Official Report: The Coach Of Kansas City Royals Was Slammed By A Formal Player Due to…
The Royals Are the Most Confounding Story in Baseball Right Now
The Kansas City Royals might be the most shocking team in baseball in 121 years.
Or they might be primed to rival the 2021 San Diego Padres when it comes to monumental collapses.
You can tell me that Shohei Ohtani is on pace to become the first 40–40 player without being caught stealing, that Elly De La Cruz will become the first player to steal 100 bases and hit more than 10 home runs, or that Aaron Judge and Juan Soto could be the first New York Yankees teammates with a 1.000 OPS since Joe DiMaggio and Lou Gehrig, and I would still contest that the Royals are the biggest, most surprising, most downright confounding story of the first third of the season.
The Royals! The team that didn’t win its 31st game last season until July 29. The team that ranked 27th in runs allowed and 23rd in runs scored. The team that tied the franchise record for fewest wins in a full season with 56 and now is on pace for 102.
Here they are at 32–19. Only 63 previous teams in the wild-card era started a full season 32–19 or better through 51 games. Only one of those 63 finished with a losing record: those folding Friars of 2021, who ended the season in a 12–34 freefall to finish 79–83.
All but eight of the previous 63 teams to start this well won at least 90 games or made the postseason. The Royals’ playoff chances began at 12% on Opening Day and are now at 81.8% on Baseball Reference. Only one team made the playoffs in a full season the year after losing 100 games: the 2017 Minnesota Twins.
Let’s assume Kansas City can’t keep up this pace. Say the Royals go 61–50 the rest of the way. That would still give them 93 wins—37 more than last year, which would break the 121-year-old “modern” record of biggest leap forward, held by John McGraw’s 1903 New York Giants (+36 wins).
