The Kansas City Royals “Really Aren’t That Good”

The Royals “really aren’t that good”.

That’s one comment I read among many, making the similar sentiment.

These two from the same person, Darren A, an Orioles fan:

For all you banned wagon KC fans, your team is really not that good

KC is a CINDERELLA TEAM, they are not that good

Here’s another from Cindy T., also an Orioles fan:

Royals fans…63% capacity at games, 26th in fan support! Facts…listen to Colin Cowherd from this AM, espn radio. Os not having chris, matt, manny hurt. No bats, no starting pitching, bad umps. Enjoy band wagon royal fans, you won’t be there next year!

Are you kidding me?  Allow me to dissect the arguments made by Darren and Cindy, which have been echoed by quite a few fans of other teams.

I’ll leave the “not that good” part til last.

So first up, let’s talk about the Orioles missing three key players.

• Chris Davis:  Through 127 games and 450 at-bats this season, which, of course was prior to his being suspended for amphetamine use, he slugged 26 home runs, had 72 RBI’s.  Respectable there, but not really startling numbers.  While doing that, his batting average was a very modest .196.  Hardly a line to shoulder a significant amount of blame on his loss to the team.  Next…
• Matt Wieters:  Batting a solid .308 average with 5 home runs through 26 games and 104 at-bats, it bears a solid argument for a significant loss to the team’s lineup.  However, 26 games into the season was just a start, and since then Caleb Joseph and Nick Hundley have filled in.  Maybe not quite what Wieters may have done over the full course of the season, but hey, the O’s got to the ALCS with Joseph and Hundley doing the vast majority of the work this year.
• Manny Machado:  82 games, 327 AB’s.  12 dingers, with a .278 avg.  Respectable.  His is the best case for argument in losing a quality player.  But… that was in August, and Ryan Flaherty is a decent player.

Secondly, “no bats”.  True enough, but might that be in part attributed to the Royals’ pitching?  Granted, none of the pitchers on the staff seem to be the second comings of Sandy Koufax or Don Larsen.  But the Royals starters, by and large, throughout the regular season, kept the game within reach for the win to make it to the real strength of KC’s pitching staff, the bullpen.  And through the regular season, the Royals’ three-headed bullpen monster of Kelvin Herrera’s ERA of 1.41, Wade Davis’ of 1.00 (yes, really….1.00!), and Greg Holland’s 1.44 are literally historic.  No team in the history of MLB has had two relievers with an ERA under 1.50 with at least 60 innings pitched.  The Royals had three.  That is truly remarkable.

Johnny Damon sees a similarity to what Joe Torre had in his Yankees pen.

“They are as dominant as we have seen. They are pretty nasty,’’ Damon said of the Royals’ trio. “They remind me of the old Yankee days when they went to the bullpen after the sixth inning and the game was over.’’

No bats.  Ok,  Take solace where you must, I suppose.

Now for the “no starting pitching aspect of Cindy’s argument.  Ok, for the first two games of the ALCS in Baltimore, I can give you that part, with KC tagging O’s starters Chris Tillman and Bud Norris for 5 and 4 runs, respectively.  But Miguel Gonzalez and Wei-Yin Chen kept Baltimore in the game for games 3 and 4, limiting KC to 2 runs each.  Now look back at the Royals’ pitching again.

Bad umps??  Really, where were the controversial calls that went KC’s way?  What calls did they get wrong in this ALCS series?  All of the close calls that were reviewed, showed that the correct call was made.  The only POSSIBLE exception was one that could have gone the Royals’ way, that being when Jarrod Dyson was thrown out stealing 2nd base, where he came off the bag and Jonathan Schoop kept the tag on Dyson’s leg.  The question that some have is did Schoop assist in Dyson’s leg coming off the base.  I personally am not sure either way as it’s hard to tell from the replay.

Now for the comment of “not that good”.  Really?  So, all the incredible diving catches in the Royals outfield by Cain, Gordon, Aoki…  all the catches where they had to run forever to get to the ball to catch it…  the foul pop catch and the dive to snare the line drive by Moustakas in Game 4… the heads-up play by Hosmer at first, diving to the bag to get the out…  the base-running first-to-third, second-to-home, stolen bases…  the clutch hitting…  the stellar pitching…  eight straight wins over 3 very good teams….

Not that good??  Ok, so you might say they got lucky.  Fine.  Let’s consider that.  First of all, there has to be some luck involved in any sport.  Line drives hit right at fielders, etc.  Granted, there was some of that, but that’s baseball.  But you can’t say that the diving catches, the speed and base-running, the pitching were all luck.  Ok, maybe they got lucky on the diving catches, that the batted balls in question were such that they were able to get to them to make that diving catch.  Whatever, hahaha.  If that makes you feel better, then sure, go ahead and say that.

But as for me and my fellow (in my case, lifelong) “bandwagon” Royals fans, we know what we have here.  And we know what we’ve gone through over the years, the jabs, the teasing, the barbs about following a losing team, a team that has been the farm system for the rest of baseball.  We get it, and it’s ok.  Yeah, there are some “bandwagon” fans, there are in every sport, for every team, and we have our share, just as do the Yankees, Orioles, Red Sox and every other team.

But this year, this season….. this…… is OUR YEAR, OUR SEASON…. THIS IS OUR TIME.

You don’t have to like it, you’re not obligated to.  But we would appreciate it if you would allow us to enjoy it, for we, the fans of the Kansas City Royals, have earned it.

P.S. #SFGiants … you’re next. Remember? #Royals swept you this year already. #WorldSeries