KC Royals: What Do We Know about Kansas City A Quarter of the Way Through the Season

The KC Royals 2016 season is 25% over. So what do we know about the 2016 version of the Royals?

It is at this point in the season that Managers should have a good idea what they have to work with. The Kansas City Royals are right around .500, so for this article we will take a nice cliched “Glass is half-full and half-empty” look at the KC Royals going forward.

Glass is Half-Empty:

The Kansas City Royals offense has been impotent for most of the season. According to espn statistics, the KC Royals are at the bottom of the AL in Runs Scored and above only the Braves and Phillies in all of baseball.  Eric Hosmer is the only non-platoon player with a batting average at-or-above .300, and  according to fangraphs.com there are 5 Royals regulars with and OBP below .300.

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The 2B and RF platoons have been an offensive blackhole, Gordon and Morales are both hitting around .200, and Alcides Escobar appears to be bi-polar getting white hot one week, and colder than the surface of Pluto the next.

Hard-luck soft contact or not, the big signing in the Bullpen of Soria so far hasn’t plugged the hole left by Ryan Madson. Chien-Ming Wang’s velocity bump in spring training appears to be the result of a hot gun, and his opponents batting average is higher than everyone in the Kansas City Royals lineup at .333 except Eric Hosmer who is hitting .336.

So far the starting Rotation for the KC Royals has featured a very hittable, and now injured, Medlen and Young. Young has the highest HR/9 in baseball right now at 3.62, and Medlen is currently sporting a 7.77 ERA.  Ventura on the other hand is healthy, but has a high walk rate at 6.12 BB/9 and is only averaging 5.1 innings per start.

So, while the Kansas City Royals do not currently have a bad record, they have been outscored by their opponents by more than 10 runs so far, and there are some real issues that need corrected going forward if KC hopes to contend for another championship.

Glass is Half Full:

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Despite some injuries, bad luck, and poor offensive output, the Royals find themselves around .500 and only a few games back of the AL Central Leading White Sox.

The offense appears to be coming around. Beginning with last weeks offensive explosion in NY, the Royals have average almost 4.5 runs per game featuring a lot of balls leaving the yard of the bats of Hosmer, Cain, Morales, and a host of others.

The Royals may have found their 4th starting pitcher in Dillon Gee.  Gee is currently featuring a nice 3.12 ERA overall this season and looked great in 5 innings of work against the Yankees in relief plus 5 innings of work as a starter against the Braves. Add in the work so far by Kennedy and Volquez and you have a nice 4 man rotation where the 5th starter spot can be filled by rested long relievers.

If Duffy is included as a reliever, plus the young relievers like Flynn and Alexander, this Bullpen is as deep and talented as any the Royals have had in the last 2 years. 

The bullpen may be better overall in 2016 than 2015.  It appears Herrera and Davis are as good as ever both with ERA’s around 1 so far in this young season. Hochevar has shown he can put out a fire, or be the 7th inning guy featuring a nice K/9 of 10.9 and a FIP of 2.88.  If Duffy is included as a reliever, plus the young relievers like Flynn and Alexander, this Bullpen is as deep and talented as any the Royals have had in the last 2 years.

Then of course there is the defense which appears to be yet again a major strength for the Royals. Right now the Royals are 5th in fielding percentage, 5th in Defensive Runs Saved, and 3rd in overall defense.  In fact if a few errors by Escobar and some of the pitchers are removed, the Royals climb into 1st in the most significant defensive categories.

Next: Royals Report: Three Things About Game 2 Loss vs. Boston

Personally, I opt to take the glass is “Half-Full” point of view and expect the Royals to find a playoff spot come October.