A few months worth of thoughts from this Royals fan

What’s it been, like nine months or so? An entire season and then some, right? So in 2023 I wrote one article. One. That is it. Ah, the days of me writing multiple pieces in a week are gone and I’m not sure how I feel about that. On one hand, I wish I wrote more and was able to go deeper on some of the thoughts I have, whether it’s the Royals or baseball in general. On the other, I just don’t have to toss my thoughts out there anymore and am fine with just being a fan who avoids social media more and more every day.

I will say that despite the Kansas City Royals being a very bad baseball team in 2023 (other synonyms for bad: awful, lame, terrible, disastrous and brutal, just to name a few) I didn’t mind watching them. It was a weird feeling knowing that Jordan Lyles was going to hop on the mound, give up 3-5 home runs, completely put the team in the tank and think ‘Well, he can’t start tomorrow, right?’. It was almost like I had this weird sense of serenity when watching the Royals since they were finally free of a false leader with a superiority complex. The team had chosen a new direction, one that felt right, that sounded right and while it looked wonky, it appeared to be a path that would lead to success.

Yes, I believe in the current path of the organization. I approve of the coaching hires, the pitching development program in the minors and I definitely think Matt Quatraro was a great hire. I still question J.J. Picollo as the Royals GM, although that has waned a bit this offseason. I definitely feel like the scouting department needs a major overhaul, but that’s an article for another time (let’s say two years from now? That work?). And I’m totally not a fan of the snake oil salesman known as the owner, John Sherman. But overall, the Royals have a solid foundation and there is hope in Kansas City again.

Credit: Elias Valverde II / The Dallas Morning News

But instead today I thought I would throw out a few questions I get asked a lot. Yes, people still ask me about the Royals. Look, I sometimes wonder why they do but then I remember that while you rarely see me post here, I still religiously follow the team. I’m still ‘deep in the weeds’. I just don’t post my thoughts that often. So for that reason, I get Royals questions all the time. So today I will answer some of them and maybe I can go back to being a hermit.

Wow! The Royals spent money this offseason. Are they going to be contenders in 2024?

Yes, John Sherman, a man worth over a billion dollars, remembered that he had money he could spend on his baseball team and actually decided to do just that. If we are being honest, Picollo has assembled a nice crop of new players for Kansas City to trot out in 2024, acquiring the likes of Michael Wacha, Seth Lugo, Chris Stratton, Will Smith (no, the other Will Smith) and Mike Trout doppelganger Hunter Renfroe. The team needed to strengthen their pitching staff and from the looks of it they have done just that. With the way it looks right now, Jordan Lyles is a fifth starter at best (AT BEST). We all know Sherman spent the money to convince taxpayers to help pay for a new stadium (more on that later), but he did finally open his checkbook and the results aren’t bad.

Is it enough to make the Royals contenders. Oh boy, that feels like a loaded question. On paper it appears the team is improved but the question becomes how much? If the new acquisitions play on par with their 2023 numbers, and if the offense performs more like they did in the second half of last season and if a handful of players improve on their performance of last year and if Bobby Witt Jr. continues to prove he is ‘Bobby Baseball’, this team has a chance to contend. That sure is a lot of if’s. Look, I would love for the Royals to surprise everyone and take over the American League Central in 2024 and prove my theory of last winter, which was if any team in the division spent even a decent amount of money (any of them), the AL Central could be theirs for the taking.

But do I believe the Royals will improve their win total by 30+ games or even 20+? I’m not counting on it. If the team had some players ready in the farm system to produce and it looked like they were 1-3 players away, maybe I could believe more. But this team had so many holes last season and just expecting a lot of players performances to improve feels foolhardy. I think they will be better, but I’m talking like 15-20 games better at most. That still puts them under .500 and not a contender in the American League. I think at this point we need to take the small wins and be thankful for them. This is an organization that hasn’t had a winning season since 2015, which is getting very close to ten years ago now. I will take whatever little victories I can at this point.

Also, the team should have signed Shohei Ohtani this offseason. What a whiff.

Should the Royals trade Salvador Perez?

Ah, the battle between the heart and the mind. That is essentially what a trade of Salvador Perez would be. I think 3/4 of us could agree that we wouldn’t want Salvy to be traded and we would even prefer he only wear royal blue for the rest of his career. But baseball is a business and sometimes you have to make moves that aren’t popular but are better in the long-term.

From a purely numbers perspective it would make sense to trade Perez. His core numbers have dropped the last two years and the abuse he has taken behind the plate is showing signs of wear and tear. His best seasons are behind him and if we are being really honest with ourselves, Salvy should be the primary DH at this point. He’s entering his age 34 season and regression has already begun.

But would the Royals get true value for him? Probably not what they want. No team is going to value Perez the way Kansas City would. Their expectations of any trade for him are going to be higher than they should be. The lone exception to that might be the White Sox, who are trying to recreate that Kansas City feel and have people (Grifol, Tosar, Getz,etc.) who probably still see him as the glue of whatever lineup he is in. Chicago has the 16th best farm system in baseball and have done a decent job of restocking their system through trades and might continue to if Dylan Cease is dealt. But I’m not sure they have what Kansas City is looking for, even if Picollo was deathly serious about making a deal.

Toss in how Royals ownership wants the stadium bill on the April ballot and you have a recipe for Salvy not going anywhere. In the long run it’s probably the best, as the team has alienated their fanbase enough over the last couple seasons and a trade of your most popular star would probably not help. Unless something major happens, Salvy ain’t going anywhere.

Where is that Bobby Witt, Jr. extension?

We could have asked this question last winter. Actually, I think most of us were asking this question last winter. While guys like Julio Rodriguez and Corbin Carroll where getting locked in for an extended period, there was nothing when it came to Bobby. While he didn’t have a blow away rookie campaign in 2022, he did enough to make you think Kansas City should get a deal done before it cost them too much.

Fast forward a year and Witt had a breakout second half where he looked like one of the top 20 players in the game. His value skyrocketed and now any extension is going to cost the Royals. The thing is, the longer this goes on, the more expensive it is going to get. There are no guarantees in baseball but if I had to guess, BWJ is going to be a perennial All-Star for the next 10 years and will probably be talked about for future MVP awards. Before you say it, yes, he could be that good; the kid is only 23.

So what are the Royals waiting for? For all we know, the organization has tried to lock him up and he isn’t interested at the moment. Although Bobby has said there have been talks “here and there”, whatever that means. Unless someone just comes out and says it, we don’t know that they haven’t been working on a deal. It wouldn’t shock me if they announced a long-term deal right before a certain stadium bill could be voted on in April (if you know what I’m saying). Only the Royals, Bobby and his agent know where they stand on this issue and no one is talking

What I do know is that as a fan I would like Bobby to stay with the team as long as possible and an extension would do the trick. The fear is that the Royals will wait too long and by the time they make a concerted effort, Witt has priced himself out of the team’s plans. If you are an old enough Royals fan, you remember Johnny Damon and Carlos Beltran and Jermaine Dye all price themselves out of the Royals market. I think we can all agree we don’t want to see a repeat of that with Bobby.

How do you feel about the Royals wanting a new stadium?

For the sake of you, the reader, I’m going to try and keep this short. I have spent the last year ranting about this to my family and friends and I don’t need to put anyone else through that. This is a very passionate topic for me and because of that I have a lot of opinions about it. So…here we go.

Do I want a new stadium? No.

Do I feel the Royals need a new stadium? No.

Does it feel dirty how Royals ownership has gone about trying to convince the fans they need a new stadium? Yes.

Do I feel taxpayers should help pay for a new a stadium or any stadium at all? Hell no.

Is this really all about real estate and John Sherman making bank off of the area around the stadium? God yes.

Look, if I felt the Royals needed a new stadium and this made sense I would be for it. Nothing lasts forever, especially baseball stadiums. But that is not what is going on here and most of us can see that. John Sherman wants to make money off of the real estate and a new stadium is how he gets that. This is a rich man trying to get richer. It has nothing to do with baseball and everything to do with lining Sherman’s pockets.

The Royals are bound and determined to get a new stadium. They aren’t for sure where or when, but they will get their stadium. There is even the chance that voters vote down the bill and the team looks to move to a different city. Yes, there is an outside chance Kansas City could lose the team and someplace like Nashville could get the Royals. That is obviously the worst case scenario, but it would be foolish to ignore that possibility.

I don’t like this and I never have but I realize I have zero say in this and they are going to do whatever they want to do. I don’t believe any taxpayer should pay for a sports stadium when these teams are owned by millionaires and billionaires; you know, people who can afford these pricey buildings. To have taxpayers help pay, when they will receive none of the profit from the stadium, sure does feel like a kick in the groin. The biggest con in sports is convincing fans to help pay for their stadiums and over the years that con has appeared to work. I just hope Kansas City fans don’t fall for it.

I think that is about all I’m going to say about it. I love ‘The K’ and would like for it to last as long as possible but that appears to be me asking for too much. I will say that if there are things on your bucket list that you would like to see at Kauffman Stadium, I would suggest start marking those wants and needs off soon. If you don’t, you might turn around and realize you can’t mark them off anymore because the stadium isn’t there.

Why do you hardly write anymore?

Technically this question isn’t Royals related, but I do get asked every now and then why I rarely write anymore. I’m sometimes thrown back by this, since there are a ton of people who write about baseball and there are so many opinions out there that the idea of losing just one lone voice doesn’t feel like a big issue. I appreciate everyone who reads my stuff but I’m just one guy who has loved the Royals since I was a little kid. Remember, I’m a big picture kinda guy.

The main reason that I don’t write very much is I just don’t have the time. My schedule has gradually been getting busier and busier since about 2018 and I can’t seem to slow it down. I used to be able to write at work late at night, since I would have an hour or two I could use for myself. I used to also have time to myself in general, which I rarely get anymore. But the real culprit is work.

Starting in 2018, I was pretty much splitting my time at work between days and nights. Rather than just have one consistent shift, my schedule bounced around a lot because I was the guy who filled in for everyone. When the pandemic happened in 2020, I was furloughed, which you would think meant I would have more time. But the honesty of the situation was that most people were at home, including my wife. It became harder for me to focus when writing and with other people around it became almost impossible.

Then in early 2021 I became the midday guy. We already were short on people and now even more was going to be asked of me. Add in our program director leaving in July of that year and work just got a lot more complicated. Ever since then, I am mentally drained by the time I get home and don’t really have the energy to churn out a piece on why Jordan Lyles is a great batting practice pitcher.

I’ve also been okay with just being a fan. Look, I love baseball and I love writing about it but I’m never going to make a living off of this. It was always just a fun thing to do so I could talk baseball. I still have all these thoughts and opinions about the sport but I just don’t feel anymore like I have to put them out into the world.

I’ve said this the last few years but I just don’t know how much time I will devote to this blog moving forward. I wrote one article last year and this is already tying my 2023 total. I would like to shoot for once a month but I know there are periods where my schedule is just super hectic. If you give me the option of watching a baseball game or writing about it, I’m probably going to just watch it. So I appreciate everyone who reads this and I hope that this isn’t my only post for the year: Fingers crossed.

So there you go, a few thoughts I have on our Kansas City Royals. 2023 was a rough year for our boys in blue but it looks like this new year could bring them a few more wins. More than anything, I hope all the bumps in the road over the last 4 years hasn’t killed your interest in this team and I hope you at least give them a chance in 2024.

Mary Tyler Moore once said “Take chances, make mistakes. That’s how you grow.” Wise words but I tend to lean more toward the great philosopher Homer Simpson when he said “Don’t worry son, everyone makes mistakes. Yours is just public and expensive”. To me that sums up the Royals of the last couple seasons. Let’s hope there are fewer mistakes in the new season.

January 12, 2024 2

A Positive Direction For the Royals

You might of heard that the Kansas City Royals made some sweeping changes across their coaching staff this past winter. Matt Quatraro is the new manager. Paul Hoover is his right hand man in the role of bench coach. Brian Sweeney is the new pitching coach while Zach Bove is the assistant pitching coach. The team even added Jose Alguacil as the infield coach and Mitch Stetter was bumped up to bullpen coach. As David Bowie use to sing about, it’s all about ch-ch-ch-ch-changes.

