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Title: The Kansas City Royals Are the Future of Baseball
Source:
Time
URL Source: http://time.com/3511262/kansas-city-royals-baseball-future/
Published: Oct 16, 2015
Author: Sean Gregory
Post Date: 2015-11-02 15:46:27 by redleghunter
Ping List: *Baseball* Subscribe to *Baseball*
Keywords: None
Views: 1727
Comments: 14
In baseball, power is out. Speed and defense are in. And the Royals play small-ball best Updated on Oct. 15, 7:18 p.m. Sure, the Kansas City Royals are an intriguing tale for the typical rags-to-riches reasons. A team that hasn’t made a post-season appearance in 29 years becomes the first team in baseball history to win its first eight games in the playoffs. On Wednesday afternoon, the Royals beat the Baltimore Orioles 2-1 in Game 4 of the American League Championship Series, completing a sweep and sending the team to the World Series. But the Royals are more than just an enchanting small-market success story. They represent the changing game of baseball. In the post-steroid era, the game is going through a remarkable transition. Power is out. Pitching, speed and defense are in. Home runs per game are at their lowest levels since 1992. Teams scored 4.07 runs per game during the 2014 regular season, according to stats site Baseball-Reference.com–the lowest total in 33 years. Runs-per-game are down 15% since 2007, and off 21% from their steroid-era high of 5.14 in 2000. Players are striking out 7.7 times per game, an all-time record, breaking the prior high of 7.55 set last season. In fact, in each of the past seven seasons, baseball set a new all-time high for strikeouts per game. Enter the Royals. The Royals had the fewest home runs in the majors this past season, with 95. But no team had more stolen bases, and the Royals have kept running this post-season. The team has stolen 13 bases so far: seven of them came in Kansas City’s wild 9-8 comeback win over the Oakland A’s in the AL Wild Card game. The last big-league club to reach the World Series while finishing last in home runs, but first in swipes, was the 1987 St. Louis Cardinals. Those Cardinals teams of the 1980s played an exciting brand of “small-ball” throughout the decade: the ’82 Cards finished second in steals, and last in home runs, and won it all (the ’82 Oakland A’s finished first in steals, thanks to Rickey Henderson’s 130 swipes, a modern-era, single-season record that still stands). Poster Comment: Posted at the request of our resident Royals fan GarySpFc.
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#1. To: CZ82, tomder55, liberator, GarySpFc, Don, BobCeleste (#0)
Ping
What impressed me on top of all that was that they are a free swinging team that doesn't strike out a lot. They put the ball in play and dare their opponents to play flawless defense.
There's loads that go behind such player success. Scouting, analytics and development.
Sabermetrics
There were 500,000 fans cheering for the Royals at today's parade.
Today the estimates for the crowd were upped to 800,000.
Great turnout for a great team. Long time in waiting for another WS win. Great fan base. 800,000 people is more folks that actually live in KC:)
#11. To: redleghunter (#9)
Metro is 2.5.million.
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#2. To: redleghunter, CZ82, liberator, GarySpFc, Don, BobCeleste (#1)
#4. To: tomder55 (#2)
What impressed me on top of all that was that they are a free swinging team that doesn't strike out a lot. They put the ball in play and dare their opponents to play flawless defense.
#5. To: redleghunter (#4)
There's loads that go behind such player success. Scouting, analytics and development.
#6. To: ALL (#5)
#7. To: GarySpFC (#6)
#8. To: redleghunter, ALL (#7)
(Edited)
#9. To: GarySpFC (#8)
Replies to Comment # 9. 800,000 people is more folks that actually live in KC:)ccc
End Trace Mode for Comment # 9.
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