KC Royals: Five Key Offensive Players For 2015 Season

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Kansas City Royals third baseman Mike Moustakas – Mandatory Credit: John Rieger-USA TODAY Sports

3) Mike Moustakas, 3B

It seems as if we have waited on Mike Moustakas to take the next step for a very long time. Instead, his career slash numbers (BA/OBP/SLG%/OBP) have trended downward every season of his career.

Year	Age	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
2011	22	89	365	338	26	89	18	1	5	30	2	22	51	.263	.309	.367	.675
2012	23	149	614	563	69	136	34	1	20	73	5	39	124	.242	.296	.412	.708
2013	24	136	514	472	42	110	26	0	12	42	2	32	83	.233	.287	.364	.651
2014	25	140	500	457	45	97	21	1	15	54	1	35	74	.212	.271	.361	.632
4 Yrs	514	1993	1830	182	432	99	3	52	199	10	128	332	.236	.290	.379	.668
162 Game Avg.	162	628	577	57	136	31	1	16	63	3	40	105	.236	.290	.379	.668

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

This is probably a make or break year for Moustakas and the Royals. MLB.com lists him as a prime candidate to finally breakout in 2015. One way to improve his numbers is to beat the shift defenses play against him.

Another would be to hit for more power.

The Royals need for Moustakas to stat hitting for power. They have always needed him to hit for more power. His five home runs in post season have people hoping for the best, but outside of those homers, Moustakas didn’t have a great October.

Moustakas only hit .231 in the playoffs, with an abysmal .259 On Base Percentage. Not the numbers to get too ecstatic about.

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Granted, those home runs were huge, and are reason to maintain some hope he can finally hit for more power in 2015. His post season Slugging Percentage was .558, and his OBP was a respectable .817.

There is one area in which Moustakas has improved, and that is his infield fly tendencies. A few weeks ago, Hunter Samuels of Kings of Kauffman showed how Moustakas cut down his pop-ups late in the season last year.

Still, Moustakas had 15.1% of his batted balls result in a pop-up in 2014. According to Fangraphs, this was Moustakas’ lowest pop-up rate of his career. His career pop-up rate is a stupendously high 17.4%.

Another trend that is promising for Moose is that his Line Drive rate has improved. Last season, his LD% was 20.2, his highest mark since his rookie season. If he can continue to maintain that mark, and hit more balls in the air, and out past the infielders, his home runs should pick up.

The time is now with Mike Moustakas. He needs to become the power hitter and run producer the Royals have always hoped he would be. If he can get his average up over .250, and hit over 25 home runs, the Royals will probably be in contention in September.

With Cheslor Cuthbert and Hunter Dozier starting to make progress down on the farm, Moustakas’ time in Kansas City will be coming to an end if he doesn’t improve drastically in 2015. The Royals need Moustakas to be good, and he needs to be good continue his career.

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