It’s hard not to be on board with a complete restructure for this organization. Last season started out with hope that the Royals could start making some big steps forward with all their drafted young talent and instead their season took a giant nosedive into a new level of ineptitude. The few times I wrote last year, it was about how bad this team was and how they needed to move in a new direction. To be honest with you, for the first team in a very, very long time, I checked out.

Why did I check out? For many reasons but the main one was that it was painfully obvious the team needed to try something different and Mike Matheny, Cal Eldred and even Dayton Moore weren’t getting the job done. So what did the front office do to fix things? Nothing. Sure, they shuffled the hitting coach out of town but that wasn’t even the biggest area of worry for the team and felt like a change to appease fans like me into thinking they were doing something, anything. But their lack of action to fix the other areas of the team pushed me away. If they didn’t care to be better, I didn’t care whether I gave the team my time. Simple as that.

But a new day is now here and yes, I am back in the fold. I was never going to fully go away; did you forget I bleed royal blue? I even broke down and give Bally Sports money every month despite the fact I think the price for their app is ridiculous (another article for another time, am I right?). So just like many other Royals fans I have been watching the team and many people around me have said ‘The Royals are 4-9. It’s the same ol’ team. Shuffle the deck, but they always lose’. And while yes, they technically do have a losing record and will more than likely have a losing record when all 162 games have been played this season, this is not the same old Royals. In fact I would argue that we can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Let’s start with the hitting. On the surface, the offense has been grim. Next to last in the league in runs scored, wOBA, wRC+ and on-base percentage and 13th in home runs. None of that is a positive that can be spun any other way than just the Royals aren’t getting on base enough and aren’t scoring enough runs. Add in a paltry walk rate and a high strike out percentage and you can see why they are 4-9. But as I’m sure you have seen, there are some positives with the Royals hitters.

Their line drive rate and hard hit rate are in the middle of the pack and their ground ball rate is in the bottom fifth of the league. But they are 4th in fly ball rate which means they are putting the ball in the air much more than on the ground, and in today’s world of baseball that is a positive. Just to give you an idea, the Tampa Bay Rays are the hottest team in baseball and are leading the AL in hard hit rate and fly ball rate while posting the lowest ground ball rate in the league. The Rays are the model that Kansas City’s coaching staff is following, so it only makes sense that they are doing things very similar to them.

Want some more? The Royals have the 4th highest exit velocity in the league, 6th in barrel percentage and second in hard hit percentage according to Statcast. So when the Royals hit the ball, they are hitting the ball hard and squaring up the ball. They’ve obviously run into some bad luck, as evidence by the lowest BABIP in the league. If you know anything about batting average on balls in play, you know that the likelihood that those numbers continue to stay at the bottom are slim. If you are doing everything right when it comes to barrels and hitting the ball hard, the ball WILL eventually find a hole and WILL get you on base. What I’m saying is that the futility we have seen so far won’t last all season.

One more little nugget I want to add to the offense. This is a very young team and it’s very evident with the lineup. On a nightly basis, there is a good chance that at least five or more members of the lineup are in their first or second year in the majors. With a young team, you are going to see struggles, especially as they adjust to being a big leaguer and dealing with stressful situations. To say this will probably be a streaky offense throughout 2023 is probably a safe assumption. Yes, there is a ton of upside with the Royals bats, but realize with that comes the normal struggles and slumps that almost every young player has dealt with. Just ask George Brett.

But what about the pitching? Look, we all are laser focused on the pitching considering how bad it has been for years. Last year, Kansas City’s pitching was last in ERA, FIP, K%, BB%, WHIP, next to last in pitching WAR and 13th in win probability. To say we all wanted Cal Eldred’s head on a stick is an understatement and looking back now it blows my mind that he was given five years to be a pitching coach when it was very obvious he was not qualified for the job. Still not sold on why Dayton Moore was fired? Look at his resistance to let Eldred go as the biggest sign that he was not making good decisions to help the organization move forward.

To watch the Royals pitchers this year, it is the biggest breath of fresh air this organization has had in years. It’s early (and because of that, we’ll throw out the line about small sample size that is a favorite) but so far in 2023, the Royals are 9th in ERA, FIP, K%, WAR, 6th lowest BB%, 8th in WHIP and 7th in win probability. To go from pretty much the worst pitching staff in the league to middle of the pack shows how much of an impact Sweeney and Bove have had on the pitchers in a short amount of time and to me is a sign that they were the right choices for the job.

This is where I point out that this is pretty much the same pitching staff that the Royals had last year and the numbers are trending upward. Brad Keller has a new curveball that has turned him into a moderate strike out pitcher. Kris Bubic is throwing a new slider (which he was actually using in Spring Training back in 2022 but never used it in a regular season game) and looks like a completely different pitcher. Aroldis Chapman’s velocity has skewed down for years now and all of a sudden he is throwing 102-103 MPH again. Outside of Dylan Coleman, almost every Royals pitcher has either improved on last year or are basically where they were last year when it comes to their development.

This is not to say there won’t be bumps in the road. We still haven’t seen Daniel Lynch this season and no one is guaranteed an A+ outing every time they go out there. But it is impressive to see the progress from the pitching staff in such a short amount of time. Once again, it makes you wonder how much farther along this team would be if only the front office had addressed these issues sooner rather than later. But in the here and now, it appears as if the Royals are in an upward trajectory that is bringing a lot of us hope. Speaking of:

This was the kind of win that makes you want to believe that the Royals are – finally – in competent hands, and that the Royals are – finally – headed in the right direction.

It's one game. But it's also the blueprint.
— Rany Jazayerli (@jazayerli) April 13, 2023

I read this tweet on Wednesday night from the great Rany (and when it comes to Royals writers that are on a pedestal for me, Rany & Craig Brown are as good as it gets) and that was exactly how I felt. The entire first week of the season I kept saying to my wife that it felt like a completely different team and organization but I wasn’t for sure if some of that wasn’t because I skipped out on last season. I thought it might be a byproduct of my absence in 2022 that was giving me hope I hadn’t had with this team in years.

But I really do think the team is headed in the right direction. I do feel like the proper decisions are being made and that thought and logic are being used on a daily basis. This isn’t to say things are always going to be rainbows and lollipops; I still think this team won’t reach .500 this year and there will be struggles that will go on longer than we want. But I see so much positive that as long as they keep on this road and adjust when necessary, things will be fine.

I was watching an interview with the new Royals skipper earlier this week and Q’s demeanor to me is one of the biggest changes that was necessary for this team to move forward:

Matt Quatraro on extra-innings loss to Rangers: "It was a lot of good things … battled really hard late in the game … tying it up in the ninth … what a great play from Bobby there in the ninth. That's a huge out, that ball easily falls in almost all the time." #Royals pic.twitter.com/4mwzcxIRDi
— Bally Sports Kansas City (@BallySportsKC) April 12, 2023

The positives. Quatraro is so laid back and I even heard him the other day make the comment to the effect that “we lost today but we’ll just go out and try to win tomorrow”. When Matheny was in the dugout, it always felt like the team was anxious and that he was too intense for what this younger Kansas City team needed. The relaxed vibe has appeared to do wonders for their psyche and given them the opportunity to put losses in the rearview mirror quicker than they did last year. Q feels like the polar opposite of Matheny and shows he is the right man for where the Royals are at right now.

Still not sold? Let me put it another way for you. Progress for a baseball team isn’t always a win-loss situation. Sometimes, even in losses, the advancement is what you learn and takeaway from a loss and how you adjust from it. Over the last few years, it felt like when the Royals would have big losing streaks, it was because they weren’t learning anything from what they were doing incorrectly. To put it another way, they kept making the same mistakes and expecting different results. That is the definition of insanity.

This year’s team? They are learning and making changes as they go. It sometimes will result in another loss, sometimes they will eke out a win. But learning is the key. The best part is the coaching staff is putting them in the best situation to win and giving them the tools they need. The last few years it felt like there were always more questions than answers. Now, there are answers to most of the questions. Folks, this a different Royals team than what you remember. It might not happen this year, but I firmly believe soon this will be a winning ballclub. And when that happens, I hope you are there for the ride. If anything, they are giving us hope and sometimes that is all we need.

April 14, 2023 0

The Royals need to make changes…now

Here we are, almost halfway through June and the Kansas City Royals are once again one of the worst teams in baseball. They are 20-39 as of June 12, last in the American League Central and tied with the Oakland A’s for the worst winning percentage in the American League. So what has the Kansas City front office done?

Nothing.

Sure, they fired hitting coach Terry Bradshaw back on May 16 and since then the offense has shown improvement. The Royals needed to make a change and it was obvious after 4+ years that Bradshaw wasn’t the solution. But if you have followed the Royals in any manner then you know that the pitching is a major concern and an area where a lot of young arms need the proper guidance to develop into not only major league starters but consistent major league arms. In fact the numbers tell a very sobering story about Kansas City’s pitching:

One stat in this column…

Seven Royals pitchers have arrived from Omaha at some point during this season.

First outing after the call-up: 0.46 ERA (1 ER in 19.2 IP)
Second outing: 3.44 ERA (7 ER in 18/1 IP)
Third outing and beyond: 5.71 ERA (33 ER in 52 IP)
— Sam McDowell (@SamMcDowell11) June 9, 2022

The YouTube broadcast is not holding back pic.twitter.com/reW4r7I49g
— Mike Petriello (@mike_petriello) June 8, 2022

Relief Pitcher ERA 2022 Season

1. Astros – 2.66
2. Tigers – 2.83
3. Rays – 2.92
4. Yankees – 3.08
5. Guardians – 3.09
—
26. Nationals – 4.49
27. D-Backs – 4.58
28. Royals – 4.81
29. Reds – 4.91
30 Rockies – 5.21#LevelUp | #Rockies
— Inside Edge (@IE_MLB) June 7, 2022

This is just a taste. Royals starters have 1.1 fWAR this season, which is last in the American League and next to last to the Washington Nationals in baseball. Kansas City relievers have 0.1 fWAR, good enough to place them next to last in the league. And there is more:

Royals preach first pitch strike (supposedly)

Since 2007 – 29th in MLB
Since 2013 – 25th in MLB
Since 2018 – 29th in MLB

Dave Eiland’s last year in 2017 they were 5th best in MLB. They hired Cal Eldred:

2018 – 19th
2019 – 22nd
2020 – 27th
2021 – 30th
2022 – 30th

Hmmmm 🤔
— Jason Anderson (@J810Anderson) June 7, 2022

The Royals pitching staff is on pace to be one of the worst in MLB history.

ERA- compares ERAs to the league average ERA in their respective seasons. So 100 is average. 99 is 1% BETTER than avg.

KC’s team ERA- is 134. That is THE WORST team ERA- in any season since 1954.
— Royals Farm Report (@RoyalsFarm) June 4, 2022

All this and the Royals refuse to fire their pitching coach, Cal Eldred. The Cal Eldred that was hired to be Kansas City’s pitching coach before the 2018 season and the team’s pitching has never gotten better. The Cal Eldred that was never a pitching coach in any manner before the Royals hired him. The Cal Eldred that us Royals fans have been crying for to be fired now for almost a year:

At this point I don't even need to advocate for Cal Eldred to lose his job. It's a fait accompli. But the Royals should stop delaying the inevitable and get it over with.
— Rany Jazayerli (@jazayerli) July 1, 2021

Want more proof? Here is a GREAT ARTICLE from Max Rieper over at Royals Review that sums up why Cal should have been fired long ago. I could keep going with more and more proof but at this point you get it. In fact, the Royals think nothing is wrong. Dayton Moore even took a lot of the blame for Eldred’s ineptitude:

Dayton Moore took the blame for the struggles of the pitching staff.

