The Royals ARE the most pathetic franchise in all major sports. And to prove it, they plan to go out and get swept by the worst team in baseball today.

"Plan"? "Plan"?

Ned Yost don't got no "plan". He said so himself last week.

You leave my Wingnuts alone. They are my only outlet for enjoyable baseball to watch being that they can actually hit the ball and win games.

8th times a charm

By the WORST team the past 3 seasons...

Team has no heart.

The lack of home runs isn't what really concerns me, its the lack of hits with RISP. I don't know how many times we have had baserunners and couldn't get them in. This team is a pretty good doubles hitting team and has great speed. Infante being out has hurt, the second base hole is just a black hole without him. Combine that with third base black hole and that's really bad offense.

It should concern you, because the total is unacceptably low. Nobody's saying they should be a power team, but they are less than half the league average (20 vs. 47). That's just way too few. That makes runs too hard to come by for a team already struggling to amass baserunners (see below), and it also means opposing pitchers don't have to worry about making mistakes in the strike zone, because those balls are going to stay in the park.

(BTW, this SHOULD be a good doubles hitting team, but so far this year they are just league average in that department.)

As for RISP, it's bad but really no different then their hitting without RISP:

Overall batting: .252/.306/.348
RISP: .241/.308/.346

Indeed, the problem is they don't have enough baserunners, period. They are 14th in the AL in OBP, again far below the league average. So even if they were hitting better with RISP, there would be few opportunities to do so.

An AL general manager (and staff) actually tried to create an offense without anyone who walks + anyone with power. He must be insane to think that would work.

Contact and speed! /1976

The reason power doesn't concern me is because there was only 3 players I expected to have any power on this team and one of them is in Omaha right now. Hosmer and Butler sucking is what concerns me. The rest of them are pretty much expected.

We were 4th in the AL in OPS that year.

Yes, because it was a different environment. That was the point. Baseball of the 2000s is different than the game of the 1970s. Pitching is different, ballparks are different, philosophies are different.

Right, right. Just pointing out that even the quintessential team of the 1970s -- the Royals -- they weren't winning with speed, defense, and pitching alone.

:thumb: