Who’s hot and who’s not on the KC Royals so far this season, Pt. 1

As we are a third of the way through the season let’s look at who has started out hot and who has started cold for the KC Royals.  This will be a series starting with who is hot.

How this series of articles will work is not solely based on stats, but on how some KC Royals players have developed mixed with stats and if they are playing winning baseball, i.e timely hits, sacrifices, and hustle plays.

The season has not started great for the KC Royals as they have a record of 9-14 and are last in the AL Central. Even with this start to the season, there were some players who started their seasons on the right foot and have a chance to turn the Royals season around.

So far this season the Royals have not exceeded expectations based on their record, but they were projected to win 23 or 24 games and the Royals have kept that pace so far. The main reason for the Royals not winning is the offense has been inconsistent.

The KC Royals have the talent to try for a wildcard spot and some of that talent has shown up this season. With how the season has started, though, the Royals need some more players to get hot or to be more consistent in their production.

Let’s look at who has started the season hot and see if they can continue to keep the pace during this shortened 60 game season.

1. Whit Merrifield

To no one’s surprise, Whit makes this list as he has been the best bat on the Royals this year and has been for a couple of years now. Here is Whit’s slash line so far this season, .300/.354/.522, with an OPS of .876. All of these, minus average by .02, are increases from last year.

So Whit has been hitting the ball with good contact, but he has also been hitting for a lot more power this year compared to last.  The reason for this power surge is the fact that Whit is barreling the ball more and he has been hitting the ball with a higher launch angle at 18.6.

Along with the increase to his power numbers Whit has also done better with runners on base with a batting average of .406 with men on. Moreover, Whit has also hit better with runners in scoring position with a .450 average.

So all-in-all, Whit has improved over the past year with more power and being more clutch at the plate. The only thing he really hasn’t done well is stealing bases as he is 2-for-4 on the season, but that has been a trend since last year when he was 20-for-30 in steals.

Whit has been the best bat on the KC Royals this season, but let’s look at the second-best bat in the everyday order.

3. Josh Staumont, Scott Barlow, and Trevor Rosenthal.

So far for the KC Royals this season, these three have been the three-headed dragon out of the pen, especially since all three can throw 95 MPH and up consistently. These three all have ERAs between 1 and 2, except Staumont who has a .90 ERA.

The two biggest arms out of this bullpen that has taken over are Staumont and Rosenthal as they have dominated with their overpowering fastballs along with their off-speed stuff. Along with their stuff, Barlow, Staumont, and Rosenthal have K/9 ratios of 11.57,17.69, and 11.70 which is outstanding for the back end of a bullpen.

These three have relatively similar stats across the board, minus Staumonts K/9, which are all above league average. These three really give off that HDH vibe from the 2014-2015 World Series runs, but we will see if that continues this year. These three have been the answer to the KC Royals bullpen problem this year and that should continue for the rest of the season.

This ends part one of this series. Be sure to check back for part 2 of the series where we look at who has not started the season well.