“If you’re going to blame Cal Eldred for Bubic & Singer, you better give him praise for Daniel Lynch.” #Royals
— Josh Vernier (@JoshVernier610) May 16, 2022

This would be a good time to point out that since Moore said this, Daniel Lynch has struggled as well and has been wildly inconsistent. The Royals stockpiled all these young arms (especially from the 2018 draft) and they aren’t growing because the front office believes that THEIR way is the right way, the best way.

They all need to go.

A storm is brewing in Kansas City and Royals fans are mad. Any patience that has been built up over the years has faded and is left with a front office and coaching staff that has shown the inability to elevate this team to the next level. I mentioned the bumbling of the pitching, but there is also the fact that the Royals had one of the worst offenses in baseball last year and did nothing in the offseason to improve on it. It was like they expected rookies like Bobby Witt, Jr. and over 30 vets who struggled last year (like Carlos Santana) to improve and/or help the team score more runs.

Santana has been one of the worst offense players in baseball so far this year and rather than Kansas City address this issue, they have doubled down. Vinnie Pasquantino is a first base prospect down in AAA Omaha & has been tearing it up over the last month or so. It would make sense to call him up and help the struggling offense, right? Nope.

“Vinnie, I was looking at this the other day, he just hit the 150 at-bat mark in Triple-A. He had 200 at-bats in Double-A.
So when you look at upper level at-bats, he’s had 350 upper level at-bats. That’s not even a season’s worth, over two levels. You’d like to get, really, a full season at the highest level. That’s not set in stone, but generally you’d like to see 500, 550 plate appearances at the highest level.”

That would be fine, but it’s not what the Royals have done in the past. Both Eric Hosmer and Salvador Perez were recalled before that 500 plate appearance limit plus Dayton Moore has talked about in the past that they would recall players “when they are ready”. Considering how Pasquantino has hit, I don’t see how he is “not ready”.

There is also this quote from GM JJ Picollo:

“We just have to keep in mind, we’ve done this for a long time, young players can come up and certainly help an offense,” he said. “But it’s really hard to expect a young player to come up and carry an offense. We don’t want them to feel like they have to carry an offense.”

This would be easier to believe if the Royals weren’t already regularly batting rookies Witt, Jr. and MJ Melendez between the 3rd and 5th spots in the order. These are the type of fairly regular comments we get from both Picollo and Moore that make me question the front office because you wonder whether they actually believe these false quotes or are knowingly feeding us a line of bull.

Between the evaluation of the coaching staff, the offense and then their reluctance to recall Pasquantinto it probably has most fans questioning the validity of both Moore and Picollo. Moore was hired in June 2006 and has now been in the organization for 16 years. In that span of time, the Royals have only had three winning seasons. Let me repeat that: out of 16 seasons, Kansas City has had only 3 seasons with a record over .500.

Pardon my french here, but only THREE FUCKING SEASONS!

It has been seven seasons since the Royals won the World Series and this is season five of the “rebuild” (yes, I know Moore won’t admit it is a rebuild but a large core of the World Series team left after the 2017 season. It’s a rebuild.) and not once have we seen a winning season from Kansas City. Moore’s first “rebuild” took seven seasons before we saw a winning season followed by back to back appearances in the World Series.

Like many fans, after the championship win, I gave Dayton and company a pass. While I didn’t agree with many of his practices, it was hard to argue with the end results. But we are on season seven with no winning seasons and another not even looming on the horizon. If we are being honest here, it doesn’t take seven years for a rebuild, any rebuild.

The front office needs to go.

Recently it has felt like Dayton and company felt like the World Series appearances proved that their way was a winning formula and that we should trust their process (yes, I went there). But all it feels like is a bunch of guys grasping at straws and not getting any results from their way of running a baseball team.

We as fans have been very patient with both Dayton & JJ but at this point our patience has run out and it doesn’t appear as if the guys running this team have any answers. Matthew LaMar has been killing it lately at Royals Review, with this piece on why the team needs new leadership and this one on how management appears okay with them being losers. These are all thoughts I have had for almost two months now and when these articles started popping up I felt better about my assessment of this organization.

What about manager Mike Matheny? To be honest, I’ve never liked the hiring. It felt too soon after his firing from St. Louis (15 months), I had concerns about many of the issues he had while managing there and honestly, I felt like Royals current bench coach Pedro Grifol was the better choice. But while researching for this piece, I ran across this that I wrote about Moore’s reasoning for hiring Matheny, which I believe to be based on Matheny’s faith:

Moore has made his decision and I will call it now: this move will be the beginning of the end for Dayton. Over the last couple years, he has made some questionable moves and we’ve seen his decision making become more and more questionable. It used to just be free agent signings or trades but now it has started to seep over into whether his personal belief system is on a higher plain than winning. Need more proof? Look no more than his defending of Luke Heimlich. Moore’s want to give people a second chance almost gave the organization a giant stain that would have been hard to recover from. It is obvious what his mission is at this point and on a daily basis I question more and more whether or not that goal is winning. The hiring of Matheny could very well be his eventual downfall, especially with new ownership getting ready to move in.

While Matheny has been a little bit better than expected, it still doesn’t feel like he is the right guy for the job and more and more I just don’t feel like he is a good manager. He makes questionable strategic moves with the bullpen, still appears to show favoritism for veterans when it comes to his lineup and his intense attitude has rubbed some of the veterans the wrong way, as David Lesky talked about last week.

There were even moments in the last week that appeared to many as Matheny losing his team, as players appeared despondent and almost just giving up. While the Royals have posted some victories since then, this doesn’t feel like a manager who can turn around this ship. Not only is he not been given the pieces to turn things around, he also doesn’t appear to have any answers. This is a former player who was handed a playoff team in St. Louis and when that team started to dismantle he had no big changes in his playbook to turn around the losing.

Matheny needs to go.

It might seem extreme to some, but this organization needs a house cleaning. They’ve been given more than enough time to get the Royals back to a winning record and they aren’t even close. I think they have done a good job with the development programs going on in the minor leagues for both the hitting and pitching, but none of that matters if changes aren’t made on the coaching staff. Throw in a front office who still thinks it’s 2006 and you have a recipe for players to never reach their full potential in Kansas City.

To really give you an idea of how bad this is, I have been a die-hard Royals fan since 1984 and have watched this team win or lose for years. But I can’t stomach this. It’s very apparent changes need to be made and management is doing nothing while ownership apparently is either okay with this or doesn’t know any better. I haven’t watched a game in three weeks and have zero desire to watch a game. I hate what they are doing to this team and in no way will support what is going on.

I am a baseball fan so there is no “wait for the Chiefs season” or “there are other sports to watch”. I breath and eat baseball all year, so this has been awful for me. I’ve gone to one game this year but I’m not really for sure I’ll go to another. We should be able to get the Bally app soon but as of right now I have no reason to spend money on it. If this organization can’t see there is a problem with this, then they are blind.

What they are telling you, the fan, is “hey, we don’t care whether you pay attention to our team or spend money with us. We believe our way is the only way and dammit we aren’t going to change for anyone”. that is a frightening message to send when you have had only three winning seasons over 16 years.

Ownership has talked a lot recently about building a new stadium in downtown Kansas City and some are wanting it and others (like myself) want nothing to do with it. There is a belief that if they move downtown, one of the factors will be more people coming to games because of accessibility. The problem they aren’t seeing is that if your baseball team continues to lose, fans aren’t going to come to the games. It’s not an issue of having an old stadium or being downtown; the issue is that the Royals are a bad baseball team and fans are tired of losing. 2014 and 2015 proved that the cure-all for filling the stadium is winning baseball games. Simple as that.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results. The Royals are testing that theory while running fans off in the process. I hope John Sherman is listening. You want a full stadium and possible October baseball? Clean house. If not, don’t expect any changes in the near future.

June 12, 2022 0

We’ve seen this Royals offense before & it’s a bad sequel

When it comes to Kansas City Royals baseball, there are normally a few things you can always count on. They are normally a team that arrange a solid defensive unit out on the field, they’ve been known to compile a slew of fiery arms for their bullpen and maybe most notably to us fans, an offense that relies on putting the ball in play more than the average team.

While on the surface none of this sounds bad, it’s the Royals offense that has been put in question and for good reason. After coming off of a less than stellar 2021 season offensively the team barely did anything to improve on their lineup for 2022 and in fact have attempted to use the old ‘try the same thing again but expecting different results’ thinking for this year. Let’s just say this flawed belief should have all Royals fans up in arms.

Let’s start by taking a look back at 2021. The Royals finished the year near the bottom of the league in most offensive categories, including last in walk percentage and next to last in wRC+. Besides the lack of walks (which has become a staple for Royals baseball for the last 30+ years), the power numbers in 2021 were very lackluster. Kansas City was last in home runs, next to last in the league in isolated power and barrel percentage, and 13th in slugging percentage and runs.

Now the Royals did actually hit the ball fairly hard last year, as they were 9th in hard hit percentage and 6th in exit velocity. But they also had the 5th highest ground ball rate and fly ball rate was 36%, 11th in the American League. Combine that with an average BABIP and you have a team that would hit the ball hard but a lot of times they found gloves.

While lack of walks and lack of power hurt them, the real killer for last year’s team was their plate discipline or more to the point, lack of. The Royals led the AL in swinging at pitches outside of the zone (O-Swing%) and swing percentage in general and were in the top five in swings and misses (SwStr %). Apparently the belief within the team was that when all else fails, keep swinging at pitches whether or not they are strikes. Considering how high their ground ball rate and infield fly ball rate was last year (IFFB %), it’s easy to see why this team struggled to score runs.

So you would think with all of these issues surrounding the offense that the Kansas City front office would make improving the team’s batting at least a minor focal point this offseason, right? Nope. In fact, back in November Royals General Manager J.J. Piccolo sounded like he was fine with the group of bats they already had:

“Big time,” Picollo said of the priority on the bullpen. “We like a lot of our position players. Defensively, they were really sound. We’ve got a lot of promising starting pitchers that need to take that next step. But the bullpen is going to be what protects them.”

Defensively they were sound. Offensively, not so much. We are all aware that a lot of hope for the team’s batting this year was going to be focused on the rookies: Bobby Witt, Jr., Kyle Isbel, Nick Pratto, MJ Melendez and possibly even Vinnie Pasquantino. That is a lot of weight to put on the back of players who haven’t even played a major league game before this year.

Even back then, I felt like they were missing the boat on the offense or at the very least should go looking for a couple of veteran bats just in case. That way if the rookies struggle or the veteran bats continue to regress, they have an emergency plan in place. Instead, they did nothing.

It amazes me that the #Royals felt that the best way to handle their offensive issues from last year was do nothing & expect rookies (BWJ, Pratto, Melendez, Isbel) to be the only additions. Between that & expecting the struggling vets to improve their numbers feels shortsighted.
— Sean Thornton (@SeanThornton5) April 16, 2022

So where are we at so far in 2022? The Royals are last in runs scored and OPS, next to last in slugging percentage, wOBA, wRC+, and 13th in Win Probability, Isolated Power and home runs. Somehow they are 9th in walk rate (I fully blame the White Sox series for this), and 8th in swinging at pitches outside the strike zone, two big issues they have had for years.

A big concern came while glancing at the Statcast numbers. Royals have an average Exit Velocity of 88.7 and a 36.3 hard hit rate. Throw in the 13.5% infield fly rate and a 43% ground ball percentage and you have a recipe for a pungent offense.

While the Statcast numbers are worrisome (and lower than last year’s numbers), this would be a good time to throw out there that offensive numbers are down all across the board in baseball. Whether it is the deadened ball, the humidors, a shorter spring training or even the weather, offense in general is not booming. This is affecting every team, not just the Royals. So there has to be at least a little leeway given to all of these factors. But the bigger picture is the concern here.

Credit: Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY Sports

While the weather will warm up and the Royals bats could as well, this is still a front office that saw all the issues with their run production and said “We are good with this. Let it fly.” It’s one thing to see the monster seasons that Pratto and Melendez put up last year and expect them to help your lineup when recalled. There are even numbers that show Hunter Dozier had a massive improvement in the second half of last year. But while you can point to those players and see the positive, you also have to look at the negative.

