ERA while striking out 184 batters and eating up 195 and 2/3rds innings in 2016. There is nothing to make us assume Kennedy cannot be more like that guy and less like the guy we saw last year. Perhaps it really was his inability to recover from some nagging injuries that made last season such a struggle.
Kennedy's health is clearly worth taking note of, but he likely won't be with the team when KC reaches its next wave of perennial playoff contention. For that reason, the health of today's starter is even more of a factor. We need to see Danny Duffy looking sharp and preferably pitching comfortably into the later innings against the Chicago White Sox today. I'd rather see us blow a late lead after Duffy pitches well than win a thrilling extra-innings game in which he has a short outing and looks tight. If he reaches for that throwing shoulder for even a half-second, my heart's gonna jump a little. His healthy progression means more than anything in today's game, except for, of course, the sights and sounds of meaningful baseball returning in earnest to all our lives. Enjoy yourself today, and thanks for reading.
Doug LaCerte writes about different stuff, owns an often-neglected Facebook and occasionally tweets tweets @DLaC67.
Sorry. I just wanted to get sentimental before we talk about stuff like stats and numbers, especially since most of the stats and numbers are not uplifting this time around. Here is the most important and frightening one to remember right now: 142,000,000. That is the total amount of American dollars on contracts belonging to Alex Gordon and Ian Kennedy. Both now return from extremely disappointing seasons. Both of them are at least 33. If the young pieces come together to form something resembling a winning baseball team, all the pressure falls on Gordo and Kennedy. If both continue to underperform, they will ensure that this will be a losing season for the Royals.
If anyone can have a noteworthy spring, it's Ian Kennedy. I guess Gordon's abysmal spring is noteworthy in the same way a young child dropping an ice cream cone is noteworthy, in that it makes me and everyone who witnessed it very sad, but I mean noteworthy in a postiive way. After Kennedy posted the highest ERA of any full season in his career, he looked way more solid in the Cactus League than I would've imagined. His 18 innings pitched was a team high, as were his 23 strikeouts, and his seven walks allowed would suggest that his command is back for now. If he can bounce back, it means the Royals' starting rotation suddenly looks pretty okay instead of awful. "Pretty okay" isn't a compliment many people want to receive, but it's a significant improvement from "awful", right?
There is reason to believe the 33 year-old right-hander can be better than last year's 5.38 ERA. As I said, that was easily his worst year of full-time pitching. He pitched more innings and recorded an ERA below 4.3 in each of the three seasons prior to 2017. Let's not forget about the guy who recorded a 3.68 ERA while striking out 184 batters and eating up 195 and 2/3rds innings in 2016. There is nothing to make us assume Kennedy cannot be more like that guy and less like the guy we saw last year. Perhaps it really was his inability to recover from some nagging injuries that made last season such a struggle.
Kennedy's health is clearly worth taking note of, but he likely won't be with the team when KC reaches its next wave of perennial playoff contention. For that reason, the health of today's starter is even more of a factor. We need to see Danny Duffy looking sharp and preferably pitching comfortably into the later innings against the Chicago White Sox today. I'd rather see us blow a late lead after Duffy pitches well than win a thrilling extra-innings game in which he has a short outing and looks tight. If he reaches for that throwing shoulder for even a half-second, my heart's gonna jump a little. His healthy progression means more than anything in today's game, except for, of course, the sights and sounds of meaningful baseball returning in earnest to all our lives. Enjoy yourself today, and thanks for reading.
Doug LaCerte writes about different stuff, owns an often-neglected Facebook and occasionally tweets tweets @DLaC67.
Can KC Keep Up Offensively In 2018?
Team OPS is, for me, the most telling statistic of the 2017 season. Judging by the numbers, it is apparently crucial to have a team OPS in the top ten if you want to dream of reaching the postseason. Seemingly every legit team in 2017 had a huge team OPS, which shows us how the league average jumped .011 points last year to .750 - the highest mark since 2009.
The #1-ranked Houston Astros are currently the champs. The #2 Cleveland Indians won 102 games in record-breaking fashion. Aaron Judge anchors the lineup of the #3 New York Yankees - a team that has the next-best odds in the AL of winning the World Series this year, behind only Houston. The trend goes on and on. The nine highest team OPS totals from last year belonged to postseason teams. The only team who made the playoffs without a top-ten OPS was the Boston Red Sox, and they only won a single postseason game.
You can look back through the years and see this trend continue even further. 6 of the 10 highest team OPS totals from 2016 belonged to playoff squads. The 7th-highest team OPS belonged to Cleveland, who lost in the Fall Classic to the 3rd-ranked Chicago Cubs. Even your 2015 World Series champion Kansas City Royals barely avoided being an outlier by ranking 10th in this stat during that sweet, sweet season. KC had to fight through the two best lineups in the world that year just to pass the first two playoff rounds; Toronto and Houston ranked first and second respectively in 2015 team OPS.
