House Money Is Still In Effect For The Royals

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In 1985, the Kansas City Royals were sitting on top of the baseball world. The Royals won their first and only World Series Championship in franchise history which capped off a string of eight playoff appearances in ten years. But since then the Royals have only had seven winning seasons while never being able to make it back to the postseason which is the longest current streak in Major League Baseball. The Royals won 86 games in 2013 which was their best season since 1989 and because of that their was some optimism that they could make the postseason this year.

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Kansas City Royals

This season the Royals were a sub-.500 team until the month of June when they were able to turn it up a notch. In June, the Royals were 17-10 which was highlighted by a 10-game winning streak. During that period I did a podcast on 300lbsofsportsknowledge.com talking about the Royals surge and whether or not they would be able to sustain it. I then gave Kansas City a puncher’s chance to qualify for the postseason and with about six weeks to go in the MLB regular season, the Royals are playing with house money. But more importantly the Royals are in the hunt for a division title.

For the month of August, the Royals are 10-2 which has been highlighted by an eight-game winning streak that came to an end this past Tuesday. Now the Royals have surpassed the Detroit Tigers for first place in the American League Central and they are hungry for more.

This Royals team is not an offensive juggernaut as they are not going to remind people of the glory days of Bo Jackson and George Brett, but what they are is a team that knows how to manufacture runs. Entering play today Kansas City is 10th in the AL in runs scored (478), last in home runs (71), and 13th in slugging percentage (.377). But on the flip side the Royals are tops in in the AL in stolen bases (102), second in team batting average (.263), and they’re tied for third in sacrifice flies (38). Players on the Royals such as outfielders Alex Gordon and Jarrod Dyson along with first baseman/designated hitter Billy Butler embody the blue-collar attitude that Kansas City is all about as they are an extremely scrappy bunch of guys.

The Royals team earned run average of 3.59 is currently fourth in the American League and when you’re manufacturing like their offense is, the pitching must be strong if you’re going to have a competitive team. Throughout his MLB career, Royals starting pitcher James Shields has always been a workhorse. The past seven seasons have seen Shields throw at least 200 innings on each occasion and he is once again on pace for that this season as he is currently 11-6 with a 3.25 earned run average. Aside from their team ERA, the Royals are also fourth in quality starts (67) and their bullpen has only blown 10 saves this year which is tied for first in the American League. 35 of those 37 saves belong to relief pitcher Greg Holland who made his second consecutive All-Star Game appearance last summer and he has only surrendered a pair of earned runs since the beginning of July.

Royals general manager Dayton Moore and manager Ned Yost believe that this team can make it to October. Recently the Royals acquired outfielder Josh Willingham from the Minnesota Twins. WIllingham is 35-years of age, and he will not hit for average, but he still has some pop in his bat that can be a shot in the arm for this Royals club.

At the MLB All-Star break, the Tigers had a 6.5 game lead over the Royals, but they have allowed Kansas City to hang around in the divisional race and over the next six weeks anything can happen. Once the Royals finish their current series with the Oakland Athletics, they have a very favorable schedule for the remainder of the season as they only have 10 games remaining against teams that currently have a winning record; including six games against the Tigers which will be crucial. Along with the Toronto Blue Jays, the Royals are the only Major League Baseball team that has failed to make the playoffs this millennium. The way that things are currently going in the American League Central, the Royals could be ready to change that stat in 2014.

Source: Baseball-reference.com

 

 

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By | 2014-08-14T14:29:29+00:00 August 13th, 2014|Categories: Major League Baseball|Tags: , , , |0 Comments

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