Carlos Santana is aging and probably won’t see his bat speed increase. Whit Merrifield has started regressing and even at his peak was praying at the altar of the BABIP Gods. Michael A. Taylor is a great defender…and that kind of sums up his offense. There were major flaws in the lineup last year and counting on a couple of rookies and aging vets to improve on those numbers is the definition of shortsighted. It feels like the Kansas City front office had a Plan A that was the best case scenario yet no Plan B in case there were issues.

The rookies very well might pick up the offense and help in a few of the categories (walks, home runs, etc.) that have plagued this team for years. Dozier is off to a good start and looks more like the 2019 version of himself. Andrew Benintendi is playing like a player wanting a contract extension. I’ll even say that the hitting development program in the minors has been a success and appears to be the impetus for the turnaround for both Pratto and Melendez (as well as the power numbers we have seen from Jorge Soler and Salvador Perez over the last few years).

But this also neglects the lack of depth in the organization and the issues that have arisen whenever players ascend to the major leagues. It’s almost like there is a disconnect between what is being taught in the minors and what is emphasized on the big league club. We’ve already seen that with the pitching, so maybe it is happening with the hitters as well.

The Royals have been a team for years that tried patterning their offense around Kauffman Stadium: spray hitters who could hit line drives all over the stadium and a couple of big boppers to drive them in. The problem the last few years is a reliance on hitters who don’t get on base enough and streaky power hitters. Which also leads to this:

The Royals lost to the Yankees, 6-4. KC got swept. Daniel Lynch gave five IP of three-run ball. Nicky Lopez, Whit Merrifield and Michael A. Taylor had two hits each. Eight runners were left on base. 72 in their last 8 games. KC has lost eight of their last 10. The record is 7-13.
— Alec Lewis (@alec_lewis) May 1, 2022

72 runners left on base in their last 8 games. For those that struggle with math, that is an average of 9 runners stranded per game. Think about all the opportunities the Royals have had recently to score and how many times nothing happened. I can’t even count all the games I have turned off recently because I could tell by the 4th inning that the offense wasn’t going to do anything. This isn’t just a ‘this year’ thing or a ‘cold weather’ thing. This is a ‘the Royals have bad hitters’ thing.

I am fully aware it won’t be like this all year long. I know there will be periods where the Royals look like an offensive juggernaut and the last two weeks will be a distant memory. I know this because I have seen this film before and it plays out the same way every time. There are flashes of hope but at the end of the day the Royals front office is valuing the wrong things. Having good people on your team is a positive. Having good people who aren’t really good for the overall production of your team is not positive.

It has been said many times that the definition of insanity is repeating the same thing over and over again but expecting different results. Some of us have smartened up to the fact that while the names have changed, this whole thing plays out the way it always does. Until the front office starts putting value in performance and production over everything else, don’t expect too much.

May 1, 2022 3

Guessing the Royals Opening Day Lineup

Here we are, the middle of February and normally we would be discussing the elation of pitchers and catchers reporting to camp. Instead, the players and owners are stuck in a grudge match that I can only assume includes table, ladders and chairs (Oh My!), putting a cease and desist order on not only the start of camp but also possibly Opening Day.

But I don’t want to discuss the doldrums that are “The Lockout”, so instead today I figured I would piece together what I think the Kansas City Royals Opening Day lineup will look like (whenever that happens). Sure, every Royals blogger known to man has probably already pieced together their thoughts on the topic, but I haven’t read any of them so whatever spills out here is purely one man’s thoughts on what we could be seeing in April…or sadly, maybe May.

Catcher

This might be the easiest position on the team, as it is a no-brainer. After the 2021 season Salvador Perez had, he is a lock to start the year behind the dish. Salvy’s monster season will go down as one for the ages in Royals history and he definitely put a stamp on making sure to this point he is the greatest catcher in Royals history.

All that being said, we are getting closer to Salvy not being the “main man” behind the plate and in fact his successor might make his major league debut in 2022. MJ Melendez elevated his status within the Royals prospects rank in 2021 and won so many awards along the way that it would be foolish to ignore what he could bring to the Kansas City lineup.

The Royals have already discussed other positions for Melendez to play if he was recalled, including a short tryout at third base last year in AAA Omaha. Perez saw a hefty amount of time at DH last year and I would imagine that total continues to go up as the season wears on in 2022. All that being said, Melendez more than likely will start the year in the minors, so for now, Perez has a lock on the catcher position.

Credit: Jon Blacker/MLB Photos via Getty Images

Designated Hitter

By the end of last season, the DH spot became a revolving door for the Royals and no one player really had planted down permanent residence in the spot. I would expect the same in 2022 but to start the year, Carlos Santana is as good a candidate as any to fill the role.

Everyone knows Santana had a down year in 2021 and it wouldn’t be a shock if the Royals trade him, possibly even before the All-Star break. But to start the year, I would expect him on the Kansas City roster and filling a role either at first base or DH.

The Royals have a gaggle of first base/DH types either on the main roster or down in the minors and there already feels like there is a logjam between the two positions and Perez’s decline defensively is only going to make that worse. So while I picture Santana here to start the new campaign, the likelihood of him being around all season is probably slim and none.

FIRST BASE

Speaking of down years offensively, Hunter Dozier had quite the doozy in 2021. In fact, it felt like a tale of two halves. Here are his numbers as we break up the two halves of his year:

While the core offensive stats (Homers, RBIs, doubles, etc.) are basically the same, the real “Tale of the Tape” is in the slash line. An almost 100 point increase in On-Base Percentage and an over 100 point jump in Slugging Percentage really points at how it felt like two different seasons for Hunter. Throw in the giant increase in Batting Average on Balls in Play (BAbip) and it’s easy to see why there are so many questions for Dozier to start a new season.

Now he did have a few injuries early in the year that played a part in those numbers, but it makes sense to question just what kind of production we will get from Dozier in 2022. But no matter how many fans want him gone, he just signed a new extension before last season and isn’t going anywhere. So why do I have him penciled in at first base?

Dozier struggled defensively last year for Kansas City, whether it was in the outfield or at third base. The one position he seemed at the very least ‘capable’ at was first base. Since I can’t imagine him not in the lineup to start the year, first base seems like the best position to hide the man without a position.

But we all know Nick Pratto is knocking at the door and by the time the year is done he will more than likely be manning the position. But to start the year, my guess is that Pratto starts in Omaha and makes his way to Kansas City either by hot streak or injury. So on Opening Day, Dozier appears to the the best answer. Where will he be by September? That is a question for a later time, albeit a good question.

SECOND BASE

All these months later and I still can’t believe what we saw from Nicky Lopez last year. If there was a player on the Kansas City roster who took an opportunity and ran with it last year, it was Lopez. After being sent down near the end of spring training, he studied tape, adjusted his swing and when shortstop Adalberto Mondesi ended up on the injured list to start the year, Lopez was ready to step up…and step up he did.

All Nicky did was post a 4 win season (according to Baseball Reference), play Gold Glove defense at shortstop and became not just a replacement for Mondesi but a guy who will be in the lineup on Opening Day with absolutely no arguments. In a matter of months, Nicky turned around his career while also probably changing the trajectory of the Royals 2022 infield.

With all that being said, you might be wondering why I have him stationed at second base. First off, he is very familiar with the position and is a Gold Glove caliber defender at the position. Second, the Royals have a plethora of options in the infield and in some ways you can’t go wrong with the 3-4 options at pretty much any position. Third, there’s a certain top prospect that has worked himself into a spot in the lineup and that’s where we are headed to next.

SHORTSTOP

The question going into this season wasn’t if Bobby Witt Jr. would be in the Royals Opening Day lineup but where. Witt has vaulted himself up almost every baseball prospect list and after last year it feels like he has nothing else to prove down in the minors. It is pretty much a lock that we will see Witt in the lineup from day one and nary an argument will be found.

So what position do you slot him in at? I’m going with shortstop, which is his main position. The Royals had him playing at either SS or 3B last year in the minors and even had tried him out at 2B and the outfield last year in spring training. But for an optimal defensive lineup, I would leave Witt at SS and let him play.

Could the Royals move him around this upcoming season? I would almost bet on it. Manager Mike Matheny has shown a tendency to move around and shuffle his lineups so I would almost guarantee Witt will see action at multiple positions in 2022. But the smarter move might be to keep him in one spot as long as you can to let him get comfortable in the major leagues before turning him into a chess piece to move around at a whim. Less will be more with Witt to start out and shortstop feels like the best landing spot.

THIRD BASE

Third base felt like a black hole for Kansas City in 2021. It didn’t matter who you toss onto the position, they either struggled on defense or offense (or both). Near the end of the season, the team moved Adalberto Mondesi over to third base to not only see how he would do at the spot but also to try and keep him on the field. Mondesi only played in 35 games last year and 20 of them were at the hot corner in September.

So to start the 2022 campaign, Mondesi seems like the best fit for third base and it will be interesting to see if this becomes something that sticks or if the Royals have other ideas for him. I personally feel like Mondesi in a super utility role isn’t an awful idea, especially if it meant him playing both the infield and outfield.

Speaking of the outfield, I am a firm believer in trying Mondesi out in center field. As of right now the Royals don’t have a prospect firmly slotted for the position (Kyle Isbel is a possibility, but he could also be used on either corner position) and the team would be able to utilize his speed at the spot. But if the Royals were interested in that position change, they would have already tried it out. So for now, Mondesi appears to be only an infielder.

I could spill more words on Mondesi and his role on this team but for now third base feels like not only the best spot for him but also for the Royals. In all honesty, 2B/SS/3B could be almost any grouping of Mondesi/Lopez/Witt Jr. and Kansas City would be fine. I firmly believe they are all capable of playing all three of those positions so in some ways the Royals can’t go wrong with whatever configuration they end up deciding on.

LEFT FIELD

I almost just wrote in Alex Gordon for left field in this Kansas City lineup. I’m pretty sure you understand; it was pure instinct. With 2021 being the first year in a long time with no Gordon out in left field, the Royals brought in Andrew Benintendi to take his spot in the lineup. The end results were very average, although he did win a Gold Glove award (which very few of us expected). It would appear the plan was to pencil in Benny again out in left, but what should we expect?

While the Royals were hoping for the 2018 version of Benintendi, he came a lot closer to the 2019 version that no one was really a big fan of. The problem is that at times last season we saw a guy who the Royals should be falling over themselves to sign to a contract extension…while other times we saw the guy that Boston was fine with dumping for Franchy Cordero. First, here is Benny’s number broken down by month:

May and September were great months for Andrew, but he was dealing with injuries for a good chunk of the summer so maybe some of that is to blame for his numbers during that span. But here are some splits that worry me:

For a guy who is supposed to be a gap hitter, it is frightening to see his numbers at Kauffman Stadium. Kauffman has one of the biggest outfields in baseball and should be a good spot for the type of hitter Benintendi can be. Instead, it feels like he tried to go deep way more than he should have and in all honesty, that is a hitting philosophy that has proven to be inefficient for him.

Benny is a lock to start the year out in left field, but if he is looking for a long-term deal, how he performs this year might be a sign of what his future is going to be in Kansas City.

CENTER FIELD

First, the good news: Michael A. Taylor was so good defensively in 2021 that he won a Gold Glove.

Now, the bad news: if you are expecting Taylor to provide much offense then you will be very disappointed.

“The Taylor Experiment” appeared to at least pay off in that he came in to upgrade the defense in center field and he definitely accomplished that. It was just the hope for more offense never materialized and he ended up producing about the same as he did previously in Washington.

So while Taylor is back and will more than likely start the year as the regular center fielder, it also feels like the Royals don’t expect him to be the main guy all year. While center field isn’t a deep position for the organization, there is hope that Kyle Isbel can take over at some point in 2022 and provide more offense than Taylor did last season. Taylor is also around through 2023, so once the time comes for him to be a fourth outfielder, he can occasionally start while also filling in as a defensive replacement late in the game.