This means nothing good for your 2018 Royals, unless you ascribe to the philosophy that losing is winning this year because it means acquiring higher draft picks. Alcides Escobar and Alex Gordon both had an OPS below .630 last season, and they'll presumably be permanent fixtures in the lineup again this season. That's assuming Gordo doesn't play so poorly that he's eventually benched, but seeing as he truly looks as hopeless as ever right now, that eventual benching is not out of the question.
After struggling in '16, Gordo hit well in the following spring training, finishing with an .884 OPS.
After struggling more in '17, Gordo looked lost in the following spring training, finishing with a .398 OPS.
That was in Surprise, Arizona, where hitters notoriously have the advantage. I guess a ground ball to the second baseman is an out in any ballpark, but you get my point. As for Alcides, well, that's just Alcides.
Don't let this bum you out, though. Hope for improvement from Jorge Soler and the steady emergence of Whit Merrifield should be enough to titillate true baseball fans this season. Also, once Jorge Bonifacio returns from suspension, a hot hand could force a shake-up in the outfield, especially if KC is still flirting with contention. That is not likely, judging by what the vast majority of experts will currently tell you, but it also isn't nearly as unfathomable as the Debbie Downers of the sports world want us to think it is. Your 2014 Royals reached Game 7 of the World Series with the 17th-best team OPS in baseball, and they lost to a team that ranked 14th.
Oh, and whenever you're feeling down about this team, think about Frank Schwindel. Can he start working on his defensive skills in left field, please?
Doug LaCerte has a Facebook page and will probably continue to rave about Schwindel @DLaC67.
The #1-ranked Houston Astros are currently the champs. The #2 Cleveland Indians won 102 games in record-breaking fashion. Aaron Judge anchors the lineup of the #3 New York Yankees - a team that has the next-best odds in the AL of winning the World Series this year, behind only Houston. The trend goes on and on. The nine highest team OPS totals from last year belonged to postseason teams. The only team who made the playoffs without a top-ten OPS was the Boston Red Sox, and they only won a single postseason game.
You can look back through the years and see this trend continue even further. 6 of the 10 highest team OPS totals from 2016 belonged to playoff squads. The 7th-highest team OPS belonged to Cleveland, who lost in the Fall Classic to the 3rd-ranked Chicago Cubs. Even your 2015 World Series champion Kansas City Royals barely avoided being an outlier by ranking 10th in this stat during that sweet, sweet season. KC had to fight through the two best lineups in the world that year just to pass the first two playoff rounds; Toronto and Houston ranked first and second respectively in 2015 team OPS.
This means nothing good for your 2018 Royals, unless you ascribe to the philosophy that losing is winning this year because it means acquiring higher draft picks. Alcides Escobar and Alex Gordon both had an OPS below .630 last season, and they'll presumably be permanent fixtures in the lineup again this season. That's assuming Gordo doesn't play so poorly that he's eventually benched, but seeing as he truly looks as hopeless as ever right now, that eventual benching is not out of the question.
After struggling in '16, Gordo hit well in the following spring training, finishing with an .884 OPS.
After struggling more in '17, Gordo looked lost in the following spring training, finishing with a .398 OPS.
That was in Surprise, Arizona, where hitters notoriously have the advantage. I guess a ground ball to the second baseman is an out in any ballpark, but you get my point. As for Alcides, well, that's just Alcides.
Don't let this bum you out, though. Hope for improvement from Jorge Soler and the steady emergence of Whit Merrifield should be enough to titillate true baseball fans this season. Also, once Jorge Bonifacio returns from suspension, a hot hand could force a shake-up in the outfield, especially if KC is still flirting with contention. That is not likely, judging by what the vast majority of experts will currently tell you, but it also isn't nearly as unfathomable as the Debbie Downers of the sports world want us to think it is. Your 2014 Royals reached Game 7 of the World Series with the 17th-best team OPS in baseball, and they lost to a team that ranked 14th.
Oh, and whenever you're feeling down about this team, think about Frank Schwindel. Can he start working on his defensive skills in left field, please?
Doug LaCerte has a Facebook page and will probably continue to rave about Schwindel @DLaC67.
Monday, March 5, 2018
Spring Training Battles For Starting Time Start in Surprise
We're already seven games into the Kansas City Royals' 2018 spring training schedule. That means we can already over-analyze some stats! The departure of KC's championship core means several starting jobs are up for grabs this season. Many intriguing competitions for these jobs are already in full swing.
