***** Official Royals vs. Yankees game day thread *****

[big nasty kcnut]

I hope we curb stomp these guys.

[Why Not?]

Originally Posted by SithCeNtZ

It wasn't just Salvy though. I wish I had the data to prove it, but I'd bet the royals performance through August was one of the luckiest offensive performances ever. Not in the traditional measure, which is cluster luck, but in a way that shows that guys were playing so far above their head that it helped carry everyone else.

Salvy hits 368(!) in April? I believe that's the best mark of his career. Of course that's only slightly ahead of Fermin who hit .364 one month and .368 another month. Think that happens again? Massey in May hit .333 with a 970 OPS! He will never come close to that again. There is quite a bit of talk about the outfield, but in June and July we probably had a top 5 corner outfield combo in baseball. I'm serious, stop laughing. Renfroe hit 333 with a 1.078 OPS in June with a .297/870 line in July. Meanwhile Melendez had an 800 ops in June and a 944 OPS in July. To put these 900 OPS months in perspective, those would all qualify as Juan Soto's third best month last year. This is not normal. A "normal" hot month is something like Isbel hitting .303 with an 850 OPS in June last year. That is realistically the hottest he can get.

In reality sure, someone will get hot eventually, but odds are we will not have anything close to these kinds of numbers put up. For every guy who was struggling last year at a certain point, we had 2 guys having maybe the best month of their career or playing at an All Star level at least. That just isn't sustainable, and it finally hit in September and has lead into this season.

Yeah, that's a good deep dive. I agree. It's too early to give up on Massey as a productive player (not saying you're doing that) but the plan to think that Renfroe and Melendez would be better, which I admit I was guilty of, mostly because I didn't think they could be worse (I was wrong), was just pure negligence on the part of JJ and company. Isbel probably gets a bad rap by osmosis. He would be a fine 9th hitter and defensive OF if his other OF mates weren't literally the worst players in baseball.

All told, I agree with Lew, however. It's still early and despite being putrid at the plate, the team is 1 game below .500. The good news is, the pitching seems to have picked up basically where it left off last season. The starters as a collective probably have not been quite as good but the bullpen has been better and it appears Ragans has taken that next step. If Vinny and Salvy can come around and we can somehow get another living body in the outfield, we can still be competitive this year. If not, .500 is probably the best case scenario ceiling.

[farmerchief]

Oh, I can’t kick the feeling that bad things happen when Zerpa walks to the mound.

[Straight, No Chaser]

Trash move. This kid can't handle the pressure. Should have left Wacha in.