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The Kansas City Royals averaged 4.02 runs per game last season and finished last in the league in total home runs. After a busy offseason and another year of development for emerging Royals stars, their offense now looks dynamic and powerful enough to induce fear in every pitcher they face. Through the first two weeks of the 2015 season, KC averages 5.79 runs per game.
The Royals lead the league in team batting average and on-base percentage, and they rank second in runs, hits, slugging percentage and OPS. KC is statistically the best offense in baseball right now, and for a team that reached Game 7 of the World Series with great defense, good pitching and juuuuust enough offense last year, that really means something.
It isn’t just the presence of newcomers like the now-injured Alex Rios and the impressive Kendrys Morales that changed the lineup so significantly. Royals third baseman Mike Moustakas’ evolution from a struggling, pull-crazy power hitter to a balanced, fearsome pro with a perfect inside-out swing is downright baffling. In 32 plate appearances against big-league lefties in the 2015 regular season, Moose is batting .333 with a .975 OPS. Last season, Moustakas batted .172 against lefties and posted a .554 OPS.
Salvador Perez limped to the finish line last year, failing to hit higher than .240 in any of the last three months of the regular season, but he now has fresh legs and a .370/.375/.593 slash line to show for it. Emerging superstar Lorenzo Cain looks like a legit MVP contender with his Gold Glove-worthy defense, four steals, two HR, 12 RBI and 1.067 OPS through 14 games.
The five Royals to play in at least 13 of their first 14 games all have an OPS above .800, and four of the five are above .950. No other team in baseball has more than three everyday players with OPSs currently above that mark, and the vast majority of teams have two or less. Anybody trying to downplay KC’s relevance right now is objectively insane. This kind of offensive production makes the Royals an undeniably good team, and I’d love to argue in the comments section with anyone who thinks otherwise until my fingertips go numb.
Doug LaCerte is a writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @DLaC67, “like” him on Facebook and add him to your network on Google.
