KCKingdom
Fansided

KC Royals Drop One Spot In Power Rankings As Cardinals Loom

By Mike Norris

facebooktwitterreddit

FanSided.com released its MLB Power Rankings yesterday, and KC Royals fans may want to look away.

More from Kansas City Royals

Ok, so it wasn’t that bad. Kansas City still sits at an impressive third place, but the Royals did fall one spot from the previous week.

The main culprit: The Los Angeles Dodgers.

It wasn’t so much that the Royals did anything to lose the second spot, but Los Angeles leapfrogged KC and the St. Louis Cardinals to move from third to first in one week. The interesting thing is the Dodgers have actually lost three in a row (two at the time the rankings were released), and the Royals, Cardinals and Houston Astros all currently sport better records.

We all know that records can be misleading, especially in baseball, and that could be the case, explained by Kyle Franzoni, who reported on the site’s rankings.

"The Dodgers had the second best record in baseball, before dropping their last two, and the third-best run differential in the game. However, did you know they’ve managed to make this all happen with just three players having enough at-bats to qualify for the batting title? How much more dangerous does this line-up get when Yasiel Puig and Carl Crawford are available to contribute? They’ll waiting until June to find out."

Basically the Dodgers are getting brownie points for winning with injured stars on the bench, and that should theoretically mean they will be even better when Puig and Crawford return.

However, the Cardinals and Royals may have something to say about being slated behind Hollywood’s Finest.

Franzoni did praised the Royals in his third-place write-up:

"The Royals rank second in baseball with a .434 slugging percentage and pace the league with a .287 team average. Chief among those contributing has been Mike Moustakas. The 26-year-old is finally coming into his own and is off to a .331/.388/.497 start and seems to have figured things out at third as well, amassing seven defensive runs saved and a UZR/150 of 17 to start the year."

The KC Royals been a stat machine this year, both at the plate and on the mound (mostly via the bullpen), and their 26-14 record (second-best behind St. Louis) is validating the numbers.

The Royals will get to prove they belong at the top this weekend as the Cardinals come to town for an I-70 Series that should not disappoint. With a sweep, Kansas City would start next week with the best record in baseball, and they would have “Uncle Mo(mentum)” on their side heading in to June.

Cardinal fans will be showing up to Kauffman for sure, but this is the most anticipated I-70 Series since, oh maybe 1985, and the “Blue” should be bold at The K as well.

And I’m not talking about the Dodger variety.

Next: KC Royals: Predicting All-Star Selections -- Infielders

More from KC Kingdom

Home/Kansas City Royals