The Royals need some young sluggers like Jorge Soler to exceed expectations if they want any hope to sniff the postseason in the next three years. A .211/.318/.737 slash line, a 1.055 OPS, 7 RBI and 7 K's through 19 at-bats is a proper exhibition of the best and worst of Soler. He desperately needs to reduce his strikeout rate, but KC desperately needs some power in their sub-par lineup. Much has been made about Soler's offseason improvements, but the jury's still out on if his balanced new batting stance will improve his ability to hit for contact. He still looks studly when he barrels the ball and clueless when he gets K'ed.
The early competition for middle infield is off to a strong start, as well. Adalberto Mondesi is hitting consistently in his admittedly tiny sample of 13 at-bats, but Whit Merrifield looks determined to take firm hold of the starting gig at second base. Whit's 1.588 OPS through 17 at-bats leads the team at this point. Merrifield's positional flexibility complicates the matter of who will start the season at second base, but his skills at other positions could help both him and Mondesi get consistent at-bats in 2018.
Another key area of change for KC this year is the bullpen. Several relievers vying for big-league jobs started spring training with impressive performances. Kevin McCarthy, Brian Flynn, Burch Smith and non-roster invitee Kevin Lenik all have unblemished ERA's after pitching at least four innings. It's still very, very early, but pitching well in early March is tough, so this still bodes well for KC.
Doug LaCerte writes about local sports, drinks wine and occasionally does Twitter stuff @DLaC67.
The Royals need some young sluggers like Jorge Soler to exceed expectations if they want any hope to sniff the postseason in the next three years. A .211/.318/.737 slash line, a 1.055 OPS, 7 RBI and 7 K's through 19 at-bats is a proper exhibition of the best and worst of Soler. He desperately needs to reduce his strikeout rate, but KC desperately needs some power in their sub-par lineup. Much has been made about Soler's offseason improvements, but the jury's still out on if his balanced new batting stance will improve his ability to hit for contact. He still looks studly when he barrels the ball and clueless when he gets K'ed.
The early competition for middle infield is off to a strong start, as well. Adalberto Mondesi is hitting consistently in his admittedly tiny sample of 13 at-bats, but Whit Merrifield looks determined to take firm hold of the starting gig at second base. Whit's 1.588 OPS through 17 at-bats leads the team at this point. Merrifield's positional flexibility complicates the matter of who will start the season at second base, but his skills at other positions could help both him and Mondesi get consistent at-bats in 2018.
Another key area of change for KC this year is the bullpen. Several relievers vying for big-league jobs started spring training with impressive performances. Kevin McCarthy, Brian Flynn, Burch Smith and non-roster invitee Kevin Lenik all have unblemished ERA's after pitching at least four innings. It's still very, very early, but pitching well in early March is tough, so this still bodes well for KC.
Doug LaCerte writes about local sports, drinks wine and occasionally does Twitter stuff @DLaC67.
Wednesday, September 13, 2017
KC Must See Minnesota Stumble
Has this first week of Kansas City Chiefs football made you forget about any hopes for postseason baseball in KC? You may be checking out a bit too early. Your Kansas City Royals still have a chance, but they have to play almost flawless baseball AND get help from two teams currently standing between them and a postseason berth. The Minnesota Twins lead the race now by two full games over the Angels and three games ahead of KC. Our odds for seeing October baseball at the K, according to FanGraphs, currently sits at 7.3%.
Minnesota has by far the best chance of breaking our hearts this September. Aside from currently leading the race, they also have a relatively easy end to their regular season schedule. 11 of their final 17 games come against teams with losing records. This includes today's final game with the San Diego Padres, a four-game series with the 68-77 Toronto Blue Jays and seven more against the 60-84 Detroit Tigers.
It's not all bad news for the Royals, however. KC will play three different three-game series against sub-.500 teams as well, and they expect Danny Duffy to return this weekend. The Royals' team batting average in September is also tied for the MLB's best. A few good days can still change everything, but KC needs the Twins to struggle to have any hopes of playing postseason baseball in 2017.
Minnesota has by far the best chance of breaking our hearts this September. Aside from currently leading the race, they also have a relatively easy end to their regular season schedule. 11 of their final 17 games come against teams with losing records. This includes today's final game with the San Diego Padres, a four-game series with the 68-77 Toronto Blue Jays and seven more against the 60-84 Detroit Tigers.
It's not all bad news for the Royals, however. KC will play three different three-game series against sub-.500 teams as well, and they expect Danny Duffy to return this weekend. The Royals' team batting average in September is also tied for the MLB's best. A few good days can still change everything, but KC needs the Twins to struggle to have any hopes of playing postseason baseball in 2017.
