For the first time in decades, the Kansas City Royals are favored to not only win the American League Championship but the World Series…
Las Vegas has them as a 2 to 1 favorite to win the American League and 6 to 1 to win the World Series, according to sportsandodds.com.
Wow!
Most people would probably think St. Louis would be the odds on favorite to win it all with their insane record. Seriously, close to 30 games over .500 this early is unreal – but 15 over for KC is not bad.
So why the Royals?
The American League seems kinda weak overall.
It’s the .500 league.
As of now most teams other than Houston are just above or below .500 in wins and losses except Kansas City. Nobody is really chasing the Royals. The Twins seem like an OK team – not great – and Detroit is falling apart, but the window is closing.
The National League is much better.
In fact, five of the top six teams picked to win it all are from the more established National League. That includes the Cards, Dodgers and Giants – even the Cubs.
So Vegas thinks the Royals will glide into the playoffs with not much pressure.
At this rate KC will easily win well over 90 games and the division race could be about over by late July or early August. But this might not be a good thing, because with no pressure sometimes teams can get complacent and enter the post season over confident.
We saw this last year with Baltimore and the Angels. Thus opening the door for a wild card team, the Royals, to step through. And you just never know in a short series.
It seems no matter who our pitchers are we still win.
Because there are no real over powering lineups outside KC. No awesome pitching staffs or crazy offensive lineups – it’s like Kansas City and everyone else.
Granted when Kansas City rests key hitters like Eric Hosmer, Moose or even Escobar, the chances of winning drop off considerably. However it seems to work in the long run when the regulars are back in the line up.
And while we’d like to have Danny Duffy and Ace Ventura at their best, that hasn’t stopped KC from having its best start in decades.
It just seems to be THEIR year.
Fan support is the key.
No other team gets this kind of love with so many fans not just in Kansas City but around the country. Seems like everyone loves the Royals. For example, the All Star voting. Wow.
That said, KC fans do need to worry about the next couple seasons.
With key player contracts coming up for Alex Gordon, Hosmer and Moose – if we lose two of them – let alone all of them, that would likely change the upcoming seasons. We’ve seen a bit of this when they get days off and other players step in, with not the same results on offense. However we can’t worry about that today.
This could be the year KC wins it all.
If KC loses some of these stars, it’s not likely they will easily be replaced.
Maybe more important, the chemistry could be lost. This young but experienced team thrives on team love and friendship. No question. Let’s enjoy what we have right now, there’s just no way to know what tomorrow holds.
don’t think they’ll get complacent even if they cruise easily to the ALCS. they just want it too bad and know, for the Royals, these opptys don’t come around too often.
You just jinxed them gramps.
maybe you did.
Enjoyed watching the Big Slick Celebrity softball game at Kaufmann the other day..
all the local Hollywood celebs were playing.. Paul Rudd.. Jason Sudeikis..et al..
strange we didn’t see CG out on the field .. since, as he constantly reminds us..
he’s the biggest celebrity in all KC.
True that.
I thought Johnny Dare was our biggest celebrity?
Or maybe Lazlo…..
PS I’VE never ever said that I was. I’m not. For those of us who live here and not LA yeah Dare and I are up there no doubt…but those guys have monster careers in LA. Nice. Rob Riggle was a doorman at Stanfords back in the day and did his first full week headlining a club with us at Legends. Good guy.
With apologies Harry Caray, “it Might be, it Could be, it IS, A. . . . foul ball”; nod Agent 86: ‘Missed it by thaaaaaat much!’
2014, ‘expert’ Kerouac assured that KC wouldn’t win, Chiefs or Royals… and so it was. Nod the Royals, expert “Las Vegas has them as a 2 to 1 favorite to win the American League and 6 to 1 to win the World Series”, expert Vegas just last season picked KC’s Royals in the 2014 World Series too.
Oops.
Anybody can get lucky – including Vegas; alas, not the Royals or Chiefs, appears. Last year’s Superbowl another example – Patriots; that the Seahawks were better/gave it away no thanks to Vegas, only dumb luck. If the Royals have become (according your take, CG) ‘America’s Team’, they should take a cue from the original ‘America’s Team’, the darlings of Las Vegas, Dallas Cowboys.
1966 forward, Cowboys were annually known (derisively) as ‘Tomorrow’s Champions’, and for years tomorrow never came. Picked to beat Packers…didn’t. Picked to beat the Colts…uh huh. Took ’em six years, until ’71. Even then was no consensus – the KC Star ran a ‘what might have have been’ match-up, Chiefs vs Cowboys, had KC ‘AND’ Vegas not laid their own egg vs the Dolphins Christmas Day. KC vs DAL Superbowl would’ve been the game, say the experts; naturally, experts also said ‘the Chiefs would’ve won.’ As a lifelong fan, seriously doubt they would’ve beaten the ’71 Cowboys, who strangled the same MIA team who had just beaten Kansas City.
Chiefs had “the best talent in pro football” – that’s AFL & NFL – according the experts, mid to late 1960’s. They won it all but once & even then due a special wild-card format. The 1970 Cincinnati Reds MLB were ‘the best team ever’ according to many, 102-60 regular season, swept the NLCS to go 105-60 (get the World Series Trophy engraved) – then they were beaten 3 straight the World Series/almost swept in 4 before losing 4 games to 1 to a supposedly inferior Baltimore Orioles team.
Vegas always picks the Dodgers (my team, childhood); yet, LA hasn’t won diddly since ’88 and will not win anything again this year, tho, like clockwork, Las Vegas is chiming in once more that they will. ‘Odds’ are the Cubs (pacing selves since 1908) will win the World Series before the Dodgers or Royals do (ditto before the Chiefs, an Superbowl.)
Wanna know who’ll win it all? Take a guess… yours is as good as Vegas, anyone else’s.
Well this week we got another preview of life without our starting line up…we seem to lose almost all those games. better find a way to hang on to Moose, Alex and Hosmer or at least two of them, Hos and Moose…I think Houston looks like the American Leagues future strong club…young guys, pitching promise and contracts for several years with their big young names…we don’t have that except for Sal and a couple others..will likely mean short lived run at the top…so this year and next could be it.
Personally, the Royals would be *very* lackluster without the Triumvirate — and Salvy, of course.
What restrictions do you put on buying a groupon to come to Stanfords? Will you honor it for weekend shows? Any specific shows that you black out? Are you seated in the back? Will you come and get bumped?
I’d like to get one as I am a fan of the site but I’ve heard not nice things about the way grouponers were treated at Stanford’s reading your google reviews.
sorry if off topic.