Until then, expect some great defensive plays out in center field that will have you cheering him this year followed by at bats that will make you the master of the “heavy sigh”.

RIGHT FIELD

There are times I really wish Kansas City didn’t have so many infielders. Right now is one of those times, as the move that makes the most sense is to start Whit Merrifield out in right field. Yes, I realize he had an amazing defensive season at second base. But that is exactly why I wish they didn’t have so many infielders; you could then just slot him in at second and find someone else to man the outfield. But if we are trying to use logic here, Whit in right structures the lineup and the defense better for the Royals.

Now, this doesn’t mean he will play the whole year out there but I wouldn’t be surprised if he saw the largest chunk of that time patrolling the outfield at Kauffman. Maybe if Hunter Dozier played better defense out there or if Bobby Witt, Jr. wasn’t so good defensively at shortstop you could put one of them out in right field. Instead, Whit is almost being punished for being versatile. But it makes sense.

While I don’t want to pile on here (and I don’t want to be that guy) but I also believe we have started to see the beginning of the regression for Merrifield. His offensive numbers were noticeably down last season and while his BAbip and hard hit rate were up, both his strikeout and groundball percentages saw an increase. Merrifield is entering his age 33 season and while he could see a slight bump up this year, one would think some of these numbers will continue to see a slide in 2022.

Many said for years the Royals should trade Whit and Kansas City stood firm on their loyalty to him. The Royals front office can definitely be loyal to a fault and Whit will be another example of that. We all love what Merrifield brings to this team but we should probably accept the fact that his peak playing days are in the rear-view mirror.

STARTING PITCHER

This was the one spot in the Opening Day lineup that I wavered on and if I’m being honest, no one in the Royals rotation felt like a great choice. So almost by default it would appear Brad Keller has the best chance of being the Opening Day starter in 2022.

We all know about Keller’s awful 2021 and how frustrating it was watching him from start to start. Every time you felt like he was getting his groove back, he would have a start that felt like a big leap backwards. If the Royals are going to be serious about contending in the next few years, fixing Keller should be one of the main assignments.

While Keller isn’t a lock in this spot, the only way one of the other starters take this spot would be if they had a jaw-dropping spring. Considering most of us have our concerns about the young arms in the Royals rotation and have even more concerns about Cal Eldred as the Kansas City pitching coach, it would be even more shocking if one of the youngsters broke from the pack this spring. It would be great to see a Daniel Lynch or a Jackson Kowar start dominating but it feels more and more like that is farther away than we originally thought.

So for now, Keller is my guess. I would love to be shocked by another option but that feels like a 2023 thing. Hopefully we get a different Keller than the one we saw in 2021 on Opening Day.

So here is how I would structure this lineup for Opening Day:

SS Witt, Jr.

RF Merrifield

LF Benintendi

C Perez

DH Santana

1B Dozier

3B Mondesi

CF Taylor

2B Lopez

SP Keller

So this is what I tend to believe the Royals Opening Day lineup will look like. It could drastically change between now and then if there are any injuries or any other acquisitions, but this feels like the best bet with what the Royals have right now. It’s not a blow-away lineup but it is one that needs to improve on it’s 2021 showing.

The interesting part will be to see what it looks like by the end of the season. With names like Isbel, Pratto and Melendez waiting in the wings, this could be a very different team in September than what we will see in April…or whenever the season actually starts.

February 21, 2022 0

The Hall of Fame process is broken

It’s January and that can mean only one thing for baseball fans: time to discuss/argue about the upcoming MLB Hall of Fame Induction announcement (which will be airing on MLB Network Tuesday afternoon). With baseball currently involved in a lockout (which I’m sure you are hating as much as I am), that means the only real baseball talking points right now are focused around the voting that is going on.

Luckily, I am a member of the IBWAA which announced their voting results last week. Here they are:

📢2022 IBWAA HOF Announcement!

We'd like to thank our members who took the time to submit their HOF ballot. Congratulations to the newest member of the IBWAA Hall of Fame: DAVID ORTIZ!!!

All IBWAA members have the opportunity to vote in any of our elections. Full results below: pic.twitter.com/wrSq4Uk1MY
— IBWAA (@IBWAA) January 18, 2022

So David Ortiz was the lone new inductee this year and since I know someone will ask, as a group, we elected Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens back in 2018 so they were not on the ballot. With that being said, here is my ballot:

I went with ten picks (which I could have voted for 12 per IBWAA voting rules) with Ortiz and Rodriguez being my two new votes, as this was their first year for eligibility. I’ve made many arguments for the other candidates I have voted for over the years, which you can read here (that should have all my Hall of Fame articles that I have written here on the site over the last 9+ years).

Now, the BBWAA announcement is coming on Tuesday and here is where the voting currently stands as of Saturday afternoon:

If you want to check the Hall of Fame tracker, you can go to bbhoftracker.com. I also recommend you follow Ryan Thibodaux on Twitter, as Ryan and his crew do great work during this season and he is a must follow if you are even slightly interested in the voting process.

Right now it looks like David Ortiz has a decent chance of being voted in while Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens will probably see a sizable drop once the rest of the results are announced and fall below the 75% threshold you need for election. This is Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Clemens and Curt Schilling’s last year on the ballot and as of now it looks like they will move on to the Era Committees for their next opportunity for election.

There have been three candidates that have seen an increase of over ten votes from returning voters this year and they are Todd Helton (12), Scott Rolen (12), and Billy Wagner (10). These are all candidates that I have voted for over the years and I hope this means their journey to induction is looking more realistic over the next couple of years.

Scott Rolen Belongs in the Hall of Fame - Viva El Birdos — If you want to check the Hall of Fame tracker, you can go to bbhoftracker.com. I also recommend you follow Ryan Thibodaux on Twitter, as Ryan and his crew do great work during this season and he is a must follow if you are even slightly interested in the voting process.

Right now it looks like David Ortiz has a decent chance of being voted in while Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens will probably see a sizable drop once the rest of the results are announced and fall below the 75% threshold you need for election. This is Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Clemens and Curt Schilling’s last year on the ballot and as of now it looks like they will move on to the Era Committees for their next opportunity for election.

There have been three candidates that have seen an increase of over ten votes from returning voters this year and they are Todd Helton (12), Scott Rolen (12), and Billy Wagner (10). These are all candidates that I have voted for over the years and I hope this means their journey to induction is looking more realistic over the next couple of years.

You might have noticed in years past I have written write-ups on all the candidates and gone in detail on why I voted the way I have. So what has changed? While time is one reason, the main reason is my enthusiasm for the Hall of Fame has waned. This used to be a fun procedure with excitement building leading up to the big announcement. Instead, it has become very obvious what is going to happen and rather than acknowledge the issues that many voters have had with the process, their lack of action has spoken volumes of how they seem to be fine with how the voting has turned out over the last decade.

I wrote about this last year, which is fairly summed up here:

“Because of this, over the last 10-15 years it has become more about the issues within the game than trying to honor the individual performances. I know the writers are mostly trying to do their best to honor the right people, but because of this lack of direction many writers want nothing to do with it.”

So while I still enjoy voting and love breaking down player’s stats and going through the process of why someone should be elected, I don’t have that warm fuzzy feeling when it comes to how the Hall of Fame has handled their voting and I’ve gained more and more respect for voters like Ben Lindbergh, who has abstained from voting.

I don’t expect a perfect process or even for everyone to vote the way I would. I’ve done a good job this year of not critiquing others ballot’s (and boy, there have been a few doozies) and I recognize not everyone is a “Big Hall” person. But I do think this should be a fun discourse and I am very open to hearing arguments as to why they vote players in who I might not feel are worthy at the moment. The problem, like almost everything else nowadays, is people who can’t have a conversation about such things without name calling or some other derisive form of communication.

So I will pay attention on Tuesday and be curious to where a couple players (Rolen, Wagner, etc.) end up finally landing, but I won’t waste many words on a process that feels broken. I would much rather spend my time on things I enjoy and less on something I disagree with. Be happy for the players, be happy there is some sort of process still in place, but don’t waste your energy on something when the people in charge can’t be bothered to take the time to fix their mess.

January 22, 2022 0

The Royals weren’t boring in 2021

Royals score nine runs vs. Twins in one of the biggest first innings in franchise history - CBSSports.com — Credit: USA Today

Going into the 2021 baseball season, there was a lot of buzz around the Kansas City Royals. In fact, there was even discussion that Kansas City could make a run at one of the Wild Card spots in the American League. The combination of exciting offseason signings and the possibility of growth within their slew of young pitchers could cause one to squint and see a world where the Royals were contending in September.

Instead what happened was a season that was borderline schizophrenic. The team got off to a great start in April, followed by a May and June that we should just purge from our collective brains. After that, the Royals settled into a team that hovered around the .500 mark. The last three months of the season were ones that elicited excitement at times, while other times it felt like a team that needed to tear it all down and start over. You can say a lot of things about the 2021 Kansas City Royals, but boring isn’t an option.

Kansas City's Salvador Perez is in the 2021 Home Run Derby — Credit: Jamie Squire/Getty Images

It will be hard to look back at this past season and not fondly recall the greatness that was Salvador Perez. In 2020, we saw Salvy take a major step forward in his production but some of us (okay, definitely me) was leery that he would be able to sustain the kind of output he compiled in those 37 games. Instead, what we saw this season was possibly what a full season of 2020 would have looked like for Salvy: 48 HRs, 121 RBIs, an OPS+ of 126, 337 total bases and 5.3 bWAR.

But what stood out to me were the numbers that showed why Perez has become an elite hitter. His average exit velocity this year was 93 MPH, with 74 barrels, 16.3% barrel rate and a 55.9% hard hit rate. All of these numbers were the best in his career and even compared with 2020 there is a noticeable bump. Salvy has figured out where to look and what pitches are going to give him the best option for success. It can’t be said enough, but the work Perez has put in with special assignment hitting coordinator Mike Tosar these last few years has paid off handsomely.

The interesting part to Salvy’s season isn’t the fact that he took over the record for most home runs in a season for a primary catcher or that he tied Jorge Soler for the Royals single season record for home runs or even that he tied for the American League lead in 2021 for homers. No, the most interesting part to his season is his standing in the history of the game and where it is now compared to just a year ago. He has not only turned himself into a legit power threat, but the way he is looked at for history discussions has changed.

For beginners, his status in Kansas City lore is even bigger now than it used to be. Sure, Salvy was already an icon and the guy who many come to the ballpark to see. But now he is in the same category as George Brett and Alex Gordon when it comes to guys who defined an era for the Royals. As long as he remains in Kansas City and doesn’t completely lose his production, Perez is on pace to not only be a future Royals Hall of Famer, but also get his number retired and probably even a statue. These are all things that are rarely done in KC and yet both Gordon and now Perez will be able to add their name to this scarce list.

Speaking of the Hall of Fame, this season sprung actual real discussions on whether or not Perez could be a future Hall of Famer. My initial knee-jerk reaction was a quick ‘NO’, because while Salvy has been one of the leagues top catchers for awhile now, the numbers he compiled before 2020 were more “average” than “HOF worthy”. The last two seasons though have elevated those numbers and this year alone added a little more thought into the discussion.

Salvy currently sits at 39th in JAWS (Jaffe Wins Above Replacement Score) all-time for catchers and according to the Hall of Stats, he sits 60th all-time. From that along, it feels like a big climb to get Perez in that discussion. But if he continues to produce like he has has the last two seasons and can do that for the next 4-5 years, that discussion becomes a bit more real. He is only 31 years old and while the day he moves away from catcher is getting closer, the position is one that is highly underrepresented in the hall.

