I’ve been on a Royals-coaster ride

The Royals were off yesterday, which gave their fans a day to prepare for the next meltdown. I know it sounds pessimistic to say that but the Royals have had a passive-aggressive trajectory in the 8 games they have played so far. I have made a handy graph below to show how Royals fans’ joy (on a scale of 0-10, where 0 = “ain’t making no playoffs in my lifetime” and 10 = “suck it, Detroit”) has changed so far:

As you can see, Royals fans have been taken on a roller-coaster ride and the season is only 2 weeks old. God help us all survive the next 6 months. Also, can we make #RoyalsCoaster a thing? Maybe give that name to a ride at Worlds of Fun?

 

Since there was no game yesterday, I thought it would be fun to examine some stats before the Royals take on the Twins tonight. First and foremost, Salvador Perez leads the American League in batting average (see top 5 below). This is significant, and is possibly the result of every foul ball he has taken off of his face mask. Last season, I cringed every time Adam Dunn or Jason Kipnis fouled one off of Sal, but now I just laugh, knowing that SAL IS GOING TO CRUSH THE NEXT PITCH HE FACES AT BAT. He still hasn’t hit a home run yet, but I think he is saving them all for September, when we play 13 games against AL Central foes, which will possibly decide if the Royals go to the playoffs or not. 

Currently, Alex Gordon leads the Royals with 9 RBIs. In second place are Billy Butler, Alcides Escobar and Lorenzo Cain, with 3 apiece. That is correct: Our $8 MILLION DESIGNATED HITTER ONLY HAS 3 RBIs AFTER 8 GAMES. He has 6 hits in 28 at-bats, along with 4 walks. I thought we were paying him to hit?!?!? I am actually looking forward to Inter-league games where Billy gets to sit on the bench and think about all 133 times he has grounded into a double play in his career, including 3 this year. Additionally, since Billy runs at the speed of his Bar-b-que sauce pouring from a bottle, he can’t leg out any infield hits, which is unfortunate because he only hits ground balls. 

The Royals team ERA is 3.00, which currently ranks 4^th in the AL and 7^th in MLB. If the bullpen would do their jobs, the Royals could easily be 6-2, with a half-game lead over Detroit. As it stands, the bullpen has given up 13 runs, although Greg Holland has 3 saves, which ranks in the top 5 in the AL.

Finally, the Royals defense has been as good as advertised. As a team, the Royals have only committed 4 errors, Sal has thrown out 2 runners trying to steal, Lorenzo Cain ranks #1 among MLB outfielders with 29 putouts, and Alcides Escobar has been making insane plays that the great wizard Ozzie Smith could only dream of making. The Royals are not ranked very high in most fielding categories, but I think that is partially due to the 7 quality starts that their pitchers have produced, meaning that the fielders have not had many opportunities to field anything because Yordano “Ace” Ventura is MOWING DOWN HITTERS, INCLUDING LAST YEAR’S AL ROOKIE OF THE YEAR WIL MYERS (who by the way is having a sophomore slump, hitting only .229 with 0 home runs). 

The Royals and Bruce Chen play the Twins tonight and are facing someone named Kyle Gibson. I am predicting that my Royals Joy holds for one more day before it plummets tomorrow back to zero.