Kansas City Royals: Projecting 2017 Opening Day Lineup

Cleanup: Eric Hosmer

The KC Royals don’t have a better player at plating runners than Eric Hosmer. The hope for Eric is that he can produce his early 2016 results across the course of the entire year.

When Lorenzo Cain went down last season, so did Eric Hosmer’s slash line. His All-Star worthy first-half slash line of .299/.355/.476 plummeted to .225/.296/.380.

Hosmer’s inability to avoid weak contact on bad pitches by not laying off said pitches, is going to have pitchers trying to pitch around him when no one is on base.

His slash line is much better out of the four spot than the three spot that he had to hit out of when Cain went down last season. It’s become his comfort zone, and it’s most likely the result of having runners on base.

With men on base last season, Hosmer slashed .304/.358/.475 compared to a slash line of only .234/.303/.397 when nobody is on base.

It makes sense considering that Kendrys Morales was following Hosmer in the lineup. With a runner already on base, the opposing teams couldn’t take a chance at walking Hosmer to put two or more runners on for Morales.

Hosmer’s inability to avoid weak contact on bad pitches by not laying off said pitches, is going to have pitchers trying to pitch around him when no one is on base. If he can harness his patience and lay off pitches outside the strike zone he could elevate his game and ultimately out price the Royals in the process.

Given that this is a contract year for Hosmer and he always seems to shine in the spotlight, this could be the year that he really breaks out and this lineup could look very different in 2018 if he does.