The Royals were one of baseballs worst teams in April and May…
They couldn’t hit to save their lives – only Eric Hosmer and ∫ were doing any hitting at all. Thus KC was in last most of those two months and most people wrote them off as a contender for the post season.
Not only that Danny Duffey got hurt and was out nearly two months.
It looked pretty dark.
Then came the home run explosion of June and July.
Moose is now on his way to plus 40 homers – perhaps even 50. If he stays healthy Moose will break all Kansas City home run records, including the Kansas City A’s with Bob Cerv and Reggie Jackson.
The Royals never really had a big banger.
Yes, there was Carlos Beltran but he did most of his home run damage After he left KC for Houston and New York as well as the Cards.
And yes, there was John Mayberry and Bye Bye Balboni, however none of them crossed 40 in one season in Kansas City.
Plus our for Sal Perez with 18 dingers may break the old record and cross 40.
Clearly it’s been the Royals recent surge of power baseball that has put them over .500 at 44-43 and just 1 1/2 games out of first place. Damn had they only handled the Dodgers in LA, they might be in first. The Dodgers ended the Royals hot streak by taking all three games.
Is KC now a solid contender in the American League?
Only the Houston Astros look like a World Series team right now.
The New York Yankees and Boston are battling in the east but nobody is running away with their division except Houston.
Last year’s American League Champ, Cleveland, has been a slow starter this year. They are in first place in our division but far from impressive with a 47-40 record.
It appears the Royals are not planning on trading anyone big this year.
Looks like Hosmer, Moose and Cain will stay put for this season.
The chances of a post season are now good so it looks like another year with a shot at the big prize.
The fans are happy, the Royals are excited and hey why not? They are now contenders again. With all they have been through this season, a return to the World Series would be quite a story.
Still, there are lots of problems.
Pitching is not stable. Duffey is back but still not quite himself. Jason Vargas is 12-3 but has been a bit wobbly as of late. Kelvin Herrera has an ERA of 4.50 (ouch) but still has 19 saves.
The division is up for grabs.
I wrote this team off in June and was wrong so let’s see how far they can go.
On the wagon……..off the wagon………..on the wagon……….
I love your passion, CG. You write like a true fan of the team. Mad when they suck. Glad when they don’t. I like that.
Who knows about this Jekyll and Hyde club? June was a helluva month, but July has started off a bit shaky. I don’t see another playoff run for the Royals, but I’ll be happy to be completely wrong!
Cheers, friend! Go Royals!
I jumped so far off the wagon that I couldn’t even see it anymore.
A mediocre Central Division means the Royals can win 85 games, particularly with their lackluster second-half schedule. Will that be enough? I hope so, because when Dayton Moore made the decision to hang on to his departing stars for the rest of the season, it likely set the team’s rebuilding process back a year. If they make the playoffs, even as a wild-card, look out. The starters on this team can do anything in a one-game or short series.
If Moose stays hot he will surpass the single home run Reggie Jackson hit as a Kansas City A in 1967. A’s moved to Oakland before Reggie started his homer surge.
“I wrote this team off in June and was wrong”
– don’t despair CG, you’ll be right yet again… ‘wait till next year, part 2018, verse 63’
🙂
If only this team came out of spring training with Bonifacio, Merrifield, and Wade Davis we would be interested first. That Soler for Davis trade is brutal and I’m afraid going to doom us in the end. Herrera isn’t cut out to close games and will kill us when we need it most.
What if we are 7 or 8 back by this time next week? These millennials are weak after a break. Hosmer and Moose can’t come back from a 4 day bender like Micky Mantle and Billy Martin could. Billy and Mick did not drink gluten free pomegranate juice.
Oh and unrelated.. I sighted Hearne at the Joe Jackson show a couple weeks ago.. He sat near me… very nice looking companion.. He is catching up to you CG.
Yes our man Hearne is after it! He is dating around and I have heard has had some very hot ladies on his arm. He always did well when we hung out in KC now its western Kansas ‘look out’….
Hey moron. Lawrence hardly qualifies as “western” Kansas. It’s a good thing your so successful you don’t need an educa…….oh……ooops. Sorry. Guess you should have taken those GED classes in the pokie, eh?
