Dayton Moore keeps the Kansas City Royals Stuck in the 80’s

Jul 7, 2013; Kansas City, MO, USA; Kansas City Royals center fielder

(1) makes a running catch in the outfield in the fifth inning of the game against the Oakland Athletics at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

3) DEFENSIVE METRICS

Third, and probably most important, is the rise of detailed defensive metrics that allow current managers to employ elaborate defensive shifts tailored to the batted ball tendencies of every player.

These shifts, again, make it harder to teams to string together hits because defenses know where players tend to hit the ball. It’s difficult for players to blow up the shift because it’s hard to adjust the hitting stroke they have perfected through years of play. Add in slide step pitching motions that improves a pitcher’s time to home plate (as well as more power arms), and you also negate the rabbits that used to run wild on the bases in the 70’s and 80’s.

The bottom line is that for the Royals to field an offense that scores enough runs, their lineup needs to be full of great hitters—not just very good ones. Such a team is much harder to construct. There are only so many George Brett‘s available in a generation. You can’t count on fielding a lineup with more than one.

There are only so many George Brett‘s available in a generation. You can’t count on fielding a lineup with more than one.  

That’s why the Royals seem to be running in place despite updating in many areas. Dayton Moore is not a stupid man. He’s assembled an analytics staff filled with bright guys with high-end educations. These guys allow the Royals to play the defenive shifts like most of their peers around the league. But, it’s clear they are an “add on” in the front office rather than forming the strategic core.

That’s why the Royals continue to fail. Tell a Royals official that their organization is “hostile” to sabermetrics, and they will primly relpy with something to the effect that they don’t think that numbers are the only basis on which to make decisions The problem is that modern analytics still hasn’t penetrated the team’s long-range strategic model.