It’s the longest of long shots, but there is a scenario where Salvy makes a push and serious hall of fame discussions start happening. The fact we are even having this discussion alone should tell you what kind of season he put together in 2021. But Salvy’s monster year isn’t the only one that we should remember when looking back at 2021…

Nicky Lopez's former coach (and infield guru) dissects the shortstop's Gold Glove-caliber plays – The Athletic — Credit: Ed Zurga/Getty Images

As spring training was wrapping up this year, Nicky Lopez was on the outside looking in. He had struggled all throughout spring and despite his immaculate defense, he was being sent down to the minors to work on his offense. Before the 2020 season, Lopez had tried to bulk up a bit and focus on adding some pop to his numbers but in doing so was veering away from what worked for him in the minors. Gone was the patient hitter who sprayed the ball all over the field and in it’s place was a hitter who was barely even walking.

Luckily, fate swept in and after an injury to Adalberto Mondesi right before Opening Day, Lopez was recalled and would start the year as the Royals starting shortstop. While April and May weren’t blockbuster months for Lopez, we did start to see the hitter we originally expected, as he was taking more pitches, drawing more walks and in April was even close to a league average hitter. Then June happened and what started as Nicky filling a need for the Royals turned into him taking ownership of the position.

In June, Lopez hit .333/.413/.348 with an sOPS+ of 113…and from there he never looked back. Nicky became not only a guy who was consistently getting on base, he was also a go-to guy when it came to clutch situations. If the Royals needed a big hit or needed a rally started, Lopez was your guy. It got to a point to where when the Royals needed something to happen, you knew that Nicky was going to be the spark the team needed. In fact, by the end of the year Lopez had compiled a 1.26 WPA (Win Probability Added) and .87 Clutch (a number factored on how you do in high leverage situations).

Add in his sparkling defense at shortstop and it is guaranteed that Lopez will be a starter for Kansas City in 2022. The only question becomes which position, as the team has an abundance of infielders and it appears uncertain who is going to be playing where next year. The good news for Nicky is he should feel secure that he will be in the starting lineup and not on the outside looking in like he was in March. Amazing how a few months can change things.

The Hunter Dozier contract shows why the Royals are different - Royals Review — Credit: Zach Bolinger/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

But once you got past the two feel good stories of the year, the Royals slide into a team that performed either right around average or well below average. When it comes to the offense, Kansas City fit into either the middle of the pack in most offensive categories or closer to the bottom. The offense not only saw a number of starters struggle for long periods of time, but they also followed a pattern that we have seen far too often over the years. As you can probably expect, the Royals offensively were not a team that walked very often and also did not produce a ton of home runs. Per usual, this was a recipe for disaster as the team struggled to score runs at times and did not have the depth to make up for underperforming starters.

Hunter Dozier was the most glaring hole in the lineup, as he struggled to hit .216/.285/.394 with an OPS+ of 81 and -2.6 bWAR. Dozier dealt with some injuries early in the season which affected his swing and despite a solid second half, his numbers are tough to look at. In fact in the first half of the season, the struggles of Dozier and Jorge Soler sank the team, as they were two middle of the order bats that were supposed to help lead the way. Instead, they led the team to the bottom of the standings.

It didn’t stop there. Carlos Santana’s offense disappeared in the second half. While Michael A. Taylor was a gold glove contributor on defense, his offense was pretty much non-existent. Whit Merrifield saw a dip in his numbers this year, the possible start of his regression. Andrew Benintendi struggled to stay healthy. All in all, only five players performed above league average in the second half and one of them was backup catcher Cam Gallagher and his 67 plate appearances. While many considered the Royals offense to be a plus going into the season, the truth was ranking them in the middle of the pack would have been generous.

Will Bobby Witt Jr. break camp with the Royals? Putting the situation in context – The Athletic — Credit: Ralph Freso/Getty Images

Could help be on the way? Possibly. If you followed the Royals this year you were probably very well aware that there was a trifecta of monster seasons down in the minors that has given us all a glint of hope. Bobby Witt Jr, Nick Pratto and MJ Melendez absolutely tore it up this past season and put a lot of questions out there to ponder in 2022. Does Witt Jr start the year in the big leagues and at what position? When do we see Pratto and Melendez? Does the team trade Santana this offseason to start making room for Pratto at first base? Is Salvy’s transition to DH getting closer due to Melendez? Will someone be traded to shore up another position or get pitching help?

See? All of those questions and none of us are 100% for sure which direction everything will fall. The Royals obviously need a charge of offense next year and these prospects could provide that. But as we know with prospects, success in the minors doesn’t always transfer to the big leagues. Which is a smooth transition into the team’s pitching situation…

Royals vs. A's prediction: Kansas City is the play — Credit: Associated Press

When the season started, I had told someone that how the Royals did in 2021 would be determined on the development of the young arms in their farm system. We’ve heard all about the pitchers that Kansas City accumulated in the 2018 draft for three years now and in 2021 we got to see a large chunk of them on the big stage. The problem was that like many young pitchers, it wasn’t all wine and roses. In fact, one could see it was a truly bumpy road we traveled down.

The big four of Brady Singer, Kris Bubic, Daniel Lynch and Jackson Kowar all showed signs of future success in 2021, with some showing more than others. Singer and Bubic had pitched for the Royals in 2020 and while one would think they made advances this past season, it instead feels like they are in essentially the same spot. Lynch struggled in his first stint in Kansas City this year and while he proved to be dominating on occasions during his return, he also wasn’t the model of consistency.

Then there is Kowar, who was probably in the lead when it came to riding the struggle bus. Kowar had a horrible debut in the bigs, and if we are really being fair, it never drastically got better. Sure, there were outings were he would string together a couple innings of solid work but that would be after a disastrous inning that would put the Royals in a hole.

The thing is, Kowar’s struggles are a good sign of why people are calling for pitching coach Cal Eldred’s head. You would think as a major league coach and a former big leaguer pitcher, you would be able to work with a guy who was stressed out about being with the big club and would get that part of his game sorted out after the first start. But his entire first run, Kowar looked lost and seemed to not handle the pressure of the majors.

It really felt like Eldred had no answers for Jackson and it felt like a giant red flag that maybe he isn’t the right guy to lead a group of young pitchers who are a big part of the Royals future. I’m normally not one who would call for a coaches head, but the Eldred situation is one to heavily monitor this winter and if nothing happens you really wonder just how far the organization is willing to go with their young pitchers showing very little consistency.

But while some of the Royals younger pitchers struggled, there was a few that showed marked improvement. Carlos Hernandez showed his value as improved the amount of base runners allowed (1.284 WHIP) while also allowing less hard contact, as the hard hit rate and barrel rate both dropped this year against him compared to last. His control saw some improvement, even with the higher walk rate (11.5%) but the strike outs went up and by the end of the year had proven to be one of the Royals more reliable starters.

Add in the positive results from Danny Duffy (when he was healthy) and Mike Minor’s up and down season and you have a rotation that at times looked great and others made you question why Dayton didn’t sign like 20 pitchers in the offseason. Look, the bottom line here is that there was a heavy burden put on the shoulders (or arms) of the ‘Class of 2018’ and there just wasn’t a consistent level of improvement out of them. I’m sure there are multiple takes on why that was and who to point the finger at, but there are so many factors (especially when you consider what a mess 2020 was) that none feel like the sure and logical answer to the struggles they dealt with.

Which leads us to the bullpen and how you view them this past season probably is determined on how you felt about the rotation. If you believe the lack of innings from the rotation really taxed the bullpen, then you probably were willing to let some of their stats slide. If you felt the bullpen should be judged purely off performance, you might not have felt as good. For me, considering the extra innings the starters tossed on them and the brutal months of May and June that saw the pen implode, it’s almost amazing to me that most of their rankings within the American League this year were in the middle of the pack. This wasn’t an amazing group of arms but there were some bright spots and some big positives to close out the year.

The big positives were mostly Scott Barlow but there were some big contributions from Josh Staumont, Jake Brentz, Domingo Tapia and Richard Lovelady. Toss in a healthy Ronald Bolanos and see if Dylan Coleman can replicate what he did in the minors this year and you have the beginnings of a solid pen in 2022. Add in the loss of veterans Greg Holland and Wade Davis and the pen very well could be a strength come the new year.

This is not to say they didn’t have periods of success, but it was painfully obvious both were past their prime and shouldn’t be relied on for key innings. The one veteran arm that out performed expectations was Ervin Santana. It was obvious in the offseason that Erv was signed to eat innings in blowouts and be the occasional spot starter. In other words, he was just another warm body to fill a hole. Instead, he saved the team in a number of games that could have gotten out of control and while he wasn’t at his peak, he did become one of the most reliable arms in the bullpen. I know his numbers on the surface don’t scream ‘major performer’ but when you consider where the Royals would have been without him, the results would have probably been even bleaker.

The other area that saw marked improvement in 2021 was the team’s defense, especially if you glanced up the middle. Adding Michael A. Taylor in center field brought stability to the team and with 19 DRS (Defensive Runs Saved) he showed the real reason he was brought in to man the giant outfield of Kauffman. The Royals also saw an improvement in the middle infield, as Nicky Lopez at shortstop and Whit Merrifield at second base made a lethal defensive 1-2 punch that helped the pitching on an almost nightly basis.

There were some issues on defense, though. Before he was traded, Jorge Soler saw more time in the field than he ever should, as he has racked up -12 DRS this year between both KC and Atlanta. We mentioned Dozier’s offensive woes earlier, but he also struggled on defense, as he compiled -9 DRS in right field and -12 DRS at third base. In fact the only position he was average at was 1B and it really makes one wonder just where the Royals should play him 2022 without becoming a liability.

In fact, in general the Royals are going to have to decide what is the best offensive/defensive balance they can put out on the field next year as they have a slew of players and nine lineup slots. It’s hard to imagine taking Lopez or Merrifield out of the middle infield, but you also have Witt, Jr and Adalberto Mondesi to consider. Throw in Taylor’s lackluster bat and the logjam that is piling up at the first base/Designated Hitter positions and you can only hope Kansas City finds a mix that combines solid defense and extra offense.

This leads to the issue of Salvador Perez and what to do with him in the lineup. I know some might be wondering ‘What?’ and I get that, but the truth is the matter is that Salvy will be entering his age 32 season in 2022 and his defense has been on the decline for a couple of years now. Yes, he still calls a good game and has a great arm, but his framing has always been bad and the older he gets and the more abuse he takes behind the plate, you have to wonder when seeing more at bats at DH becomes a reality.

With MJ Melendez on the rise and the Royals needing Perez’s bat more than ever, it only makes sense to continue the gradual shift to him being a full-time hitter. I love Salvy as much as the next person but it’s all about how best he can help the team moving forward and where they can get the most value for him. If it’s my call, once Melendez is recalled and starts seeing playing time, I make sure he sees more action at catcher than Perez. It isn’t going to sit well with a lot of the fanbase, but if you want the Royals to win this appears to be the direction they are headed.

So in a lot of ways, that sums up the Kansas City Royals in 2021. Some things went well, others not so much. The Royals finished the year 74-88 and while that was eight wins off of my projected total (I was feeling optimistic that day), considering how bad the team looked in May and June it feels like a solid win total. It’s obvious the Royals need to figure out their game plan for next year and a lot of that is ‘who fits in and where’.

What can be said is that this year we did see a hint of a really good Royals team whenever everything fell into place. When they get solid pitching and the bats knock in a few runs, this can be a team that looks good and in the American League Central that could even mean contending. But that also means consistency and that is where Kansas City stumbled and fell this year.

So while it’s great that the front office wants this to be a ‘pitching and defense’ squad, that doesn’t mean you can just ignore the offense. Bumping up the offense is a must this winter and whether that means dedicating themselves to Witt Jr, Pratto and Melendez in 2022 or trading some pieces to pick up another bat or two…or even a combination of both. At the end of the day, this team needs consistency and depth, two things that were sorely lacking in 2021.

So another season is officially in the books. I’m already in a 2022 mode and ready to see what is done to improve this team. This year definitely had their ups and downs and after ‘Year 4’ of the rebuild (yes Dayton, it is a rebuild. Even if you don’t want to call it that.) it’s time to see a winning Royals team again. No more clichés, no more trusting, no more BS. This team was far from boring this past season and now it’s time to see them win. It’s time for another winning era at Kauffman Stadium. Let’s see if the front office feels the same way.

