Kansas City Royals Countdown: Top 10 Individual Offensive Seasons

No. 4) Mike Sweeney 2000

Starting in the new millennium, Mike Sweeney made four consecutive All-Star teams and five in six years. The first of those season proved to be his best and one of the top offensive campaigns in Kansas City Royals history. You may recall the 2000 seasons for Dye and Damon also made this list. It makes you wonder how the team still managed a losing record at 77-85.

For his part, the first baseman/designated hitter hit for average and power to remarkable extents. His triple-slash line of .333/.407/.523 complemented his 29 home runs and franchise-record 144 RBI. Despite his sustained success, Sweeney only managed one other season with more than 100 runs driven in. In 2000, he also put up personal-bests in hits (206), runs scored (105) and total bases (323).

He even performed well in some obscure stats. Sweeney had a career-high 13 sacrifice flies — almost double his second-highest total — and led the league with 15 hits-by-pitch. He also had more walks (71) than strikeouts (67). It was part of a string of five straight seasons (1999-2003) during which Sweeney never had more strikeouts than walks. The right-handed hitting Sweeney wound up 11th in MVP voting — the first of three straight seasons he would garner some votes.

Over his final three years in the majors, Sweeney bounced around to three different teams. He spent one season in Oakland, a season-and-a-half in Seattle and half-a-season in Philadelphia. Sweeney, though, never managed to replicate the success he had in Kansas City.