Did you know...?

There are some surprising things that happen in baseball from time to time. For instance, Oakland Athletics' lefty Dallas Braden pitched a perfect game on May 9th, but hasn't be able to record a win since. Weird. Josh Hamilton of the Texas Rangers has hit almost .500 for the entire month of June. That's nearly unheard of! And then there are some other things that really throw you for a loop. Like this example. The Kansas City Royals have the second best team average in all of baseball. The first team? Hamilton's Rangers, hitting a combined .283. But Kansas City is just a game away from capturing first place with a team average of .281.
That's right folks, the 32-44 Royals have collected a boat load of hits. Led by David DeJesus and his .331 average in 287 plate appearances, the Royals don't have too many holes in there lineup. First-baseman Billy Butler is hitting over .300, as well as utility-man, turned second-baseman Mike Aviles. Outfielder Scott Podsednik is having a resurgent year, hitting .292 currently with 22 stolen bases. And other guys are contributing with solid averages all around. All of which begs the question; 'Why is the team losing so badly?'
Well, one reason is that the starting pitching, other than Zach Greinke, isn't all that great. And Zach Greinke himself is not having a repeat Cy Young caliber performance in 2010. But don't put too much blame on him. KC has a team ERA of 4.71, which ranks 25th out of all 30 MLB teams. Not one starter, including Greinke, has an ERA under 3.70. And the top three pitchers in the rotation, Greinke, Brian Bannister and Kyle Davies have given up a combined 36 homeruns already. That's well more than half the total of homeruns the entire Royals team has hit this year, but we'll get into that in a minute. Back to the rotation though. A major problem is that these starters aren't going far enough into games. Besides Greinke, no one has more than 85 IP (Innings Pitched), which means that the bullpen is being taxed entirely too much. While the pen has done a pretty good job thus far, too much strain early will only lead to tired arms later. To top it off, the entire staff has let up 82 homers this year, which is tied for 3rd most in both leagues. Not good.
But let's leave the pitching alone for a minute. What about this hitting? How can a team hitting so well not be winning? Well, part of the reason is because while the Royals rank second in team average, they rank 11th in walks, 14th in slugging percentage and 16th in runs scored. Meaning, they aren't hitting when it counts. And to make matters worse, the Kansas City Royals are ranked only 26th in homeruns. They have 53 on the season, with Jose Guillen leading the team with 13. To compare, perhaps a bit unfairly, the Toronto Blue Jays lead the Major Leagues in homeruns with 115 currently. That's more than double the Royals. But yet the Jays are only hitting a team average .239. That's because the Jays also rank second in slugging percentage, so they are scoring runs when they have the chance.
For those of you who don't know, slugging percentage is a stat that measures the total bases a player accrues, divided by his at-bats. It is a good measure of power, but it can also determine run-production. Lots of total bases means a player is not only hitting singles, but doubles, triples and homers as well. When a player is on second, a single might not score him, but a double sure will. If you are constantly getting singles, you may have great averages, but you might not be driving in runs. And that is where the Royals find themselves.
Unfortunately for the Blue Crew, they are a small-market team. If they were playing a little better at this point of the year, ownership might take a chance to get a slugger to jack some bombs and drive in those singles with more frequency. Or maybe the front office might make a trade to get another solid pitcher to solidify the rotation. But that seems unlikely now that KC already finds themselves 9.5 games back in the American League Central.
Now it's not unheard of for a team to go on a spectacular run and come back into the playoff picture. After all, look at the Colorado Rockies the past few years, and they are a small-market team. But unless the Royals start showing some improvement immediately, it looks like these high averages will be one of few shining moments for the fans this year. I feel bad for the Kansas City Royals, I really do. And it's not just a pity party either. They deserve better. But young talent, like Alex Gordon and others, haven't worked out the way they were supposed to. Hell, even Zach Greinke was dealing with some psychological issues before he won a Cy Young last year. The point still remains though, that no matter how bad I, or anyone else feels for the Royals, nothing is going to change until they start performing better. And that can be said of just about every club. Well, for now though, buck up Royals fans. As least you get to see the bases full a lot. That's something.
P.S. A little extra, Did you know...? Kansas City has the second most fountains in the entire world. Rome is number one on that list. See you next time.