The 2014 Kansas City Royals were perhaps the most pleasant surprise of the decade when they exploded into the postseason and roared to a World Series Game 7 with the eventual Champion San Francisco Giants.
Whether you were a Royals fan or not, you had to be rooting for them and their fans. I dunno, maybe it was just me.
What was so great about the Royals last year, was the whole thing was a collective team effort. With few superstars, and just plain solid, team baseball players, the Royals showed you don’t have to have a $200-million payroll to get to the mountain top.
Now, with a little more money invested, a few new faces and some major pieces to their great puzzle gone, can this team do it again?
If they can, it starts of course, as every championship does, with their pitching.
Losing James Shields is going to be a huge void in that rotation, if you don’t believe that, you’re kidding yourself. I’m not a huge Shields guy, but his regular season production is hard to replace. The Royals are going to turn to a young guy that, I think, is ready for the role of a true number one.
Yordano Ventura.
Making a healthy 30 starts and picking up 14 wins in his first full big league year, the fireballer has been the talks of going 200 innings and being the next big thing in Kansas City. To me, his 159 strikeouts in nearly 180 innings were a little low for what I think he’s capable of. A strikeout machine in the minor leagues, I expect Ventura to start missing some more bats in 2015 and reaching ever closer to that 200 strikeout plateau. Look for a solid year out this young guy and remember the name.
I wrote a series of breakout candidate pieces back in February, and I had a list of about 12-15. One guy I gave honorable mentions to was Danny Duffy. One of the Royals top young arms just a few seasons ago, Duffy underwent the dreaded Tommy John Surgery in 2013 and recovered to return in 2014.
In 2015, I expect Duffy to turn into that highly regarded, highly coveted, left-handed flame throwing prospect every team wishes they had. Making 25 starts and six relief appearances in 2014, Duffy pitched his way to a stellar 2.53 ERA with 113 Ks in almost 150 innings. A Fielding Independent Hitting (FIP) of 3.83 would suggest Duffy may be in for a decline, however, with a still stellar defense behind him, and a very good defensive replacement for Nori Aoki in left field with the acquisition of Alex Rios, I think Duffy will, and should, be able to get away with some of the balls in play he allowed in 2014.
Maybe a bit of an uptick in the ERA, but I expect Duffy to contend for 15 wins, if not more in this rotation, and between the emergence of him and Ventura, don’t be surprised if he is one of the real breakout guys of the game this summer.
The bullpen of the Royals was such a key factor in their run in 2015, but as we have seen in so many other cases, the bullpen is a case of here one year, gone the next. But I get a different feeling with this group. The Royals have compiled a tremendous amount of quality arms I cannot think they step back too much. Wade Davis was a revelation for Kansas City and Kelvim Herrera was no surprise to me, but he was opened the eyes of plenty across the country.
If you’re going to beat the Royals this year, you better do it to their starting pitcher because this bullpen is not likely to give up much.
After Ventura and Duffy, I have real concerns with the Royals pitching. Edinson Volquez pitched well in Pittsburgh last year to the tune of 13 wins, a 3.04 ERA and nearly getting to 200 innings (192 to be exact).
The real question with Volquez is, now that he’s got his contract (2 years and $20-million), can he do it again. In pitcher friendly parks like Detroit and Minnesota, he’ll have every opportunity to show it. After one good year, I’m not ready to declare he’s turned the corner and can be that stud he was in Pittsburgh when he was pretty much playing with house money. He’s got real pressure and expectation on him to produce this year. Royals fans should hope he can deliver.
Jason Vargas has been a solid, steady hand in this Royals rotation after a 187 inning, 3.71 ERA campaign, though he only won 11 games, if he can get more run support, his sabermetric numbers would indicate a similar statistical year, with a few more wins is in store for this lefty.
Even after consecutive years of 200-plus innings, Jeremy Guthrie still doesn’t impress me. A plus-4 ERA, 13 wins on a team that won just shy of 90 games, and turns 36 in a few weeks is I suppose a decent number four option, but if the Royals want to repeat that magic of 2013, I would think they’d still like to have better options than Guthrie or Chris Young on the back end of this rotation.
Offensively, the Royals last year were so balanced, that was made them such a fun team to watch.
At age 26, if the Royals can get anything out of Mike Moustakas, it is going to be a shot in the arm. At age 26 and starting his first full big league season, ‘Mous’ has to do something this year to show he belongs. Hitting .212 with and OBP of .270-something is not going to get done for the middle of an order hitter. Maybe Moustakas isn’t a middle of the order hitter? Maybe he’s a defensive replacement late in games? I think it’s too early to definitively answer all those questions, but the big man has to do something in 2015 to prove he belongs at the major league level.
Eric Hosmer has had a couple of nice back-to-back campaigns, and while so many aspects of his game are irreplaceable, such as his defense, I’d like to see him hit more power. 15 and 9 home runs respectively, the last two years, I would think the Royals would like to see more in that department, especially from a corner infield spot. But again, given the intangible aspects to his game, you can’t get too picky.
In 2015, the Royals have to give Sal Perez days off. Prior to his 150 game campaign of 2015, Perez had battled injury after injury after injury since arriving in the big leagues. This guy is a star in the making, and if they want to keep that star rising, they need to give him rest. 150 games for a catcher, especially of his size (6’3, 240 pounds) is too much to ask. His bat definitely good enough he could DH a handful of those 150 games he played last year.
While it was a good sign he was able to withstand the brutality that can be the major league baseball season, Perez needs those days off.
But that said, Perez put together a tremendous 17 HR campaign with 70 RBIs and hit .263. I’d like to see his OBP improve a little bit, and with a little rest, he could likely hit a few more home runs as well.
Make no mistake about it though, Perez is one of the best young catchers in the game of baseball today.
One of the other real bright spots for the Royals in 2014 was centerfielder Lorenzo Cain. The uber-talented outfielder finally put it all together, going for a .301/.339/.412 line with 28 stolen bases. At 28 years old, that breakout was a breath of fresh air for KC.
If the Royals get an encore performance from this guy in 2015, that could be a huge lift and a big time catalyst to a repeat ticket to the postseason.
Personally, I think of the two big offseason acquisitions the Royals made, none was more puzzling than Kendrys Morales. To me, this guy hasn’t been the same since 2009, and is living off that one big time season, and every team that signs him is hoping he returns to that guy. I don’t see it, and if the Royals hope they have struck gold with him to replace the departed Billy Butler, well, I just don’t see it.
I think he’s going to be a disappointment and provide more frustration than elation.
On the other hand, I do like the signing of Alex Rios. Despite being on the decline of what has been a tremendous big league career, I think Rios has plenty to offer Kansas City, and is a model of consistency in right field. I think he is going to be an adequate replacement to Nori Aoki and should give the Royals great defense in right.
While the core of the Royals World Series team remains largely intact, a repeat of the magic they had last year will be hard to match. I think the Kansas City continues to build towards a solid team and they certainly have a team that will compete and be exciting, I think a World Series appearance will be difficult to repeat.
Even the playoffs will be a tough task. The Indians come back in 2015 looking very strong. The White Sox are greatly improved, and much like a lot of bottom-dwelling teams, the Twins continue to improve.
It’s a fun time to be a Royals fan, there’s no question about. I’m ecstatic for their fans and the city to finally have a winner in place and a team that can sustain success.
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