Minnesota Twins invade Kansas City Royals dome

Photo Credit: John Rieger-USA TODAY Sports

I wrote last week that the upcoming string of games against poor competition was going to be a barometer for the level of play we can expect this year. I certainly hope I was wrong.

The Kansas City Royals went up to visit the Twins of Minnesota, and for all intents and purposes, had their doors blown off, being outscored by a total of 21-5. As a whole, there weren’t many positives that could be taken away from this series, as it seemed almost every facet of the team was poor at some point.

Starter Bruce Chen was roughed up in 3 2/3 innings of work in Friday’s loss, giving up 7 hits and 6 earned runs. He never settled into a groove and appeared to be in trouble from the outset. Louis Coleman came into the game in relief, and gave up a run of his own. Coleman’s return after a finger injury during spring training was suppose to be a positive step in bolstering a bullpen bleeding runs. Even “Big Game” James Shields, the one chosen to end all losing streaks, looked pedestrian in his afternoon start on Saturday. While only 1 of his 7 runs allowed was “earned”, he did allow 2 home runs and 3 walks in his 5.2 innings pitched.

On the other side, the offence continues to look as though the ball is actually a piñata filled with napalm, and they are trying their darndest to ensure they do not hit it hard enough to cause anyone harm. Through 11 games, the Royals still sit at 1 wind aided homerun, and have failed to hit balls with authority.

Billy Butler continues to struggle on the year, looking more and more lost at the plate with every passing game. Billy’s strikeouts and grounded into double play totals combined (11) almost double his hits total (6) thus far, which gives him an OPS+ (16) that is half his age. Mike Moustakas has managed to raise his average up to .111 after starting 0 for the season and has a couple of well hit doubles during his last several games, but he still has a long long way to go before he is more of a help than a hindrance.

The top of the order has done a fairly decent job of getting on base so far this year, but partially hampered by Butler’s paltry numbers, have not had the “big hit” behind them in order to turn it into runs. The same can be said for the bottom of the order, where Salvador Perez,  Alex Gordon and to some extent Lorenzo Cain have been hampered by being surrounded by Alcides Escobar and Mike Moustakas.

It should be noted, however, that while the “patient” Salvador Perez, who set his career walks in a month total on April 9th with 9, was hoped to be a reinvented hitter, his last performance saw him back in his hacking ways, going 0-4 and only seeing 9 pitches in 4 at bats (which when considering one of those was a strikeout is quite impressive).

The Royals currently have two batters slugging over .400 in Alex Gordon and Salvador Perez (Nori Aoki currently sits at .400). This is a problem that is directly related to the Royals being so inept at scoring runs. While they have shown some ability to get on base this year, the facts that they have had VERY poor situational hitting and have had no pop have led to an inability to reach home plate.

There is no short term answer, and of course many will tout the dangers of using such a small sample size to base an opinion, but the question still remains: is this team this bad?

Of course we are only 11 games into the season, and (almost) certainly the Royals will not FINISH 2014 as the AL team with the worst record, a distinction they currently hold. While much of the off-season was spent fretting about a replacement for Ervin Santana and mitigating the almost certain regression to come from the rest of the rotation, it was almost forgotten that the team which was last in Home Runs in 2013 did nothing to solve the problem of having no power and increasing run production.

Aoki was brought in to be an anchor at the top of the batting order, but as an overall offensive player, his value will probably not be much, if at all, better than what David Lough and Justin Maxwell produced there last year. While I’m not bashing on the Aoki signing AT ALL (I think it was a much needed trade), the reason it was made was because of the fear of regression from David Lough, not because the position produced poorly in 2013 (blocking all Jeff Francour memories…do not bring them up).

The Royals arguably got WORSE offensively at catcher by releasing George Kottaras, who managed to have many clutch at bats for the Royals last year and finished with an on base percentage of .349. The only aspect that seems to be better from a strictly offensive standpoint compared to the second half of 2013 is the addition of Omar Infante. While Infante replaces Chris Getz, Getz himself only managed to be an offensive liability for 78 games last year. Emilio Bonifacio and Miguel Tejada helped to offset the damage he was able to do and both were slightly below average offensively, yet not too much less than what we HOPE Infante will be.

The point of this isn’t to paint a dark picture as much as to say – we already knew what we were when this whole thing started. The Royals have not, and will not be an offensive juggernaut this year, and the reason is simple: because they are the same team they were last year without any significant offensive additions to be different. Mike Moustakas still can’t hit, Alcides Escobar still can’t hit, the Royals still don’t hit home runs, and to top it all off Alex Gordon, Eric Hosmer and Billy Butler have been underwhelming in a lineup that can’t take disappointments.

There is definitely plenty of blame to go around for the Royals’ slow start, and while the bullpen has had more than its share of struggles as well, as long as the offence continues to underperform, even by its already low standards, then this team will continue to lose.

Billy Butler is in his eighth year in a Royals uniform, and if Kansas City is going to reach the post season this year, then he must be the first to step up and right the ship. He has been wrongly criticized for years due to his lack of power and propensity to clog the base paths, but his bat and ability to get on base have been the one mainstay of the Royals offence for the better part of his Royals career. When talking about indispensable players, Billy Butler has to be at the top of that list, but is usually forgotten simply because it is always assumed Billy will be Billy.

Well, this year, he’s not, and until he is, the Royals will continue to lose games.

I’ll take the double plays and slow running, but the Royals simply cannot afford to lose a hitter with a career OPS of .819 in a lineup constructed of slap hitters and perennial projects like Escobar and Moose. Butler was panned for having one of the worst statistical seasons of his career in 2013, but he still managed to produce the second most runs on the team behind Eric Hosmer, and 39th most in all of baseball (86).  His offensive production fails to come with the glorious fireworks shows that accompany long high towering home runs, but it is still vital nonetheless. Doubles, well hit singles and walks are still very important to the Royals’ ability to score runs, and when taking away Billy’s sizeable total, this team looks abysmal on paper.

Speaking of not being able to hit, much of the reason that Kansas City decided to become trend-setters this year by not carrying a backup middle infielder was for the ability to have two dangerous right handed power bats off of the bench in Justin Maxwell and Danny Valencia. On one hand, I applaud this outside the box thinking that ensures that the Royals are capable of keeping two valuable players that they may otherwise lose if one had to be placed on waivers. However, I have to ask – what exactly is the POINT of having two power right handed batters?

The best I can guess, the main purpose of a right handed batter on the bench is so they may spell a left handed batter when facing a left handed pitcher. Now, typically, a team’s good offensive players are rarely pinch hit for, but often times those at the bottom of the roster who have typically had bad career splits will be pulled for a more favourable matchup.

Enter the next big problem. Ned Yost.

Ned has been talking all year about wanting to stay out of players’ domes, and while that is a fantastic approach for teams looking to rebuild, a team striving for a playoff birth must understand that winning comes first. This has been the excuse he has levied in certain situations this year when trying to come up with an explanation as to why scenarios more favorable to winning the game were not put into play.

For example, in the ninth inning of Sundays game against the Twins, with the Royals down by one, the Twins brought in left hander Glen Perkins. Instead of allowing one of the right handed bats capable of winning the game and kept for no other reason than to pinch hit for poor hitters, Ned Yost decided to allow the 4th worst hitter in MLB bat instead. If the Royals are to contend for a playoff spot, then players must be placed in the best position to succeed, and this has been a struggle for Ned this year (including continuing to trust Aaron Crow with the game on the line as he did Sunday).

The starting pitching will be fine, the bullpen will come around…but as long as the Royals don’t score runs, it doesn’t matter.