Kansas City Royals: Dan Szymborski stirs up controversy with comments

A Twitter rant by Fangraphs writer Dan Szymborski caught the attention and ire of Kansas City Royals fans as 2018 continues to drag along. Let’s dissect these tweets.

As the season slugs along, the Kansas City Royals success begins to appear to be more and more of a mirage then actual reality. Where were you on November 1st, 2015 when the Royals won their first World Series in 30 years?

What about on September 30th, 2014? Did Salvador Perez really get the ball down the third baseline in the epic Wild Card Game?

As dream seasons of years past turns towards nightmares of seasons current, various media members have taken notice. On Wednesday, FanGraphs senior contributor Dan Szymborski let his feelings known with a Royals rant seldom seen.

It should be noted that Szymborski is both right and wrong. This organization, if we are being honest with ourselves, was very fortunate to accomplish what they did (as are any champion).

The Royals overcame Yordano Ventura being asked to be a relief pitcher to the seldom remembered injury that changed the game. Not many will remember that A’s starting catcher Geovany Soto had to be removed after getting injured. He started in part because of his superior ability in dealing with base runners. Think that injury played an impact on outcome?

However, Szymborski is slightly wrong in his comments about the genius planning. The Royals had found their ‘moneyball’ if you will in 2014. Speed, defense, contact. Genius, No. Both neither is valuing OBP  over other attributes as the A’s have been known to for decades, and the Royals approach in 2014 was on display against the A’s. The Kansas City Royals found an identity.

However, what Dan would say next is something Royals fans should read because, for the most part, is correct (minus the hyperbole and not quite right analogies.)

The Royals have done an awful job since the World Series. There is no debate in this. In this space, we’ve documented many of the mistakes since the parade, some of which were questionable moves at the time. We won’t rehash them here.

He is absolutely correct in his comments that the Royals spent their previous seasons accomplishing very little (various reasons, not all the Royals fault) and have been slow to adapt and move forward. There is no better accurate phrase to describe the Royals then slow and inconsistent.

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Per Baseball Reference, the Royals have seen their average attendance drop 37.6% since 2015, dropping from 33, 439 to 20,871. Or another way to put it, the Royals have 12,568 fans less at games now then they did in 2015, and with the season going the way it’s going, that number will only grow in the wrong way. (This does equate to 1,018,08 fans in total, so yes, the Royals are looking to be more than A MILLION fans lighter this season then in 2015.)

One thing Szymborski does (as numerous Royals fans do as well) is reference Alcides Escobar and his terrible, horrible no good very bad batting prowess. While Escobar may be an example of the issue of an organization inability to move on from their past, don’t blame the player. Escobar shows up to work every day ready to go, ready to work. While Escobar may be an example of the issues, don’t blame Escobar for showing up to work everyday.

I will take exception with his clowns and con job. While the organization, making moves in an effort to not lose fans has actually gone backwards both on and off the field, but they are not clowns. While they have not done good at their job in recent seasons, there are no clowns.

So what brought on this rant from Dan? Were fans aware the Royals pay more money to Escobar for every 25 at bats? Yeah, the worst hitter on the team, the one that has taken one day off this year and has been moved around the field almost as often as Whit Merrifield, gets more money for plate appearances.

The Royals are an organization that has really fallen on hard times in a really short span of time. There are going to be a lot of critical comments about the Royals in the months and even seasons to come. Some will be correct, some will not. But it will be there.