October 18, 2021 0

Comebacks are truly the best

KC Royals postponed in Cleveland as Sal Perez heals | The Kansas City Star — Credit: Kansas City Star

“Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!”

2020 was rough all the way around. Nothing was normal and nothing really made you feel good. For me, even baseball didn’t make me feel good. The one thing I had loved since I was a kid wasn’t really bringing me the joy it normally did. Sure, I watched games and rooted for my Kansas City Royals, but it wasn’t the same. In all honestly, I really felt like they shouldn’t have been playing, so it was hard to get behind something that I perceived was wrong.

But a new year brought a new outlook and I dove in head-first. In fact the focal point of spring and summer has been baseball. Sure, I’ve been watching my Royals (even if MLB apparently hates the idea of us watching our favorite team), but I’ve also watched about every other team as well. Actually, it’s been a lot of west coast baseball, since I’ve long enjoyed the Angels and the Padres are a fun, young, up and coming team. It also helps that I work nights and get home in time to catch the latter half of games being played out west.

I’ve tuned in when Jacob deGrom is pitching. I flip it over if Max Scherzer is taking the mound. I even partake in games where no-hitters are being spun, because who doesn’t love a little bit of history? To say my love of baseball has been rekindled would be an understatement. Thank goodness my wife enjoys the sport as well, otherwise there would probably be many an argument at our house about all the baseball we are visually digesting.

We even went to our first live game in a year and a half and luckily saw a Kansas City walk-off. I didn’t tear up at the stadium like my wife thought I would, but I did have a giant grin on my face the entire time. I missed just being around the game so it felt comforting to be able to have a bit of normalcy.

But most of my viewing this year has been the Royals and while I’ve had to find different ways to view the games, I’ve made it happen. But if we are being honest, there are days that I wish my favorite team was a contender with consistent hitting and starting pitching that could go deep into the game. Unfortunately, I am a Royals fan and these things are not happening on a regular basis right now.

To be blunt, they were shutout by Matt Harvey this past weekend. In 2021. No one should be shutout by Matt Harvey in 2021 (sorry Matt, just saying). This is a team that is next to last in fWAR, runs and walk %, 13th in wRC+ and slugging, and last in home runs and ISO. Jorge Soler is having an epically bad year (how does -1.5 fWAR sound to you?) and Hunter Dozier has bumped his fWAR up to -0.3, which for most of us Royals fans sounds like a giant improvement if you’ve watched Dozier play this year.

KC Royals' schedule, pitching probables, analysis vs. Tigers | The Kansas City Star — Credit: Getty Images

I’m sure it sounds like I am picking on those two guys, but since they were supposed to be “middle of the batting order threats” this year and instead have been an albatross around the neck of the offense, you can understand why I point at those two directly. Add in Adalberto Mondesi’s injuries and a lack of depth in the minors and you could understand why the offense has been punchless (or stagnant. or futile. or barren. or just unproductive).

But we can’t lay all the blame on the hitting. Because if you have taken in a Royals game this year, you are probably aware that the starting pitching has been just as much to blame for Kansas City’s ineptitude. Brad Keller was a godsend in 2020, but this year has the highest ERA for a qualified pitcher. Oh, Mike Minor isn’t too far behind with the 3rd highest ERA. Danny Duffy can’t stay off the IL. Brady Singer struggles to get past the 3rd inning. Meanwhile, youngsters like Kris Bubic, Carlos Hernandez, Daniel Lynch and Jackson Kowar have not been able to maintain any sense of consistency to warrant a regular turn in the rotation.

As a team, the starters have the second fewest innings pitched in the league, the second highest ERA, the second lowest LOB%, the third most runs allowed and the second highest amount of walks allowed. The starters also have the second lowest Win Probability, which is a stat that is solely supposed to be about how much you are helping your team win.

The starters struggles have led to putting more stress on the bullpen, which has forced them to have their own set of issues. While the Royals pen has the lowest fWAR so far, they do have the third highest LOB% (73.7%)…but that is about it. Walks have killed the Royals relievers this year, as they lead the league in walk % and they also have the second highest HR per 9.

Despite looking at all these awful numbers, I still kind of give the pen a pass, because they are being asked to carry so much of the weight of this team. They have the fourth highest innings pitched for a bullpen in the AL this year and there for awhile this past month, the bullpen was throwing more innings than the starters. This is a recipe for disaster and every time the starters have consistently failed, the cracks in the bullpen start to show more and more.

KC Royals 2B Nicky Lopez: big MLB baseball strides in 2021 | The Kansas City Star — Credit: Getty Images

Look, I hate that my first post in months is mostly negative. I love this team too much not to mention what I am enjoying about them in this 2021 campaign. First and foremost is Nicky Lopez. This guy originally was slated to start the year in the minors, but was recalled right before the season opener as Mondesi went on the injured list. Lopez slides into shortstop, a position he hasn’t played regularly in years and while he has been solid on defense, the bat has finally started to show up. Look, the guy still has a wRC+ below the league average of 100 (92 to be exact), but he has hit .270/.355/.332 and become one of the most reliable hitters in the Royals lineup when they need a big hit.

Lopez has lowered his strike out rate and increased his walk rate, which means the numbers are moving in the right direction. Lopez is never going to be a power hitter or even one who racks up a ton of extra base hits. But what he does do is get on base, make regular contact and play above average defense. Add in his ability to get timely hits and you have a player I can get behind to be a mainstay in the Kansas City lineup.

I’ve also enjoyed the additions of Carlos Santana and Andrew Benintendi to the lineup. Both have been in the plus category for this team and hopefully both are still around for next season. In fact I wouldn’t be opposed to an extension for Benny if GMDM could make it happen. He’s young enough and could be a steady bat when the Royals are finally able to contend.

MLB Kansas Royals Salvador Pérez contract extension - Archyde

But the real reason to watch this Kansas City team is catcher Salvador Perez. Last year Salvy had a monster year in just 30 games, as we saw an increase in his power numbers and offensively looked like an elite hitter. If I’m being honest, I really questioned whether or not this change was going to be permanent, as we have spent years watching him struggle with pitches outside the strike zone. But here is the crazy part: Salvy is swinging at a higher % of pitches outside the zone than ever before this year. But he is also swinging at more pitches inside the zone and doing more damage with those pitches.

Just look at Perez’s numbers when it comes to hard hit rate and barrels:

The numbers flat out speak of how Salvy is hitting the ball harder than at any point in his career and it is turning into career best numbers. I still wish the walk rate was higher and his ‘K’ rate was lower, but at this point I get that Salvy is what he is. If that means we get a hitter who consistently hits the ball hard and is a driving force in the middle of the lineup, then I will take it.

Adalberto Mondesi: Prop Bets Vs. Yankees For Jun. 22, 2021

So what can a fan hope for in the second half of this season? I almost don’t even know where to start but getting Mondesi back would be nice. Mondesi has only put up 38 plate appearances but already has 0.7 fWAR in that short amount of time. It really is a glaring window into just how much it has hurt the Royals this year to not have Mondi in the lineup and on defense. In fact Mondesi’s return would actually improve Kansas City’s defense as well, as Lopez could shift to second base (his best position) and Whit Merrifield can go back to RF. No matter what, having Mondesi healthy would be a giant step in the right direction for this club.

Maybe the biggest improvement the team could ask for would be the starters stepping up and stringing together regular quality starts. Getting Keller or Bubic to be consistent would really help the Royals and if anything it would take pressure off of the bullpen. Having either Lynch or Kowar show that they are ready for the big leagues would also help and if anything add some depth to the rotation. Right now (especially with Duffy and Singer on the IL) the team has maybe (maybe?) four starters, with one of them (Hernandez) mainly used as a reliever this year. The fact that the Royals don’t have a fifth starter is concerning and one can only hope someone steps up and is able to fill that role. If not, the last two months could be even rougher for this Royals squad.

Royals snap 11-game skid with win over White Sox | Reuters

Credit: Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports

This season was supposed to be a season where we saw enough improvement in Kansas City to picture the Royals as contenders in the near future. Instead, it feels like very little has gone right and it almost feels like a big step back. One has to question why the younger players (especially pitchers) are seeing great improvement in the minors but not really seeing any once they reach the big leagues. There has been a lot of talk of what pitching coach Cal Eldred is doing (or not doing) once these players are reaching Kansas City. One really has to question his job security when so much of the Royals success ties into these pitchers and their development.

At seventeen games under .500, it really feels like the only direction to go for this team is up. It’s so frustrating to see the struggles this team has when so much talent is involved. If you are an old enough fan, you remember the bad Royals teams of the early 2000’s. The difference between this team and the Royals of years ago is that there is a high level of talent on this squad. No Chip Ambres or Blake Stein’s are on this team. I think as fans, many of us have a lot of questions for the failures of this year and we aren’t seeing anyone take the fall. At some point, there has to be some accountability for this team.

All I know at this point is that this team should be better than what we have seen up to this point. Luckily, we have two months to rectify the wrongs of this season. Also, Bobby Witt, Jr. has a chance of being recalled in September. So there is still fun to be had for this baseball season. Even for us Royals fans.

July 21, 2021 2

All I Wanna Do Is Watch Some Baseball

74 Watching Baseball On Tv Stock Photos, Pictures & Royalty-Free Images - iStock

Over the last year, most of us have gotten very comfortable with being at home while trying to amuse ourselves. A big portion of the amusing comes in the way of watching something on our televisions. To tack onto that even more, for sports fans it has been vital to have a way to watch athletic action from the comfort of our own homes, especially since attendance at these games are either very limited or non-existent.

So as baseball gets set to kick off the 2021 season, it only makes sense that as a baseball fan we would want to watch our favorite team. For instance, I am a diehard Kansas City Royals fan and can’t wait to see what the team has in store for this season. They are a young team with a number of players (Kyle Isbel, Daniel Lynch, Bobby Witt, Jr.) who will be making their big league debuts this season and optimism is running high. So it should be easy to view their games, right? Think again.

You see, I am one of many who have cut the chord and my viewing of any entertainment is from streaming services. To me, cable and satellite are not options and the prices they carry are not even a consideration for me anymore. But there are streaming outlets like YouTube TV and Hulu Live that are similar but don’t cost the arm and leg that cable and satellite does. Up until this fall, you could watch the regional sports networks (RSN’s) on either of these streaming services and you were good to go. But that is no longer an option.

Royals Rumblings - News for March 15, 2021 - Royals Review — Credit: Ralph Freso/Getty Images

So why not? Let’s begin with how we got here. Back in May of 2019, Disney began the process of selling these RSN’s to the Sinclair Broadcasting Group.

Disney to sell Fox regional sports networks to Sinclair for $9.6 billion https://t.co/wxXD6R8S9p pic.twitter.com/KdIpbix6e8
— Reuters (@Reuters) May 4, 2019

At the time it didn’t feel like too big of a deal, although Sinclair has been known as a tough negotiator and we are all aware of the amount of money that is involved in professional sports nowadays. By August of 2019, these networks were no longer airing on Dish Network and Sling TV. I know this personally, since I was a Dish customer at the time. So for the last two months of the 2019 baseball season, I was not able to watch the Royals. I hated it. So in November of that year, I cut the chord and went to YouTube TV. Within a week I was convinced and vowed I was never going back to cable or satellite. Little did I know that I would be right back in the same spot I was before.

At the beginning of 2020, YouTube TV did not have an agreement with Sinclair to broadcast the RSN’s. Luckily, they came to an agreement at the beginning of March. So while there was concern, it was averted and viewers would be able to watch their favorite teams during the upcoming season, even if it was shortened. But that happiness didn’t last long.

Now that the seasons are over, that extension is expiring. Starting October 1, 2020, FOX RSNs will no longer be available on YouTube TV. Members that are impacted will no longer have access to Library recordings from the FOX RSNs.
— YouTube TV (@YouTubeTV) September 29, 2020

Yep, right back at square one. I was one of many that were frustrated. All I wanted to do was watch my Royals and it was turning into a constant struggle to find an outlet that was carrying it. The problem at this point was that I really liked YouTube TV and no desire to get rid of it. Hulu Live also were not able to negotiate an extension. Over a year later, Dish Network still did not have the RSN’s back on their service as well. At this point, it was becoming difficult to actually find a carrier where you could watch your favorite teams play. It was a giant mess.

