The following is the latest in a series profiling some of 2009's biggest disappointments:
Two weeks ago: Cleveland Indians
Last week: Cincinnati Reds
This Week: Kansas City Royals
Record: 60-87 (5th in AL Central)
How It Happened:
It seems like forever ago, but the Royals sat atop the AL Central on May 7 with an 18-11 record. In the midst of a six-game winning streak, ace Zack Greinke graced the cover of Sports Illustrated in an article by Joe Posnanski that proclaimed he was "The Best Pitcher in Baseball." That might be true, but it wasn't long before it all came crashing down for the Royals. They haven't seen the .500 mark since May 22 (21-21). In fact, since May 22, the Royals are 39-66.
A lot went wrong with the Royals this season, but that shouldn't surprise you. Alex Gordon went down in mid-April with hip surgery. He struggled upon his return to the majors in July, and the club decided to demote him in August. Though they said the demotion was performance-based, the dirty little secret is that the move delayed his free agency until after the 2013 season. Managing just a lousy .215/.324/.347 line with four homers and 13 RBI, 2009 marked another lost season for the former first-round pick.
Limited to just 81 games, Jose Guillen hit just .242/.314/.367 with nine homers and 40 RBI. Counted on to be a mainstay of the Royals' offense, Guillen got off to a late start due to a sore right groin. Then he missed six weeks with a torn ligament in his right knee. And just recently, completing the trifecta, Guillen was grounded for the rest of the season with a strained right hamstring. Good thing the Royals still owe him $12 million for 2010.
If the above two examples didn't show it, the Royals have struggled for offense, ranking in the bottom three in the league in batting average, runs scored, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS and home runs. The pitching hasn't been much better, ranking third-worst with a 4.66 ERA and a 1.43 WHIP - and that's with Greinke. No other qualified starting pitcher on the Royals staff has more than eight wins (Kyle Davies) or an ERA under 4.00 (Brian Bannister - 4.73).
And then there was the trade. You know what I'm talking about. On July 3, the Royals acquired Yuniesky Betancourt from the Mariners in exchange for Derrick Saito and Dan Cortes (No. 3 prospect, according to Baseball America). The move brought on a firestorm of criticism for general manager Dayton Moore, who then committed a cardinal baseball sin by saying, "The defensive statistics - I still really don't understand how some of those statistics are evaluated, I really don't. When you watch baseball games every single day, its very apparent who can play defensively and who can't." Ugh.
Silver Linings:
Though Royals fans suffered through their sixth straight losing season, they were fortunate enough to witness one of the most dominant individual seasons in recent memory. Through his first 30 starts this season, Zach Greinke is 14-8 with a 2.14 ERA, 1.06 WHIP and 224/44 K/BB ratio in 210 1/3 innings. Greinke is second in the league with 25 quality starts. There's been a lot of talk about if Greinke will lose out on the Cy Young because he has only 14 wins, but realize that he ranks 123rd among American League starters in run support (4.71) - 100 IP mininum. Only two other starters (Tim Redding and Justin Masterson) have received less.
The Royals may
not have gotten much return out of their 2005 first-round pick
(Gordon), but Billy Butler has emerged as a legitimate
middle-of-the-order threat. The 23-year-old first baseman is batting
.301/.358/.482 with 17 homers and 82 RBI. Butler ranks ninth in the
league with 65 extra-base hits.
Long
known as a guy who couldn't find the strike zone, Robinson Tejada has
surfaced as a candidate for the starting rotation in 2010. His overall
line -- 3.09 ERA, 1.23 WHIP and 11.42 K/9 -- is impressive enough, but
he has allowed just one run over his first three starts since being
moved to the rotation.
Looking Ahead:
The same cast of characters will be back for at least next season, with manager Trey Hillman assured of a job, and Moore given a contract extension through 2014.
The Royals have about $58 million in contract commitments for 2010 including $12 million for Guillen, $12 million for Gil Meche and $4.5 million for Kyle Farnsworth. They could elect to bring back Coco Crisp for $8 million or Miguel Olivo (leads the team with 22 home runs) for $3 million.
The Royals will not
be a contender in 2010, and they shouldn't pretend to be, either. They
need to stop jerking Gordon around. And as our own Matthew Pouliot
suggested earlier this month, the Royals need to promote on-base
machine Kila Ka'aihue to be the team's designated hitter.
The Jacobs and Crisp trades were poor as well. The worst OBP team in the league decides to address that issue by trading for the worst OBP 1B? You trade away Ramirez and Nunez, so now you have to sign Farnsworth? So now you have Farnsworth, Crisp and Jacobs instead of Ramirez and Nunez. It's the average, the bad and the ugly in exchange for two good young controllable RPs, and about $13M in payroll.
And let's not forget defense!! Not just errors, but missed opportunities, a ball under the glove that an average third baseman would have turned into a double play. They just didn't play like major leaguers.