Kansas City Royals: Lexington Legends headed to SAL Title Series

The Class A affiliate of the Kansas City Royals is headed to the 2018 South Atlantic League Championship Series. In the Southern Division Championship, the Lexington Legends defeated the Rome Braves in two games.

The Lexington Legends had themselves quite the 2018 regular season, finding themselves atop the second half standings in the South Atlantic League Southern Division. They have a host of talent, including many of MLB Pipeline’s Top 30 Prospects in the Kansas City Royals organization.

2018 Team Leaders

The Kansas City Royals have plenty of young players to be excited about in the depths of their farm system. Some of the players who have been most influential in leading the Legends to the top of the division in the second half of the season were added in the 2018 MLB June Amateur Draft.

Those players include Jackson Kowar and Daniel Lynch. Kowar has an ERA of 3.42 through 26.1 innings in his nine starts. Lynch has been even more impressive, tallying a mere 1.58 ERA through his nine starts, spanning a total of 40.0 innings. Both pitchers have a promising future ahead of them in the Kansas City Royals organization.

Other major contributors include Brewer Hicklen, Kyle Isbel, Nick Pratto, and MJ Melendez. Hicklen has the team’s highest overall batting average, and he is slashing .307/.378/.552 though 82 games. Isbel was another draft pick, and the outfielder has made an impact in 39 games with a slash of .291/.333/.380. Pratto and Melendez are both highly touted prospects within the organization as well.

Road to the Championship

The Legends took on the Rome Braves in the divisional series. In the opening game, they defeated the Braves by a score of 3-1 before taking the second game by a score of 6-0.

Heading into the Championship Series, they will take on the Lakewood BlueClaws. Lakewood yielded an overall record of 87-51 on the season, and they were the South Atlantic League Northern Division champions in both the first and second halves.

Game one is slated to start at 7:05 on Monday, September 10.