Are the Royals really a great elite baseball team?
The answer is YES. Now that we have seen the team evolve over the last two seasons. Hey, the city’s going crazy over these guys for a second straight year.
This year’s 95 win Royals team proved last year was no fluke.
The Royals may indeed be the best team in baseball when it comes to three of four critical areas. For starters, their lineup top to bottom are ALL very good hitters. In fact with rare exception and they have good power to boot. This one through nine group simply wears out the other team’s starters and there just are no no easy outs.
The number nine and eight guys are not that much below the number one and two players in the line up. Be it Escobar or Gordon, Cain or Perez, Hosmer or Moose there just isn’t much of a drop off in hitting quality. They’ve got seven hitters that have good power.
The George Brett era Royals didn’t have that.
The Royals defense has made so many highlight plays you’d have to say they’re the tops in baseball. Then there is the Royals bullpen. WADE DAVIS unhitable – the best in baseball.
The lone area of concern is, of course, the starting pitching.
Because even though Johnny Cueto pitched a gem Wednesday, the Royals just don’t have that shut down ace starter.However all the Royals starters are very good and nobody gets totally blown out. And when they tire or don’t have it, manager Ned Yost has been a master at stopping disaster when it counts. He’s goes to the pen and they stop the bleeding.
So what can we expect against ? A tough battle.
The Blue Jays are favored to win it all. They match KC in most areas and have more power. The advantage the Royals have is Wade Davis and that tireless hitting lineup. But maybe the real biggest difference is the heart of these guys. They really do care about each other, the team and the fans. I think it’s real. They never hang their heads.
We saw this bigtime in game four of the playoffs against Houston.
Even down by four runs in the 8th inning, the Royals still believed they could come back and win. You saw that in the dugout on their faces. And later when Houston was trailing by just one run, they knew they were defeated. That might be the Royals greatest asset – their heart.
Will they get back to the World Series? Will they win one?
Know what Kansas City sure hopes so and believes they will. The Royals believe they will. No matter what, they have given our city a reason to smile and be proud. They ‘re already winners.
“The number nine and eight guys are not that much below the number one and two players in the line up. Be it Escobar or Gordon, Cain or Perez, Hosmer or Moose there just isn’t much of a drop off in hitting quality.”
http://espngrantland.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/royal-face.gif?w=500&h=387
already winners is absolutely true. from what i read, these are great guys.
now about yost, not so sure he’s a “master”… i think he’s left starters in a wee too long several times this year and we’ve gotten burned for it. and his logic behind the line-ups escapes me at times, assuming there is any. but, i will say that i think he’s done a much better job this year over last year.
vs toronto…. i saw a great article i believe it was on NBC News. com, and i think JoPo wrote it (maybe?). good analysis of how toronto’s ballpark favors them and their style of baseball, and can penalize the royals and their style of play, yet it’s the exact opposite at kauffman – favors the royals, penalizes toronto. i’d link it but haven’t had time to go back and search for it. i recommend you do because it’s pretty detailed.
so if true, gotta love that game 6 and 7 are here. and i think it goes 7.
good luck boys! have fun tonight!
Just two comments this afternoon till now? Where is everyone? At the liquor store???
pre-game jitters. no one wanted to write anything that could jinx them.
the liqour store i shop at WAS very busy, tho’.
How refreshing: a post season NLCS & ALCS with no Dodgers ($314 mill), no Yankees ($219 mill) & no team in the Top 5 payroll 2015: Bluejays, (10th), Cubs (11th), Royals, (14th), Mets (15th.)
On the plus side, if the Royals make it to the World Series, an old NL nemesis Cueto is back throwing vs NL hitters, where he shone/made his name. Part and parcel thereof, if the Mets make it the WS, Toronto or the Royals have a chance.
On the down, if the Cubs make it, Kerouac can’t bet against them. A ‘team of destiny’ the ‘sentimental favorite’ story line will tug at the heartstrings most folks and just has to be rewarded. 0 Championships since 1908, not even an appearance WS since 1945.
For reference, 107 years since the Cubs last Championship, twice as long + another 17 years compared the Chiefs 45 years since 1970.
Those AL Red Sox finally buried their own decades long curse a few years ago… more than the heart, the head tells me it’s the Cubs turn, time now.
‘great elite’
smh
You need to win a ring a few times within a decade before you babble silly talk like this. They haven’t even won one yet and you are raving like they are the Yankees of the 2000’s.
Glazer, of course, is making this up as he goes along. It’s fun to check in and watch how his laughable command of the jargon tries to keep up with his so-so at best predictions. That and his constant homer/hater flip-flopping, of course.
The Blue Gays, err, Jays played dirty tonight.
That Donaldson is a f—– douche. He probably tipped Perez’s hand intentional.
Bautista being dramatic with Madson’s high pitch. P-u-s-s-y.
Hawkins hitting Escobar for a walk.
Destroy them, Royals!
I wondered the same thing about Donaldson but wrote it off to my natural skepticism. But then the Esky hit …were they trying to get something going and the Royals just didn’t bite?