Gee sorry Dick, Lawrence is west of KC as is Topkea…where Hearne works soooo…guess one of us is stupid…might not be me.
I guess by that impeccable logic, Mission Hills is in western Kansas, too.
Hey guys in LA working on King of Sting right now and all this week back on Tuesday will report in at that time…
That’s great CG, if they made “Pain & Gain” off of a true story then they’ll certainly make King of Sting!
I think we have a little bit better story, but getting a decent budget with big stars today is a tough road for everyone…I’m happy to have all these folks who believe in this picture and me behind me today…we’ll get there, its been a long road.
Well the Royals are back to their old ways..LOSING…5 in a row now…since I left KC back soon….hard to team to figure out…without that power offense they can’t contend…lets see if it comes back.
CG, the Royals had the best record in the MLB in June and since then they’ve had a little hiccup(mostly because they had to finish a long road trip AT L.A. right before the All-Star break) by going 6-7 so far this month. If they had that extra relief pitcher they probably would have won 3 of those games. This is all the Royals really need to win the division.
E..H. maybe….don’t like losing 6 or 7 to end and start second half….also the home runs have stopped and they have lived by that the last 6 weeks…starting pitching is still a question…as is relief pitching….the Royals are a ‘maybe’ right now…
Do they make trades in the next two weeks? I thought no, but if the losing continues you have to consider trading Eric and maybe more for the near future…Moose is a question on overall value right now…3rd baseman are not in big demand but his home run bat is…yet he hasn’t proved he is a 40 plus guy….I think he will then the price goes up for him…I just don’t see Hosmer staying here no matter what. So do you get something for him or keep him for a playoff run and likely not a world series…
Yeah, things are not looking good..they’re getting killed by Detroit for the 2nd straight night tonight and the season is slowly coming apart.
Still, I don’t think you should shop around Hosmer or Moose because the word will get out and devastate the current players and the fans. Play out the season and at least you can tell the fans you not only tried to win another world series with these fan faves but you tried to see if they’d at least consider staying in KC. The GM would save face, keep a large chunk of the fanbase, and maybe only have a dismal 2018/2019 and then come back strong in 2020.
As a WS winning GM you have to believe that if you’ve done it once, you can do it again.
E.H. good comments…makes sense…yes I think Yost and Moore want to please the fans. If they trade Eric or Moose, most of the fan base will be pissed and blame that for the Royals not being in the post season.
I think its headed down hill now..no more homers, average pitching staff, just not enough there to win it all. Trade rumors have KC picking up two pitchers and one more power hitter who knows…no word on KC tading anyone…still if they keep losing for the next week and fall say 5 or 6 back, then maybe they will trade Eric or Vargas or someone…it will be painful next year when we get zero for these guys who will leave. Hosmer is the key, if he goes likely others will go too…more money…new team…etc…
P.S. the Royals are an odd bunch, you can’t count them out now..they came back once maybe they will again…hey maybe its 2014 again…who knows.
I’m going to predict the Royals keep Hosmer, Moose, Cain, and Escobar for the rest of the season..I also predict they’ll pick up a reliever before the trade deadline. In the end, KC will finish 77-85 and on Oct 1st(the last day of the season) the KC fans will give a standing ovation to all these guys who brought a World Series back to KC.
E.H. again I’m with you on this one..not sure about finish…but yeah around .500 I think…we’ve seen those home run bats go to sleep, like dead for two weeks…pitching is not outstanding and nota recipe for a good post season. Hey those guys did a great job in 2014/15 now most will move on…way it is…yes we will thank them…sad to see it end.
Hmm, I just found something interesting. I looked at all the Royals games so far this year..I discounted our disastrous April and I see one thing..KC has only had trouble with 3 teams in 3 months(actually 1 June until now). These are the Tigers, Yankees, and the L.A. Dodgers. Furthermore, if we had just one more decent relief pitcher we probably would have won many of those games too. Yes I’m cherry picking a 70 game stretch but I’m starting to believe we’re one relief pitcher away from winning this division. Heady stuff.