Royals 20 HR Seasons Historically

In 1970 the Royals, in their second year as a franchise, had their first 20 HR season.  Bob Oliver put up 27 that year, and since then there have been 64 more 20 HR seasons from a Royal by 30 different players.  Will there be any such seasons this year?

The Royals finally have a double digit homer hitter this season after Eric Hosmer‘s second multi-homer game last night left him at 11 total.  He is by far the most likely to make it to 2o before the end of the year.  Ten of them have come in June and July alone, so his pace right now says that Hosmer will get there.  No one else is looking like they will.  It would not shock me if Billy Butler (8 so far) or Alex Gordon (9) had a hot stretch and ended up there, and Mike Moustakas (7) has some probability, but that is it.

Eight seasons in franchise history have been devoid of a Royal going deep 20 times.  Two of those were in the first three years of existence.  They are then scattered about in 1976, 1981, and 1992 before a new cluster of power outages that include 2006, 2007, and 2010.

The Royals hit their peak in 1977 (John Mayberry, Al Cowens, George Brett, and Hal McRae) and 1987 (Danny Tartabull, Steve Balboni, George Brett, and Bo Jackson) with four players

Jun 18, 2013; Cleveland, OH, USA; Kansas City Royals hitting coach George Brett (5) watches the game in the ninth inning against the Cleveland Indians at Progressive Field. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports

in each year reaching the mark.  George Brett has the most such seasons, of course, with 8 and is followed by Mike Sweeny (6 seasons) and John Mayberry (5).  Brett is judging all the other Royals hitters as you can see on your right.

The only current Royals in the 20 HR club are Butler, Gordon, and Moustakas.  Jeff Francoeur would have been mentioned with them had he not been DFAed earlier this season since he scraped in with exactly 20 in his 2011 season.  That means Hosmer could be the newest member if his seeming turnaround keeps going.  The only thing that is a little frightening is that no one else on the team seems to be a candidate now or in the future with the exception of Salvador Perez.  It is not very likely that Alcides Escobar, Lorenzo Cain, David Lough, or Jarrod Dyson will ever make it, and the team still doesn’t really have a second baseman.

Here is to hoping that Hosmer doesn’t waste two months to start the season next year, and I can write a 100 word history on the Royals 30 HR club that is almost too small to be believable.  Seriously, quite a few individual players have more 30 homer seasons than the entire Royals franchise.