Kansas City has had a surprising and enjoyable run to open the season. Now, the question is whether it's going to be a long run.
-- the team that matched a franchise record with 106 losses last year -- are not only on the right side of .500, but feature one of the best run differentials in baseball.-- merely a few months ago, at the end of a disastrous 2023 season. If Kansas City were in the early stages of a rebuild, it might not be fair to label that as a disaster. But the current rebuild can be traced to at least 2018, as the back-to-back pennant winners of the last decade were gradually dissolved.
It's not a group of stars but, highlighted by veteran starters Lugo and Wacha, it's a group of eight players with recognizable names and a good amount of big league success behind them. As miserable as last season was, they did post a .423 winning percentage during the second half , as they went 15-12 after Sept. 1 and finished on a 12-5 sprint.
Luckily for Picollo, owner John Sherman was on board with the patching approach even though the Royals were one of the teams affected by the "Pitching and defense, right, the old adage," manager Matt Quatraro said."If you're throwing a lot of strikes, your defense is on their toes. And especially the closer the games are, the more heightened your awareness is. And I think that's definitely something that's building."
"That part of it is really exciting because that shows a lot of work within different departments to find a diamond in the rough."Star power! 4- and 5-star catches! Youth! 425+ foot home runs! Here's who you should be paying attention to this season.
"Bobby is really driven and wants to learn. He's very coachable," Picollo said."I think he's just scratching the surface what he's going to do." "I feel like I'm at that point where I just really try to control what I can control," Witt said."Just go out to the field and take things pitch by pitch and not worry about the results."
And Witt will be with the Royals for those peak years, as he agreed to a complicated 11-year, $288.8 million extension over the winter. While the deal has opt-outs that could shorten it or extend it to as long as 14 years, even in its most basic form it ensures he will remain with the Royals for the foreseeable future and into his free agent window.
During the modern era , there have been 103 teams with winning percentages that low, not including the Royals and the Athletics last season. Only eight finished .500 or better the following season: Phillies , Cardinals , Pirates , Athletics , Phillies , Athletics , Orioles and, most recently, the Orioles again . The high-water mark for those teams was 87 wins by the '89 Orioles.
That's not very likely to hold up, especially as the weather warms and home run rates rise. The Royals have allowed homers on just 6.8% of their fly balls so far ; the MLB average is 7.9. That's another number that just won't hold up for them, but that doesn't mean it has to collapse, especially if Kauffman Stadium plays big as it often does.
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