KC Royals: Power Rankings Curse Strikes Again

The KC Royals are the latest team to fall victim to the FanSided Power Rankings curse.

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After taking the first two games of a three-game set against the St. Louis Cardinals last weekend, the Royals were on top of Major League Baseball with a 28-14 record. Despite losing Sunday, they had done enough to jump two spots to No. 1 in the FanSided Power Rankings.

After voting was complete Monday, the Royals dropped a three-game set in the Bronx, as the Yankees outscored Kansas City 23-5. It could have been New York breaking out of a 1-7 slump, or it could have been the same type of curse Sports Illustrated has made famous over the years.

Kyle Franzoni of FanSided.com addressed the issue when the rankings were released.

From the article:

"We’re starting to feel a bit like Electronic Arts with their Madden covers. Whichever team climbs to the top of our MLB Power Rankings seems to immediately enter a slide that knocks them down a peg or two. Last week it was the Los Angeles Dodgers, who only allowed us to cast our votes for the rankings before promptly going 35 consecutive innings without scoring a run. Before that it was the Cardinals and Adam Wainright’s achilles tendon."

Alas, it didn’t work and the Royals are now 28-18 and tied for first with the Minnesota Twins — which is another story in itself.

It’s not like the season is over for Kansas City. Finding a team without a four-game losing streak in a 162-game MLB season, is like finding a football team that didn’t fumble all season. It happens. In fact, the 2000 World Series Champion New York Yankees lost their final seven regular season games.

Everything Franzoni wrote in the Power Rankings article about Kansas City is still true, despite the losing streak.

"The Royals have a .281 team batting average entering play on Thursday, the highest in baseball. The all-time single-season record by a pennant winner was the 1927 Yankees, who hit an astounding .307. This Royals offensive unit could make a run at it, especially if Alex Gordon can build on his season and Mike Moustakas can continue to rack up the hits."

The problem isn’t the offense (despite a recent lack of runs), it’s been starting pitching. The Royals rotation has been putrid the past week. Even Chris Young, who had a .40 ERA through his first four starts, struggled his last time out allowing four runs and seven hits in six innings.

The other starters had a 12.75 ERA in the three starts prior to young, mainly because of a 1-plus inning, 11-hit, 11-run debacle from Jeremy Guthrie.

Although Young has a sparkling 1.55 ERA and Edinson Volquez sits at 2.77, the rest of the starters ERAs leave a lot to be desired.

Yordano Ventura — 4.64

Jason Vargas — 5.16

Danny Duffy (DL) — 5.87

Jeremy Guthrie — 6.70

Even though something must be done about the starting pitching, it’s not panic time in KC just yet. After an off day yesterday, the Royals traveedl to Wrigley Field to take on an improved Chicago Cubs team before they return home for three-games sets against the Cleveland Indians and Texas Rangers.

While the Royals have plenty to work on as they finish out the month of May, one thing they won’t have to worry about this week is the curse of being ranked No. 1.

Next: Five Royals Projected To Start All-Star Game

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