KC Royals: What A Difference A Decade Makes
By Scott Dillon
Shortstop
We’ll go through each position in the order the 2015 Royals batted during the playoffs. Royals’ fans have come to expect flashy play out of their shortstop with Alcides Escobar flashing some serious leather. That wasn’t always the case though.
2005: Angel Berroa
Angel Berroa was pretty good with his bat during the 2005 season with a .270 batting average and clubbing 11 home runs. In spite of his solid offensive numbers his glove was good enough to earn him an overall bWAR of -.5.
"Escobar may not have the firepower that Berroa had with the bat, but he hit well enough in the 2015 ALCS to earn himself the honor of ALCS MVP."
Berroa committed 25 errors in 2005 and had a fielding percentage of .965. By now, most Royals’ fans have heard about defensive runs saved as a statistic. It’s what the Royals do best. They were second in the league in 2015 with 56 defensive runs saved. That should put into perspective just how bad Berroa’s -21 DRS number actually is.
Berroa wasn’t good enough to be the everyday starter for any team after leaving the Royals. That’s not surprising given the sorry state the Royals were in. The last team Berroa played for in his career was the New York Mets. While that came long before 2015, it’s just another little piece of irony in this ten year turnaround.
2015: Aclides Escobar
Escobar may not have the firepower that Berroa had with the bat, but he hit well enough in the 2015 ALCS to earn himself the honor of ALCS MVP.
His tendency of swinging at the first pitch prompted Noah Syndergaard to throw at his head. The Royals players proved that they don’t take kindly to those kinds of actions throughout the regular season.
They didn’t respond by going after Syndergaard, they responded by focusing their energy on hitting the Mets where it hurts the most: The Win-Loss column (Though they didn’t win that game, we all know what the overall outcome was).
Escobar committed 13 errors in 2015, and his defense was good enough to earn him a gold glove. Escobar’s defense and ability to turn on his bat when it matters most is a big reason the Royals won the World Series in 2015.
Next: Zobi-Wan Kenobi