The Kansas City Royals today are once again one of baseball’s worst teams….
From the penthouse to the outhouse, yep – from World Series to can’t win two games in a row. We have no offense at all; nobody is hitting. Pitching is MUCH better than the offense, with Danny Duffy and his 7-1 record being the only bright spot anywhere in sight (save the new third baseman.)
The biggest failure this season has been with our middle hitting lineup.
Eric Hosmer has fallen apart with a long, long hitting slump. He’s now batting in the .270’s down from well over .300 in May. He hits few home runs and never when it matters (and only three of them the last two months).
Sal Perez has also been absent for the most part.
It’s hard to win when you score only one or two runs a game for a two months straight.
In close games – like 2 to 1 or 3 to 2 – when we lead going into the 8th inning our formula is give up a game winning homer to the other team. Even horrid Tampa Bay trounced our butts. And they’re the only team with fewer runs scored in the league than the Royals.
Today it seems like ages ago that we were a fun, outstanding baseball team.
What happened?
Injuries? Not really.
The only big name we lost was Moose and his replacement is maybe as good or better than he was. Alex Gordon? Enough said. How can you miss a .200 hitter?
Yes, pitching has been an issue no doubt.
However a lack of anything to help is a bigger issue. No stolen bases; no hitting; few homers. You can say they’re trying and they’re tired – I love that one.
“See being in two straight years of post season wore them out.”
Really? The Atlanta Braves won 14 divisions in a row, went to 5 World Series and they didn’t seem too tired.
Hey, it’s tough going to three World Series in a row, no question. However falling this far is disturbing.
Frankly I’m getting the feeling that it’s back to the doormat times again.
Even the Royals say it’s do or die next season, because we will be losing Hosmer, Moose, Cain and Wade Davis after that. Maybe, maybe not.
The way things are going, Eric may be playing himself into a new Royals contract instead of free agenting out to LA or New York. There is no 10 year $200 million dollar deal if he plays like this next year. Sure he can get over $100 million for say 7 or 8 years from some teams, but he might just as well stay here if that’s the case.
As for the others, depends on how they play next year.
Davis leaves for sure if he is still effective.
And I don’t see lots of help coming from the minors.
We made no trades to speak of this year.
Look, Royals fans are faithful and will continue to come out this year as KC continues its fall from grace to maybe 10 or 15 games under .500. Just barely out of last place.
However, things will really dry up next year if we continue to lose.
I just don’t see this team contending again without a big bat.
I think the pitching staff can turn it around, but with no offense they’ll tire and fall again.
Look, there’s always new hope every season.
There’s hope that Hosmer will come back. Hope that Cain will find his swing again. That Sal will pick it up next season and others will respond. It can happen.
To say this season sucked is an understatement.
The Royals are now a repeat of year’s past – nowhere. Hope it’s not a shadow of things to come. We’ll have to ‘wait for next year to find out.
Now about those Chiefs?
“What happened?”
– 2015* fraud-royals (ditto 1985*) ; Kerouac is proven correct yet again…
“Frankly, I’m getting the feeling that it’s back to the doormat times again.”
– Craigerly, you are correct…
“Now about those Chiefs?”
– speaking of frauds (1969*), the 2016 edition will once again be heap big talk and wee little result, as per the last 45 seasons same. Kerouac predicts the swiss chiefs to finish in the AFC West cellar, 4th place behind the 1st place Broncos, an close second Raiders, and an improving 3rd place Chargers team.
Only winners here are Kerouac, the Broncos and that guy who is gonna Make America Great Again (the hildabeast goin’ down)
TRUMP 2016
🙂
Just a brutal year. The worst offense in the league with among the worst pitching. Hosmer lacks power and first baseman should have. Salvy is the best at her in baseball but is the king of the bases empty home run and will swing at every pitch low and in the other batters box. I honestly don’t know why anyone throws him a strike. That said, with the exception of Orlando everyone is worse. Escobar is easily the worst lead off hitter in baseball. But nobody beats Gordon for sacking. He has been awful, not too mention he took out Moose for the year. Gordon sure reminds me of the running back that got 400 touches the year before then is never the same. He looks like he got old in the off season. That contract is a killer if he doesn’t bounce back. Of course if Bubba Starling was doing what he’s supposed to you don’t have to re-sign Gordon. Watching Lindor for the Indians, who was drafted after Startling, is painful. The offense should be there, don’t understand where it went.
