Currently (as of 9/10/14), the Kansas City Royals are in first place within the American League Central division and project to be on their way to the 2014 postseason. A trip to the playoffs for the Royals this season would mark an accomplishment that the organization has not attained since the 1985 season, when they eventually moved on to taking the World Series title. To say that the Royals have been in a rut since achieving the title would be a severe understatement. At first, last seasons record of 86-76 appeared to be an anomaly for a perennial failing organization. However, this seasons performance seems to disprove that belief and show that the Royals may in fact have put their losing inclinations behind them. With the acknowledgment of the Royals recent victorious ways, I sought to dedicate a post to analyzing their 2014 season. Thus, this post will be dedicated to pursuing that exact endeavor.
As you can see in the title, I opted to use the word "legend" when describing this 2014 campaign for the Royals. The reason I utilized this word is because of the statistical variance for this Kansas City club. Typically, if you saw a team was in first place in their division, you would assume that the team would be superior in many statistical categories. However, the Royals prove to be quite the statistical anomaly. I will now explicate my reasoning, via statistics I pulled from MLB.com.
Offense
Team BA: .261 (5th in the MLB)
Team HRs: 89 (Last in the MLB)
Team OBP: .311 (20th in the MLB)
Team SLG: .376 (20th in the MLB)
Team Runs: 579 (16th in the MLB)
Team Steals: 135 (1st in the MLB)
Defense
Team Fielding Percentage: .983 (22nd in the MLB)
Team Errors: 92 (10th most in the MLB)
Pitching
Team ERA: 3.50 (8th in the MLB)
Team WHIP: 1.26 (14th in the MLB)
Team Saves: 48 (4th in the MLB)
As you can discern after a first glance of viewing these key statistics, the Royals are clearly not a superior team. They are well below average in terms of team statistical offense. However, they do have a commendable team batting average and are clearly dominant on the base paths. The SB leader of the Royals is none other than Jarrod Dyson, with a total of 33 swiped bags. Dyson, if you can recollect, is an undervalued player whom I highlighted in an earlier post (Who is Jarrod Dyson? (By: M. Lessard)). Despite both his offensive and defensive prowess, Dyson is yet to assume the role of an everyday starter. I believe that this is an utter outrage, but there is nothing I can do to rectify this situation. After analyzing the team offensive statistics for the Royals, I can acknowledge that they have a superior ability to reach base via base hits and then move pretty much at their own will once they reach base. In terms of team defense, the Royals are absolutely atrocious, despite having the presence of perennial Gold-Glover Alex Gordon on their roster. If there is one aspect of the Royals game that has been their savior, it is their pitching. Team pitching is the only all-around above average aspect of the Royals game. Although, even with some of the best team pitching in the MLB, there has to be another reason as to why the Royals are able to remain persistent in their winning ways. Thus, I decided to delve further into my offensive statistical analysis of the 2014 Royals.
Offense
Team AVG in Games Won: .290 (10th in the MLB)
Team Runs in Games Won: 443 (9th in the MLB)
Team AVG with RISP: .271 (5th in the MLB)
Team RBIs with RISP: 446 (8th in the MLB)
Team AVG for Away Games: .261 (3rd in the MLB)
Team Runs for Away Games: 319 (6th in the MLB)
Team AVG for Home Games: .252 (19th in the MLB)
Team Runs for Home Games: 263 (26th in the MLB)
Home Record: 38-33 (W%= 0.535)
Away Record: 42-32 (W%= 0.562)
Team BA Inning Breakdown:
Through analyzing the statistics above, I am able to distinguish some rationale as to why the Royals are able to accumulate so many wins, with sub par overall offensive and fielding performances. First, typically a team likes to utilize a home field advantage in order to enhance their prospects of winning. However, the Royals do not conform to this normalcy. For the Royals have much better offensive statistics when playing on the road and even have amassed a better record and win percentage when playing in foreign confines.
The next statistical section of discussion is related to the Royals performance in games of which they have won. During their winning endeavors, the Royals rank in the top third for Runs and BA. This insinuates that the Royals score many runs in the games of which they are triumphant. To be precise, they average 5.54 runs per win.
In previous posts, I have made implications toward a concept of clutch hitting in baseball. I still stand by my belief that the teams who execute the most in auspicious offensive scenarios (i.e. with RISP) or when its a necessity (i.e. extra innings), will in turn be the more successful teams. Through the evaluation of the Royals offensive production in these situations, I can make the assessment that they are able to perform well offensively when they most need it. As you can see, the Royals are among the upper echelon in the MLB, in terms of hitting with RISP. Team RISP is seemingly very important for a teams success. If you can recall, in my first post, I illuminated some teams which had top tier RISP hitting. Two of the best RISP hitting teams from the 2013 season were the World Series contenders, the Boston Red Sox and the St. Louis Cardinals. Not only are the Royals able to exploit favorable offensive scenarios, but also possess the uncanny ability to hit in dire situations. During extra innings this season, the Royals have amassed a team batting average of .301.
In recent years, the Royals front office most certainly has done a good job in terms of rebuilding their organization. As long as the continue to justly compensate their young stars and build around them, they should have no difficulty remaining playoff contenders.
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