Well ‘shim sham man’ and others who want to look at stories on sports being flip flop or hate or love. In sports teams and situations ‘change’ as the season rolls on. It always does. In my writing about the Royals or Chiefs and the rest of sports, it changes. This isn’t a political election its sports. Players get better, worse, injured, in trouble, on and on. So its a changing tide. I try to see the best in our teams when I can. As I wrote a few months back there was hope with the Chiefs. They got a few good players in the off season, like Maclin. Their draft was poor, players decided to not give it their all as we can see on our defense and the rest is history now. I have to call it like it is, not like what we want it to be.
The Royals had some bumps but now look to be on fire. They play as a team and everyone has stepped up. Its not who I like or who I don’t like its ‘whats going on now’ and as we all know it changes. This is not a ‘homer’ or ‘hater’ site for me, its whats up now…I’m sure most readers know that but some want to make or take issue over an ever changing landscape in sports. It always does that.
ghlaze… nothing personal but you are full of shit
they are not ups and downs…merely you’re not knowing the fact and reading
this team.
I doubt you’ve been to a royals or chiefs game. Becausethats where you
get the feeling about a team.
endoone picked the royals to do anything but they failed to analyze
the team and the position players. We had a goodstarting rotation that
came with one ouf of winning it all and a bullpen that shrunkthe game
for starters to just 6 innings. We had hitterswho started to jel in the
post season last year. We have some of the best defensive players in the
league hosmer/escobar/perez/Gordon….that s half the team…
But you continued to bitch about the team and the manager and g m
even at the start of this season th at they didn’t do much to change the
team structure.
As you can see over 70% of the comments were negative…except for
kerowacky who’s ego treidd to impress everyone but he barely made
it over 5O%…YET HAD SOME GOOD NUMBERS AND FACTS BUT
OVERALL HE’S NO BRIGHTER THAN YOU. ITS BEEN FLIP FLOP
FLIP FLOP WITH YOU FOR 4 YEARS IN SPORTS.
YOU BLAME EVERYONE ELSE FOR YOUR FAILED COMMENTS.
YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT SPORTS. All you do is baffle
us with your bullshit..and there’s lots of that.
Your predictions have been less that 40% over 4 years…which means
junior your dog has a better chance at picking a winner than you do
with the b.s. you put on kcc.
Retire your pen…you make up stories to cover your wrong predictions.
You try to make excuses for the stupid comments you make.
And then people catch you at it and you come up with worst excuses
as to why you suck at sports.
Everyone knows you’re a phony…sorry this is based on your ability
to analyze….sum up and use stats and information to cover up
your flip- flop stories.
Get kerowacky on here hearne. At least he has a brain to know a
tremendous amout of stats and info….even though his football picks
on tough games has been abysmal….but he’s a commentator and he
is not the expert like glaze…( yeah right…i’ll bet glaze doesn’t even
hit 40% of his picks when his fuzzy math is not used.)
Send glaze to the minors. His picks are so obvious even a 10 year old
knows more than he does about sports.
now…where’s those articles about the strippers/hos?
That’s what you should stick to…articles about your type of
subjects.
bring it on showboy. Don’t ttake this personally but you don’t
know shit about sports. But hearne is hard up for writers.4
Hearne…have kerowacky replace glaze. The guy knows his
shit…while glazes predictions are shit.
Hater you are welcome to make picks before games. You won’t. As for Chiefs and Royals games. I was president of Red Fridays with Chiefs for years, season tix guy same with Royals…today I am not as involved with either team, losing for years wore me out and I’m busy with other things. However I said as the season moves along I call it like I see it. The story is correct, they are an outstanding team, likely our first back to back world series team. I never said they were the Yankees of old or even St. Louis. Right now they are an ‘elite’ MLB team. In a year or two they may not be anymore. Way it goes. Why would you hate on that? No clue.
By the way they won game two, came back again and right now seem to be THE team. Simple as that, anything can happen. Predictions are just that. So fake name dude. Hate on.
PS hater for two years on this site I picked over 70% in football. Damn good. When you and other haters say flip flop, wtf, its sports and things change. I am not a big fan of the Chiefs franchise we have seen all my articles, that’s clear. However when they do something positive I give them a chance, then they fall, not my fault. As for the Royals they are now a two year good team.
K has agreed with me most of the time. He isn’t a fan of either franchise. For good reason. Right now the Royals are THE team to beat in baseball’s final two playoffs, American League Champs and soon World Series Champs is how I see it. An injury or some other odd issue could change that, happens. This team is scary good right now, much better than last years team.
Nod Salim Khan, “My contribution has been much more than what is being offered to me. So, I refuse to accept it.”
Thank you… thank you so very much.
🙂
The Chiefs can’t even score once today! The more losses the better as it will give us higher draft picks, show Santa Claus Reid out the door, and force the owner to make more changes.
A tale of two franchies, Royals elite Chiefs one of NFL’s worst teams.
The winning currency in the NFL is an elite QB. We have not had one since Joe Montana. David Glass went out and drafted elite pitchers and hitters and it paid off. The Royals management simply works harder and smarter than Chiefs management.
Up until about 14 months ago David Glass looked like a complete ZERO. The Royals finally had a players meeting and went on a hot streak that continues to this very day.
So yeah, Glass looks like a genius now but so can Clark Hunt next year. Wait, I didn’t mean to type that: ANY TEAM RUN BY THE HUNT’S IS GOING TO ALWAYS FAIL! ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!