So now all the cucks out there will go back to Sporting Kansas City where they feel more at home?
Well we traded for a bum that has a .260 obp so all is well now…..
Notice no comments….fans are fans and they stay the course no matter what….when things ‘change’ fans don’t. In fact most Royals fans believe they are still in decent shape to get into the playoffs THIS YEAR. I ask them, they get mad at me for saying that the team is bad this year…’its just a cold streak, injuries,” really? This is sports, you can’t just pick a team and say they are one way or the other, time changes their course…as it has for the Royals…
I still see the talent in them, starting pitchers are still capable of winning….Hosmer, Perez and the offense is the big issue here…huge…In 2014/2015 everything bounced our way…we never had the ‘big bats’ we had ‘timely’ bats…no .300 hitters or 30 plus homer guys…hell not even 25 plus….this makes it hard to win all the time, it caught up with us this season when Eric went cold…the team died….there is not other big bat. The others are kinda complementary to Hosmer…he has to perform, this year he hasn’t. Remember early on he was hitting well and we were in first place or close to it all the way until he stopped hitting. Gordon falling down is an issue as well…
This team can come back next year…they have the pieces, the defense, the fan base helps, pitching is there for the most part, hell Duffy is a monster, Davis is great…Ace and Edison are very good when they are normal, so on….we need some offensive help and Eric has to hit…if so the division stinks so we could easily win it or be a wild card next season.
Again this year was about three issues, pitching was off but could have been fixed with offense, Hosmer fell apart, Gordon can’t hit, NOT THE INJURIES….
Ironic Glazer would have a story with a picture of “Rambling Morons”
I don’t post the pix.
But you host the moron
Yes shark tank…glaze is a rambling moron.
Just look at his life’s resume.
Thank god he never had kids.
That would truly be a tragic situation.
You’re wrong again glaze. Last time you wrote an article you should remember the
royals went 7-1 following its publication.
Go back to February or march and see what Harley said.
Harley was in surprise Arizona and noticed the difference in the concentration and
focus of the royals players as compared to the previous year.
Winning the world series had redefined this team. Once a team of young aggressive
players with the heart beats to prove that their previous season was NOT A FLUKE
they came out in 2015 with a chip on their shoulder. To prove that the previous
year’s loss was not a fluke and that they were determined to prove the
so called experts wrong.
Hence they played til the end of October 2015/had one of the biggest parades
in baseball history (800,000 kc fans showed up…but not according to the
ever negative Hearne and his bean counters) an off season filled with adulation
and interviews and constant requests for on air appearances and trophies and
awards galore. It essentially took the winds out of their sales. Coming into camp
you see the lost intensity of 2015 and I commented on that in my writings.
Plus the lack of time off in the months before spring camp of 2016 which seemed
to wear the team down. These are young kids…most in their 20’s experiencing
the greatest achievement in their sport. Many probably did not know how to
handle it. But you could look to the SF Giants and see that repeating as world
champs was a very tough road as they skipped years between their world series
wins.
The royals maintain a strong team. But analysis of the team leads those in power
that because of contract structures and being in a small market, that small windows
of opportunity open for winning championships. We have seen this in many other
championship teams who fail to repeat. Revenues don’t come to fruition and the
owners decide that they got their rings and fire sale the talent in the year after
winning a championship. It’s happened to many teams.
However….with the shortened length of play and no playoffs this should give them
time to reaccess their careers and their breath. They are still a young team with
many future stars. Perez will be back a will hosmer/moose/cain/davis and most
of their starting pitchers unless they are unloaded in the off season.
They have played sparse periods of great baseball…but failing to meet the standards
needed to go back to the WS.
I read where no baseball executives plan for this type of “roller coaster” effect.
And feel that repeating is a very tough endeavor. so now they must decide what
the future holds.
When the Yankees got 8 players for just 2 players in a trade I asked myself why
couldn’t the royals do that. Included in those 8 players was a player considered
by many scouts to bethe next “Derek jeter”. We will have to watch as these players
progress with the yanks.
I also noted that the royals ran out of steam. Their pitching was forced to pitch
amost an entire month into the end of October of 2015 which could have serious
affected their speed/accuracy and their performances. When you look at the
“new” baseball stats you can see how the additional pitching could take the steam
out of the pitchers over the additional month they were pitching in comparison
to those pitcher on teams which failed to make the post season.
