I waited a few weeks to see if the Kansas City Royals could right the ship and…
so far so good!
Kansas City swept Baltimore – a top team in the East – then took three of four from Tampa. Eric Hosmer is back to being his old self, raising his batting average from under .200 in April to .298. Lorenzo Cain is now hitting over .300 and Sal Perez has found his bat with a .283 average. Moose has nine homers and is doing well at the plate – his fielding has been great as well as of late.
So the Royals are now 16-21 – still in last place – but only five games under .500 and 4 1/2 out of first. That’s not where you’d want to be, but hey, it’s a long way from being 10 or more under .500 and on the way to a fire sale of ball players in June.
The $64 million question: Can this team compete for a playoff spot?
There are two reasonable reasons for hope.
First, the pitching is good.
Jason Vargas is arguably the best starter in the league right now at 5-0 with a 1.01 ERA.
Nice.
Danny Duffy is just 2-3 – he’s had very little run support – but he’s thrown well.
KC’s bullpen has improved at times but is still a bit shaky.
Second, the core players have been improving – led by Hosmer and Perez – but Alex Gordon just can’t seem to hit anymore. And the newer guys are still struggling. Still they won seven of their last 10 for the best two weeks of the season.
KC’s division is weak thus far, so if the Royals can stay around .500 into September they likely will be in the hunt for at least a wild card.
There’s lots of baseball left so it may be a couple months before we know which way this team will go. They’ve improved but need to continue to win 2 out of 3 in series most of the time to get out of the mess they created to start this season.
So we’ll see…
I think Alex Gordon did what a lot of players have been doing the last 20 years or so. Let’s just say they boost their stats via performance enhancers and then once they land the BIG 75 million dollar contract they make sure they get all of that money by finally going totally clean. It’s one of the only ways a ballplayer can virtually guarantee they’ll get all that money. Sure, they look like an assface when they all a sudden can’t hit over the Mendoza line but they gotz 75 million reasons to embarass themselves on the playing field. Remember how Royals Jeff Franceur played so great for one season, got the contract and then couldn’t remember how to play major league ball anymore? How about Royals Melky Cabrera? He ALMOST got that huge 125 million dollar contract with S.F. or some other big market team but MLB busted him and his PED scam about a month or two before it was about to happen.
Trust me, Alex ain’t on the juice no more and the smart ones never get caught.
Trust you? Nothing like throwing around accusations about a guy that has done nothing but represent his team and the city he plays for like a the consummate professional. His defense and hustle hasn’t diminished one bit during this slump and that is a testament to his professionalism. His diet, health and fitness routine are second to none in MLB.
I don’t know Alex Gordon from Adam. Never met him. But, I’ll take my professional athletes cut from the same cloth as Alex Gordon 7 days a week and twice on Sunday.
Grab a dictionary and look up anecdotal.
He’s 33, he’s lost at the plate hitting .153 and his fielding is several notches below what it used to be. He also sneaks in a few too many cheeseburgers so that defeats your “best diet that ever was” argument.
Alex Jordan is just a 33 year old ex roid boy who happens to have a guaranteed 75 million in his pocket. I don’t blame him one bit, I would have done the same thing..except for the cheeseburgers.
OK, buddy. Your world. You don’t even know what you don’t know.
It’s a shame Alex has dropped this far, this fast. I think he ranks as the worst player out of 380 players eligible. The Royals are really stuck with him right now and it is hurting the team immensely.
A slump doesn’t last a year and a month. He was playing like poo before fatass wrecked him in Chicago, and then continued after he came off the DL. He’s not in a slump, he’s just not good. He’s lost it whether it’s roids, or confidence, or just not able to cut the mustard. It’s his to own though.
It’s the roids, it happens to so many guys once they get that big contract it can’t be a coincidence.
“if the Royals can stay around .500 into September they likely will be in the hunt for at least a wild card.”
Completely wrong. They’ll never compete for a wild card at .500. Their only chance is winning this lousy division outright.
