Sports
See other Sports Articles
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: 2224
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. Subscribe to *Baseball*
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: CZ82, tomder55, liberator, GarySpFc, Don, BobCeleste (#0)
Ping
"Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near"---Isaiah 55:6
#2. To: redleghunter, CZ82, liberator, GarySpFc, Don, BobCeleste (#1)
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.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
#3. 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.
The Royals lead the majors with the least number of strikeouts.
"A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is... A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in.” ― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
#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.
There's loads that go behind such player success. Scouting, analytics and development.
"Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near"---Isaiah 55:6
#5. To: redleghunter (#4)
There's loads that go behind such player success. Scouting, analytics and development.
Sabermetrics
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
#6. To: ALL (#5)
There were 500,000 fans cheering for the Royals at today's parade.
"A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is... A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in.” ― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
#7. To: GarySpFC (#6)
"Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near"---Isaiah 55:6
#8. To: redleghunter, ALL (#7) (Edited)
Today the estimates for the crowd were upped to 800,000.
"A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is... A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in.” ― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
#9. To: GarySpFC (#8)
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:)
"Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near"---Isaiah 55:6
#10. To: redleghunter (#0)
The Royals had the fewest home runs in the majors this past season, with 95.
On the teams I played on and coached that won it all I wouldn't be afraid to say 85% of them only had 2-3 guys that could hit HRs on a regular basis. We kept the pressure on by having alternating batting orders (L,R,L,R etc...) put the ball in play consistently, hit the ball where it was pitched and played mind games when necessary... :)
Vegetarians eat vegetables. Beware of humanitarians!
#11. To: redleghunter (#9)
800,000 people is more folks that actually live in KC:)ccc
Metro is 2.5.million.
"A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is... A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in.” ― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
#12. To: GarySpFC (#11)
Metro is 2.5.million
Downtown is like a lot of Midwest US cities. People really don't live there but commute to work. I was surprised at how empty of people the city looked on a weekday afternoon.
"Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near"---Isaiah 55:6
#13. To: redleghunter (#0)
The Kansas City Royals Are the Future of Baseball
Is there any reason why I should give a damn? This has the same importance as a little kids marble game with about the same intelligence level among both players and spectators.
#14. To: rlk (#13)
I see you are your cheery self.
Hit the ignore tab.
Be careful if you keep this cranky persona, you may come back as a cranky Siamese cat.
"Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near"---Isaiah 55:6
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Mail] [Sign-in] [Setup] [Help] [Register]