Kansas City Royals: Good, Bad, and Ugly through 10 games

The Kansas City Royals have been anything but impressive through ten games. Still, there are bright spots mixed in with their 3-7 record, if you look real hard.

The end of the 2017 season was a precursor to how the current season was going to play out for the Kansas City Royals. The farewell tour served not only as a passing of the torch but as a farewell to winning baseball. We all saw it coming.

This season has been hard to watch only 10 games in. There has been a foggy mindset with this team. New players, injuries, strange acquisitions, bizarre lineups, and bad performances. It has been what a rebuild should be, without the players to actually rebuild.

There have been some bright spots believe it or not. The bad and the ugly take the cake, however.

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The Good

Moose. Mike Moustakas has been good so far for Kansas City. Imagine this team without him. Moose is the only player batting over .300 on the season for the Royals, with Whit Merrifield the closest batting .282. Moose is batting .325 with a .575 slugging percentage. He leads the team in hits with 13 and rbi with 8.

The pitching of Jakob Junis and Ian Kennedy has been quite solid so far. Junis won both of his starts so far, allowing 0 runs, 4 hits, 3 walks, and 9 strikeouts in 14 innings pitched. Kennedy is 1-0 in two starts. He’s allowed just 1 run, 8 hits, 2 walks and 13 strikeouts in 12 innings pitched.

Kelvin Herrera and Brad Keller are both off to a good start in the bullpen. In 8.1 innings pitched combined, they’ve allowed 0 runs, 3 hits, 1 walk and 7 strikeouts. Herrera has 2 saves in 2 opportunities.

The Bad

Everything and everyone not listed above. That’s almost true. Starting with the team hitting, the Royals are last in runs scored, second to last in hits.

Kansas City has five players that have played at least seven games who aren’t even batting .201. That’s nothing but bad. It’s obviously hard to win if you can’t score, it is harder to win if you can’t get on base. There are eight players who have struck out more times than they have hit the ball.

The Ugly

Danny Duffy and Brandon Mauer. In three starts Duffy has two losses. He’s pitched 15 innings this season and has allowed 14 hits, 10 runs, 8 walks and 15 strikeouts. He does lead the team in strikeouts, but when you are struggling like he is, it doesn’t matter. He has a 5.40 era on a team that can’t get on base. It’s simple math.

Mauer on the other hand, makes Duffy look much better. In just three innings pitched, Mauer has a 15.00 era. He’s allowed 5 runs on 5 hits, 3 walks, and 3 strikeouts. Opponents are batting.385 against him.

What If

What if Duffy was having a decent season? What if guys like Jon Jay, Merrifield, and Soler had more than just one rbi a piece? Four of the seven losses were by two runs or less. What does this mean? It means the Royals could easily be 7-3. Even playing this poorly, the Royals are not that far off from winning some games.

Next: Best seasons in Royals history

The good thing about all this bad and ugly stuff is that it’s still early. Ten games from now this article could be completely different.