Sunday, February 19, 2017
KC Built Better in 2017
The sweet sounds of live baseball will again grace
our eardrums one week from today, when the Kansas
City Royals hit the airwaves for the first time in this much-anticipated
2017 season. Yeah, it's just Spring Training, and yeah, the Royals have a
mountain to climb to return to the postseason. The relative unimportance of
games in late February shouldn’t be our focus right now, though. Fans in KC
still have good reason to be excited about baseball this year, and even this
month.
I initially thought KC needed to improve offensively while also
keeping the pitching staff and defense “as good” in order to have any playoff
aspirations this year. A closer look at last year’s numbers, especially
pertaining to clubs who reached the postseason, indicated something very
different. You should nonetheless be excited by the realistic notion that your
Royals could improve their pitching staff and
lineup in 2017.
Kendrys Morales
is KC's only major loss to the batting order, and Royals management made moves
to shore up an offense that was one of the league's worst last season. Jorge Soler's potential should excite
you, and Brandon Moss posted an OPS
above .825 against right-handed pitching in four of the last five seasons. Mike Moustakas is back from a
season-ending injury, Alex Gordon is
bound to be better, legit competition for second base should improve
productivity overall, and a lot of KC’s core is still trending upward. It’s
easy to have hope for the offense, especially when the Royals don’t need a
great offense to have hope for a playoff run.
This year’s lineup doesn’t need to be incredible, but it must
avoid being awful. The 2015 World Series Champion Royals finished the regular
season with a .734 team OPS that ranked 10th in baseball. Last year, KC's team
OPS dropped to .712. Only four clubs in the MLB recorded a team OPS lower than
that last season, and none of those four teams won more than 71 games. It’s
worth noting that Baseball Prospectus currently projects this year’s Royals to
win 71 games.
The offense shouldn’t concern you, or at least it shouldn’t
concern you as much as starting pitching. If any statistic seemed to confirm a
team’s legitimacy last season, it was a club’s combined ERA for their starters.
The combined ERA for Royals starters last year was 4.67, which ranked 23rd in
baseball. Repeating this lack of success would make KC's chances at reaching
the playoffs this year frighteningly low. The clubs who ranked 1st
through 8th in combined starters' ERA's all reached the postseason
in 2016. The two teams who made the postseason with an unimpressive starters'
ERA - Baltimore and Texas - both ranked in the top ten league-wide in home
runs, teaming slugging percentage and OPS. For the record, KC ranked 27th in homers,
24th in slugging percentage and 26th in OPS.
While K-Mo was KC’s only major loss in the lineup, the
Royals had many more holes in their pitching staff. Wade Davis, Luke Hochevar,
and Dillon Gee are all gone after
combining for 205 and 2/3rds innings. Edinson
Volquez and the late, great Yordano Ventura
finished 2nd and 3rd in total innings pitched for KC last year, combining for
375 total innings. This list of pitchers who won’t throw a single pitch for the
Royals in 2017 looks daunting, but the success with which KC rebounds from
these losses could surprise a bunch of baseball people this season. With the help
of a more generous, thoughtful owner in David
Glass, Royals GM Dayton Moore
just recently built something that resembles a legit pitching staff.
Jason Hammel
threw for at least 166 innings and recorded an ERA no higher than 3.83 in each
of his last three seasons. The return of a healthy Jason Vargas, a crafty veteran lefty who can consistently eat up
innings, will also be huge for this team. Nate
Karns' health is another major factor. In his one full year as a big-league
starter, Karns pitched 147 innings and compiled a 3.67 ERA. That's about 40
less innings than KC got out of Ace or Steady Edi last year, but Karns' ERA in
that season was over 0.7 runs lower than that of Ventura's 2016 campaign.
And hey, do you guys remember Kyle Zimmer? You know, that guy with a mid-90’s fastball and a
curveball that already embarrasses big-league hitters? If all of Zim’s injury
history can be explained by thoracic outlet syndrome, which is a problem he
just surgically solved, then the Royals will add the fifth overall draft pick
from 2012 to a pitching staff already expected to improve. Add Travis Wood to the back of the rotation
or the heart of the bullpen, throw in veterans Seth Maness and Peter Moylan
on minor-league deals, and this pitching staff suddenly looks more-than-competent.
The losses from last year’s staff are significant to say the
least, but Royals management successfully rebounded from those losses. On
paper, our Royals are already better than they were in 2016. I’m looking
forward to providing the KC faithful with more evidence of that, and much more
Royals-related content, as the story of this season unfolds. Get ready, KC; we’re
only seven days away from live Royals baseball.
Doug LaCerte will spend much of the next seven days studying new player nicknames on Twitter @DLaC67 while completely neglecting his Facebook page.
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