Kansas City Royals: 2019 is all about improvement
The Kansas City Royals have their Opening Day on Thursday and prior to first pitch, Stephanie Apstein of Sports Illustrated wrote up her season preview for what 2019 has in store for the boys in blue.
Sports Illustrated has previewed all 30 MLB teams prior to Opening Day. When it comes to the Kansas City Royals, however, Stephanie Apstein doesn’t think they will be very good, but she did say they are improving. That’s good for Royals fans to hear, as no one wants to go through another near-30 years of rebuilding.
So, let’s get right to the meat of the article, shall we?
It starts off listing last season’s record and then predicting what 2019 will look like. Apstein pegged the Royals to go 68-94, which would be a ten-game improvement from a year ago. That wouldn’t thrill the fanbase, but at least it’s progress.
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From there, the starting lineup along with the bench players are listed and there aren’t any surprises there. The projected starting rotation is Brad Keller, Jakob Junis, Jorge Lopez, and Homer Bailey with Brad Boxberger, Wily Peralta, Jake Diekman, Kevin McCarthy, and Ian Kennedy pitching out of the bullpen.
The “Movin’ On Up!” section focuses on Adalberto Mondesi, who Royals fans are looking forward to watching in 2019. Mondesi displays not only speed, but he’s great defensively and started to swing the bat much better last year too. The knock on Mondesi, however…
"He also struck out 26.5% of the time last year and walked only 3.8%; you can’t steal first."
So there’s that. Mondesi does have the ability to be a superstar for the organization though and him progressing in 2019 is key.
The “Sell” portion fixates on Danny Duffy, which shouldn’t surprise anyone. He’s a great guy and Royals fans love him, but it’s hard to deny that he hasn’t been worth what the Royals are paying him. Injuries and inconsistencies on the mound have been Duffy’s issues and no Royals fan would deny that.
Next up, “Appreciate this man!”, which is supposed to do just that. Apstein took this time to talk about how fast the Royals are going to be when they get on the base paths.
There’s a brief section highlighting Jakob Junis and what he could provide the team, not just this year, but beyond.
"Junis has been working this spring on improving his change-up to give him a better option against left-handed batters, who have hit .278 and struck out just 18% of the time against him over two years (as opposed to .251 and 23% for righties)."
The final segment is about players to keep an eye on.
For this paragraph, Nicky Lopez, Kelvin Gutierrez, Scott Blewett, and Richard Lovelady make the cut. It’s not hard to argue against any of these, as they’re all guys who could be contributing in 2019. Blewett is on the Opening Day roster and should be pitching out of the bullpen, at least to start off.
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With Opening Day set to take place on Thursday (weather permitting, of course, and that could factor in), Kansas City Royals fans will be excited for the 2019 season. It might not be long before any hope of making the postseason is out of the question, but the good news is that improvements are occurring for this franchise.
Even though this a rebuilding year, baseball season is here, and that’s reason to celebrate!