KC Royals: What A Difference A Decade Makes
By Scott Dillon
Third Base
The Royals finally have a third baseman who can hit and play the ‘hot-corner’ as a plus defender. Prior to that reliability, the Royals kept moving their third basemen further and further behind the bag until they wound up in left field.
2005: Mark Teahen
Before Alex Gordon was moved to left field, the Royals tried this experiment on Mark Teahen.
2005 was Teahen’s rookie season and it was fairly obvious that he had to catch up to the major league level of play.
Teahen posted a bWAR of -.7 in 2005 and his -21 defensive runs saved gave the Royals -42 from the left side of their infield. (In 2015 they got +3 from that side of the field)
Teahen would go on to be one of the Royals’ better players in his career, but 2005 was nothing special. While his play was normal for the Royals of 2005, he probably wouldn’t have cracked the roster in 2015.
2015: Mike Moustakas
Mike Moustakas is another fan favorite. Cheers, that sound more like booing, of ‘Mooooooooose’ when he comes to the plate have become louder as the Royals have become better.
While Teahen was just starting out in 2005, Moustakas was one season removed from being sent down to Triple ‘A’ to work on his batting.
Moustakas doesn’t just hit well, he plays a great defensive third base.
Moustakas had not lived up to the expectations of his high draft pick ever since joining the Royals. His ability to hit home runs was present, but he never learned to hit for average.
Moutakas proved that he wasn’t a ‘one-trick pony’ from the very start of 2015 when he showed an ability that most hadn’t seen from him before. All of a sudden he was hitting the ball from line to line, and was hitting for a high batting average.
Moustakas doesn’t just hit well, he plays a great defensive third base. He saved four runs at that position this past season and had a fielding percentage of .969, which is well above league average.
Whether he’s making a diving catch to save a run, or firing off cuss-word laden motivation to fire up his team, Moustakas was an integral piece in the Royals’ 2015 championship run.
Next: The Buck Stops Here