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What has made this even more frustrating is that MLB TV is not an option if you are a Royals fan…that is unless you live far, far away from Kansas City. Because of their blackout restrictions, you could sign up for an MLB TV account and watch any team you wanted…except for the team you are probably rooting for. While I understand the agreements in place that force these blackouts, it confuses me how baseball can’t figure out that thousands if not millions of people would sign up for MLB TV every year if not for the blackout restrictions. For a business that swears they want to grow the game, they aren’t making it accessible to the people they are coveting.

So as we sit here on the day before the MLB season kicks off the only way to watch a Royals game if you live in the vicinity of Kansas City is cable, Direct TV, or AT&T’s streaming service, which will cost you over $80 a month. Even the new Bally Sports app (Fox Sports is being changed to Bally Sports, FYI) that many of us thought might be an option as a standalone service, isn’t an option. Sinclair announced this past month that you can only access it if you already have a cable or satellite account that carries Bally Sports. They also announced it wouldn’t be available for cord cutters until the 2022 season.

The lack of streaming options for most networks in most markets is a serious issue for MLB. No, you can't *make* YouTube and Hulu and Sling carry the networks, but there has to be an option for in-market cord-cutters. Right now, there's AT&T or nothing. https://t.co/73bNe764Qc
— Brett Taylor (@Brett_A_Taylor) March 30, 2021

So for months I have been racking my brain to figure out how I can watch these games. No family member at this point has cable. My dad has Direct TV, but about the most minimal package he can have, which means no Bally Sports KC. I’m not going back to cable or satellite and paying for AT&T’s streaming service is a move in the wrong direction (plus I hate AT&T). There are nefarious ways you can get around the MLB TV blackouts, but I hate to recommend that to anyone. I feel you shouldn’t have to resort to illegal ways just to watch your favorite baseball team. This is a giant mess and there are going to be a ton of fans not able to watch baseball season this year because of greed.

Yes, this whole thing boils down to greed. Sinclair paid a heavy mint for the RSN’s and are trying to get their money back. That is why they sold the naming rights to Bally Sports. That is why there are no agreements to report. That is also why Sinclair has considered filing for bankruptcy. Like almost all large corporations, it all comes down to the mighty dollar and everything else be damned. But does this thinking work if no one is watching your product that you have not made available? At what point do the teams start getting frustrated that their fanbase dwindles due to not being able to watch their games? More eyes on the product means more money and I’m already wondering how the ratings will look after week one of the baseball season.

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What I’m afraid will happen is that fans will find illegal ways to stream games and once they do that they might never come back. Knowing you have a way to access these games and not have to pay for it can make it hard to go back and start paying for it again. Most fans just want a way to watch some baseball and will gladly pay for that service. If the Bally Sports KC app was ready today as a standalone account, I would sign up in a heartbeat. But it’s not an option and the ones that are left are not realistic.

The reality is that the amount of people who have cut the chord is growing by the day and obviously Sinclair is blind to that. To not have an option for these people is unrealistic and doesn’t speak well for whatever business plan you have implemented. People view media in completely different ways than they did ten years ago (hell, probably even five years ago) and to ignore that is the equivalent of shooting oneself in the foot. Someone can’t watch a baseball game? Okay, they might just move on to a video game. Or Netflix. Maybe hop on Twitch.

Baseball keeps telling us they want to grow the game and get younger fans more involved. But more and more it feels like their actions say the opposite. The average age of the baseball fan continues to go up and taking away the possibility to watch these games will just make it harder to grasp these kids and make them longtime fans. These games need to be accessible and not a journey that could end up at a dead end.

All I wanna do is watch some baseball. I don’t think I’m asking that much.

March 31, 2021 0

The Baseball Hall of Fame is a giant mess

The last couple months I have struggled with how I would approach discussing my IBWAA Hall of Fame ballot. For years I have cherished being able to vote for our Hall of Fame and it was a part of the game that brought me joy, even in unsure times. But that isn’t the case this year.

First, lets start with a quick look at my IBWAA ballot. I have been a part of the IBWAA for years now and love the privilege of placing my thoughts into these votes:

Nine votes for me this year with Hudson being the only first timer on the list. Hudson and Abreu are both guys I feel are borderline at best candidates, but I like keeping them on the ballot every year so we can continue evaluating their cases.

If you notice, there is no Barry Bonds or Roger Clemens on our ballot, as we voted them in back in 2018. I have always voted for players just based off of their numbers and have ignored everything else, including topics like steroids and character issues. To me, the Hall is a museum for everything about the game, good and bad. We will come back to this later in the article.

Here is the IBWAA’s results from this year, as we announced our voting a week earlier than the BBWAA:

So we elected no one this year, as Curt Schilling received the most votes at 64.67 percent. If I’m being honest, the progression we have made over the years in the IBWAA has been solid and I really have very little issues with how our voting has gone. Yes, I wish some players were higher on this list but more than anything we are seeing the right players moving in the correct direction (in my opinion).

But I have some major issues with the BBWAA and baseball in general when it comes to their handling of everything. First, here is where the voting is as of Friday morning:

With 158 ballots revealed/~39.9% known:

No candidate >= 75%
—
Schilling 74.7%
Bonds – 72.2%
Clemens – 71.5%
Rolen – 65.2%
Helton – 53.8%
Wagner – 48.1%
Sheffield – 46.8%
Jones – 41.1%
Vizquel – 38.6%
Manny – 33.5%
Kent – 29.7%
Sosa – 21.5%
Pettitte – 16.5%
Abreu – 13.3%

— Ryan Thibodaux (@NotMrTibbs) January 22, 2021

We are four days from the announcement and no one is over the 75% threshold that is needed. Also, on most occasions whatever the numbers are a few days before, they decline by the time we get to the actual final results. By the way, if you want to keep up to date with the polling, follow Ryan Thibodaux on twitter (@NotMrTibbs). Ryan does a great job and should be your go-to source for Hall of Fame balloting.

So if these results play out as they are now, no one will be voted in this year. Luckily for the National Baseball Hall of Fame, they were never able to hold the induction ceremonies in 2020, so those inductees would be honored at Cooperstown this upcoming summer (if things go according to plan). But having no inductees this year feels like another fumble for the BBWAA.

First, I feel there are many candidates on here that are more than Hall worthy. Even if you are still against Bonds and Clemens, someone like Scott Rolen or Todd Helton should be in the Hall. Third base is highly underrepresented in Cooperstown and Scott Rolen is 8th all-time amongst third baseman according to the Hall of Stats. Helton is 18th among first basemen and 161st all-time, which ranks him in the top 0.8% of all baseball players according to the Hall of Stats. His numbers essentially line-up with the best first basemen that have ever played the game:

While I like that their percentages are moving up, it bothers me that while the ballot has started to not be as jam packed, we are still seeing writers being super conservative with their votes. Look, I get not every voter believes in a ‘Big Hall’ mentality like I do. Some writers feel like the HOF should only be for the best of the best. I get that and while I am of a different thinking, I can respect that opinion.

The issue at this point is that the game has grown over the last 55 years and yet it has gotten harder to be elected to enshrinement. Just look at this quote from the Hall’s website:

More than 19,000 players have stepped onto a major league diamond in the 150-year history of professional baseball. Only 235 have been elected to the Hall of Fame – a rate of about one percent of all major leaguers. Combined with the 29 Negro League players elected by committees and special elections, the total number of ballplayers enshrined is 264.

One percent. That is all. Just one percent of players that have played Major League Baseball are in Cooperstown. So if you are arguing that the Hall of Fame should be small, well, it is. Even if they went ahead and voted in 5 players every year for the next decade, it would still be a “Small Hall”. I’ve always said the more the merrier and I tend to believe if you allowed more players in, the interest in this entire process would get even larger. Instead, it feels like it is going in the opposite direction.

Credit: Dean Coppola/Contra Costa Times via Getty Images

Part of my disinterest in this process has been the lack of actual players to honor. But a much bigger chunk of my indifference is the complete lack of direction by either baseball or the Hall itself. Steroids has been a hot topic issue for years now. Everyone has a different point of view to it and they all have been pretty vocal about that opinion. I have always been of the belief that baseball allowed that era to happen, so I am not going to punish players that weren’t having to succumb to drug testing. To me, baseball made their bed and they can lay in it.

But when it comes to how the writers should vote on this topic, the Hall has given them no direction. All that has been even slightly implicated is to look at the character clause and make your judgment. Sure, you can say the Hall HAS made their opinion felt, by changing the number of years a player is on the ballot and you wouldn’t be wrong by saying that. But it feels like a very passive stance for them to take and it sure isn’t very helpful for many writers who just want to know what their parameters are.

This is also true for the character clause, which within itself is very vague. To give you an idea, here is how it is worded in the election rules:

“…voting shall be based upon the player’s record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character, and contributions to the team(s) on which the player played.”

Once again, this is all left open to interpretation. It would be nice if they gave a little more input into what they are looking for, especially since Curt Schilling has left many a voter wondering how they should view his case.

For the record, I have voted for Schilling every year he has been on the IBWAA ballot. Since I have followed the rule of going purely off of on the field performance, I have ignored his behavior over the years and voted for him purely off of his playing career. I’ve always said that while I don’t agree with his politics, that shouldn’t matter when it comes to a baseball accomplishment.

In hindsight, maybe this is a case where your behavior outside of the game should be judged. I’ve long said that the National Baseball Hall of Fame is a museum, not a church. There are already awful human beings in those hallowed halls and while we might not like it, it is a part of baseball’s history. That being said, just because mistakes were made in the past, it doesn’t mean we have to continue making them. If there is a chance to leave Schilling out because it appears he is promoting hate, then he should be left out. We should be trying to make the Hall of Fame better and like Pete Rose, Schilling can be in the museum while not being personally honored for his career. I know for me, moving forward I won’t be voting for him.

Go look above and see how many words I spilled about issues that could be fixed if the Hall of Fame or MLB took the initiative and made their rules for voting a bit simpler. Because of this, over the last 10-15 years it has become more about the issues within the game than trying to honor the individual performances. I know the writers are mostly trying to do their best to honor the right people, but because of this lack of direction many writers want nothing to do with it:

I really glad I don’t have a Hall of Fame vote.

— Britt Ghiroli (@Britt_Ghiroli) January 22, 2021

I’ve always hoped that as more of the older guard of writers headed out, the newer ones would filter in and some of these problems would start to dissipate. Maybe that will happen, but because everyone in charge has decided to sit on their hands it has made many writers look at the situation like Britt does. I hate that. I wish this was something that every writer wore like a badge of honor. Instead, even I have lost interest in what the BBWAA does with the voting.

I’m tired of the bickering. I’m tired of there not being proper parameters set. I’m tired of players falling off the ballot and leaving their careers in the hands of a committee. Voting for the baseball Hall of Fame should not be this difficult and joyless, and yet here we are. Baseball has pawned off their responsibilities to their writers and it appears more and more like the writers are telling them “Nah, thanks bro.”.

Being honored in Cooperstown is still a treat and something every player should yearn for. But the process is stagnant and messy and no one involved wants to acknowledge that. I’ll still root for the Scott Rolen’s and Billy Wagner’s to get their due, but until the Hall of Fame decides that there needs to be a change, I can’t promise my interest will be there.

January 22, 2021 0

Tag: baseball

A few months worth of thoughts from this Royals fan

A Positive Direction For the Royals

The Royals need to make changes…now

We’ve seen this Royals offense before & it’s a bad sequel

Guessing the Royals Opening Day Lineup

The Hall of Fame process is broken

The Royals weren’t boring in 2021

Comebacks are truly the best

All I Wanna Do Is Watch Some Baseball

The Baseball Hall of Fame is a giant mess

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