KC and the Sunshine's Banned

(Music Pun #7. This one's closer to a Daily Show pun, I think)

The Royals aren't just a bad team. They're a puzzlingly bad team. As in, the things that are happening to them this year are the type of cruelty that has to be planned.

For instance, Jorge Soler and Lucas Duda, two of the main sources of power from this team, get injured, but we're not talking regular injuries here. Soler has some multi-syllable ailment on his foot, while Duda has suffered plantar fasciitis. This isn't the old-fashioned 'oh, I broke my leg' or 'oh, I've got a muscle strain', or, more recently, 'oh, I broke my hand punching a door because I have legitimate anger issues that have gone unresolved because I'm too busy being a reliever for the Giants' (UPDATE: Boy, I picked the right day to write this one, didn't I?). These are very specific, very rare, and very intricate things taking out some sources of relief for a squad like Kansas City.

Additionally, several of the players who have stayed HEALTHY for the Royals while doing a good job...have just gotten traded. I'm speaking mostly of Jon Jay and Kelvin Herrera here. Jay, in covering for two different injured outfielders, was hitting .307 and doing a hell of a job...hence the trade to Arizona. Meanwhile, Kelvin Herrera had all but erased the memories of his shaky 2017 season as closer, and had reignited his status as one of the premier relievers in the game. The guy had a 1.05 ERA with 14 saves. So, promptly, the Royals ship his ass to Washington.

This is turning into an episode of Lost. The moment somebody realizes something about themselves, or becomes a truly good player, they're promptly written out and replaced with somebody less interesting.

What do they have left? Well, the remaining core of Moustakas, Gordon and Perez are all great, Whit Merrifield is making the case for either a promotion or a trade, Jakob Junis pitches better with more run support, and...yeah, that's what they've got. Not much at all.

At this point, you just hope and pray that somebody either trades for all the players who are doing well, or that the Royals call up people that can push them past the White Sox. Because this is not pretty.

Coming Tonight: A guy who used to catch for my team, but now catches for another scrappy, fun team that should be doing a lot better right now.