KC Royals: Five Reasons Why Fans Should Be Concerned

May 7, 2016; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Indians center fielder Rajai Davis (20) steals second base as Kansas City Royals shortstop Alcides Escobar (2) can

5.) Failure In The Clutch

The Kansas City Royals hitters led all of major-league baseball in Fangraphs.com’s CLUTCH metric from 2013-15, which measures how they perform in key situations. In fact, the KC Royals led by a wide margin with 10.01 over the second place Orioles at 4.79.

That’s a massive bulge that the Kansas City Royals enjoyed in key situations over the rest of baseball and goes a long way toward explaining #RoyalsDevilMagic.

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The stat heads at Fangraphs have been delving into whether the KC Royals have just been unusually lucky, or if the Kansas City Royals are good situational hitters that defy earlier norms. The argument supporting the idea that the KC Royals were unique was the combination of their: 1) exceptional contact skills along with 2) the rise of strikeouts across MLB starting in 2008.

This season, the Kansas City Royals CLUTCH ability has deserted them in a big way.

The KC Royals stand 13th in CLUTCH in 2016, with a -0.32 rating, which indicates a worse than average clutch performance. That’s a far cry from lapping the rest of the league for three straight seasons, and is a big reason why the Kansas City Royals aren’t winning games.

They’re failing in the late innings at a rate the team hasn’t seen since 2012.

Take a gander at the top of the rankings, and you see the Chicago White Sox leading all of major-league baseball at 2.62 followed by the surprising Phillies at 2.37.

Right now, people who believed that CLUTCH is not a sustainable skill are saying, “I told you so.” Unless the KC Royals can find a way to succeed in game situations once more, they’re unlikely to repeat the results of the last two seasons in which they won the AL pennant.

Next: Reason No. 4

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