+1 Exactly right. it’s division or bust. Period.
My point wasn’t they could be a wild card at .500 they just need to be there late in season to challenge for a spot, yes they would need to be over .500 to get a playoff spot.
You’ve gone from the ridiculous (Royals are 10 games under in May, it’s over) to the obvious (Royals need to be at least at .500 at the end of the season to have a chance). I’m not hating on you Glaze, just pointing out the ridiculous and the obvious. I’m gonna suggest something that Charles Barkley asked of one of his fellow commentators on their NBA show the other night. Why don’t you make a prediction NOW, stick with it, and at the end of the season you can either gloat or eat crow. This, the royals are good (1/4th of the way), the royals suck (1/2 of the way), the royals are good (3/4 of the way), the royals suck (end of season), see I told you so, only flies with idiots.
Please no more 64 million dollar questions
We talked about Alex Gordon’s breakdown last year and this year. No I don’t think he will hit that well again…lets face it he was never a top flight hitter…260-275 hitter, that was it, light power, 12-17 home runs a year, great fielder…now he just can’t hit much…no power at all..ZERO home runs and its mid May…hey the guy got 72 million so he won the war we lost the battle.
Really, hitting .151 is a monumental collapse of historical proportions. Right now the question is how are the Royals going to deal with Alex as he is killing the team? He was key to getting to the World Series twice so I guess he deserves a whole heck of a lot. This is similar to the Phillies and their Ryan Howard disaster.
Now I see the ‘hate’ comments…you are flip flopping on Royals…you said they sucked now you say they are good. NO I’M NOT…I’m reporting their improvement, they did improve from worst team in baseball to an ok team right now…here is my prediction, which is the same…THEY ARE AT BEST AVERAGE…around .500 I think likely below..a couple good starters, Danny and Ventura, one or two closers, two hitters Eric and Sal, perhaps Moose and Cain with average but not much pop…result AVERAGE. Not a world series threat NOBODY IN THE MEDIA THINKS THEY ARE, NOBODY IS TALKING ABOUT THEM AT ALL, ZIP, NOTHING…they are a forgotten world series team of yesterday already except here, where we love them…thats it..
HAPPY NOW THERE IS MY CALL, ROYALS NOT GOING ANYWHERE THIS YEAR.
I called it right last year with a no go playoffs, my predictions are not always right but mostly pretty good, why I’m on here. Super Bowl bang, and the score bang, Brady best of all time I wrote for three years, he is, on and on…
I write about whats going on now…now the Royals are better, will they be great NO!.
Sorry not Ventura, he’s passed away I meant Vargas.
Royals didn’t look good against Yanks in first two games here they lost both..pitching fell and hitting just ok…
Now 1/4 full with duffy gone for two months; things go from bad to worse for the fraudroyals…
🙂
K couldn’t agree more. Done..no Duffy no Ace, no starters, gone baby gone…the team has no identity, doesn’t know who it is, home run hitters, power hitters, no clear starter stopper, no clear bull pen aces….two 30 plus home run hitters, maybe 3, Sal, Moose and now Brandon Moss, will do little good…its over..I just wrote about it this am..up soon.
I do agree the Royals are on the verge of collapsing. I just checked and KC is dead last in every offensive category except for triples, where they’re 2nd to last. I will say they’re still fun to watch with Cain, Moose, Salvy, Hosmer, Kelvin, Soria, and Whitfield and Bonafacio..can’t say much for Gordon and Escobar though. Too bad we still don’t have Greg Holland, he’s leading the league in Saves again..for Colorado!
Bottom Line: KC’s offense is badly diluted compared to a couple of years ago..as long as Gordo continues to be a non-factor KC will be in or near the cellar. The dreaded fire sale is only a month or two away.
YEP lots of numbers mostly not good. Defense is still baseballs best by the numbers…good players here and there…too many no shows to be a contender right now…run production is still low and they just aren’t pitching well consistently…looks like .500 or worse to me.