KC Royals: 4 players to watch in final series before trade deadline

The Twins second baseman might continue a hot stretch against the KC Royals

Edouard Julien has come out of the break on fire and has been a helpful factor in the Twins building a lead in the AL Central. Julien has a slash line of .410/.511/.718 for a casual 1.229 since the All-Star break. To put it bluntly, he might eat up Royals pitching in this series.

During this 11-game stretch, there have only been two games where Julien hasn't gotten a hit, and even in one of those games he walked twice. The Royals will have their hands full with Julien this series, but there are some key factors that could help them out.

For one, Julien is striking out a lot during this stretch (27.7%) and strikes out a lot in general (on the season, 31.5%). The second factor could be his BABIP as he is carrying a staggering .565 during this stretch. He has been the polar opposite of Massey, at least in BABIP/luck, but Julien is hitting for a lot more power and more consistently than Massey. In this writer's opinion, some regression could come, but not a lot as a ton of the metrics are insanely good for Julien.

And for the last player, we focus on a Twins pitcher who hasn't fully shut down the Royals.