I once thought this made little difference, but talked with the royals pitching
coach he said the amount of pitches the royals expended in the post season
was the equivalent of an extra 3 months of pitching based on the intensity/
the drive and the total pitches thrown in the 2015 post season. Undoubtedly that
tooka huge toll on the pitchetrs arms. Remember, in todays baseball, pitchers
are relegated to stats which only allow them to pitch certain numbers of pitches
per outing. the new “stats” via computer give the coaches information that concisely
shows the maximum number of pitches….the maximum of efficiency of each
pitcher based on the number/type and speed of the pitcher. A pitcher who throws
70% of his pitches above 92 miles per hour can only be counted on to effectively
pitch so many pitches and innings til they become ineffective on the mound.
And the coaches chart these numbers. I was amazed to find a company in
the east coast that tracks every pitch/every location of every pitch ever thrown
by a pitcher an provides that information to the teams.
So essentially the royals never got a true break in either the pitching or
hitting over the 3-4 months “off” that they took after winning the WS in 2015.
I read where that takes a huge toll on their effectiveness on the mound or in the
batter’s box.
So in essence, the royals never really got a break from feb of 2015 until the
end of this season in October of 2016. And tht give us reason to believe that
it just was too much and too soon for these young players.
And guess what…Harley pointed this out as the season started.
So what can we look forward too.
Hopefully the team come back with ‘NO FLUKE” ATTITUDE that carried
them thru 2015. That they reset themselves/keep improving the team…and
that they signtheir base of players to last the next 4-5 years.
I believe we’ll see this with 2 players. Davis and hosmer. Davis only threw
10-12 pitches in the ninth innings…can he come back an become the true
closer they need or will they look to herrara and cut a huge amount of cash
out of their lineup. Hosmer goes to arbitration and knowing his representatives
tyler and steve boras (who hates kc royals) we can assume that hosmer could have
that fabled career in 2017 and move toa larger market where he can
get a 150 million dollar deal. If he bats 270 he still can command 80-100 million
dollar contract over 5-8 years. Watch for volquez and davis to probably be
traded for offensive help and eventually moore will have to deal with the outfield
and Gordon and push him to get back on his offensive and defensive track.
Orlando/and the rest of the team can be resigned under decent money terms…
but look for cain to push his numbers up.
Having worked and talked with some of the top people in baseball over the
last 8 months I’ve seen intense interest in what the royals have done and seen
a similar approach by other teams copying what Dayton did to bring the royals
to essentially 3 years of good baseball.
Now with dollars and free agency an another tv contract coming up and the
dollars exploding for live sports on tv you’ll see even greater numbers for
mediocre players because the revenues are so huge. You’re seeing this in
the nfl and mlb and even in basketball as the players will move for the
right contracts.
I can say this…as a longtime royals/A’s fan…the last 2-3years have been
incredible. I would give 8 years of normal play for what we’ve seen
in the last 2 years with the royals. The excitement/the city coming together/
the incredible excitement that rang thru the city can never be replicated…and
in truth they were some of the best years for this team and this city.
NO matter what glaze says…and he says it after the fact and without knowing the
facts/stats that are part of the decisions made by moore and his staff…this has
been an incredible ride. Hopefully it continues into 2017 !!!!!!!
For naysayers and liars like glaze…nothing will make them happy. They are
negative/hateful people who thrive on the negative side of life. That’s why
they are old/aging/and bitter in their writings.
For myself and the other thousands of true fans…it will always be
ROYALS FOREVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
OMG, Harley…
You are so long winded!
Do you have to lie down and take a nap after writing a comment such as this one? Just curious.
no old man. I wrote thisin about 5 minutes.
I am in great shape.
My fingers weren’t even tired after this piece.
I work out 3 hours per day…so writing this short piece
offthe top of my head with facts and stats and an insight
into the royals present and future was very easy.
Maybe you and glaze should come with Harley for a workout
or are you so out of shape for an old man and with a gut
like glaze’s I could get you both in shape in about 30 days.
Planks…working the ropes…cardio….weight training….
maybe some classes taught by the girls (who would put you
both to shame physically)…AND THEN SOME serious
workouts might get you two old men on Social security back
in shape to at least beable to walk from the couch to the
refrigerator for pie and ice cream.
Harley is ready. just contact me via email old worn out man.