The Duffman Cometh

 Okay. So clearly the Royals' bubble has burst a little bit since last month. They're now back below .500, they've lost 9 straight, they've lost most of Michael Taylor's punch, and they're now sort of reverting back to where people thought they'd be this year, circling third and kind of out of the relevancy district of the AL Central. Which is fine, the season's a marathon and they could always come back up in the next few weeks, Matheny has attempted worse. 

And yet...the one detail of this team that hasn't reverted, aside from the usual standouts like Whit Merrifield and Salvador Perez, and also Carlos Santana...is Danny Duffy. Who is deciding NOW, at age 32, and with 10 seasons with the Royals under his belt, to have a career season. NOW. After he has less things to prove than anybody in that rotation, and after he could just coast and retire a Royal in three years. Now he's having his best season.

I mean, I'm not exactly complaining. I'm not gonna say 'hey, stop winning games and stopped with your 1.20 ERA' to Danny Duffy. He's doing a great job, this is the same sort of spontaneous fire that Jason Vargas caught a few seasons ago, and it can happen to anyone at any time. But Duffy has notched 40 Ks in 6 starts, he's leading the team in WAR by 0.6 points, and he's completely outearning the starry new additions like Mike Minor and Andrew Benintendi. Duffy, like Perez, is refusing to stop playing like a pro just because the rest of the 2015 team has sort of subsided. And I can respect that.

What I won't stand for is the rest of the team blowing things, the rest of the rotation refusing to keep runs down [especially Brady Singer and Brad Keller, I mean COME ON, GUYS], and the drop-off of both Hunter Dozier and Jorge Soler. This team felt fresh a few weeks ago, and now the big pieces are falling off. I'm not expecting HUGE things from this team, but I'd hate for the feel good Royals story to end around May. That'd just be disheartening, especially considering their scorching preseason start.

Maybe the rest of the team will follow Danny Duffy's example, and just stop giving a crap and start performing against all expectations. 

Coming Tonight: Could this be this future Hall of Famer's last season? Oh, gosh, at this rate probably not.

Uncustomed Heroes of 2020: Royals

 

For a season without much to note for the Royals, I sure missed some big ones this year.

I only have six Royals for December, but three of them are ones I should have gotten to during the regular season. And that includes Brady Singer. This guy was a rookie that began the season in the rotation and acted like he'd been doing this for years. Singer started 12 games, had a 4.06 record, and led the team in strikeouts with 61. Brad Keller may have had more bang for his buck, but Singer was more consistent and a clear sign of the next few seasons of Royals baseball.

2021 Prediction: 200 strikeouts, not enough wins given this is a rebuilding Royals team, and an ASG nomination. 

I also should have done an Adalberto Mondesi custom during the season, on account of him LEADING THE LEAGUE IN STOLEN BASES. Who would have called that??? Mondi had a decent year, with .256 with 22 RBIs in 59 games for KC, and is still a crucial member of the core of this team. 

2021 Prediction: He'll be playing beautifully for the first two months before an injury sidelines him til September. 

Danny Duffy has been a consistent member of the Royals for a decade, even in weaker seasons. 2020 was a pretty neutral year for the Duffman- a 4-4 record in 11 starts, a 4.95 ERA and 57 Ks. He's not as sharp as he used to be, but he still had some strong games this year.

2021 Prediction: By July, there will be enough youth in the rotation that Duffy will be able to transition seamlessly to the bullpen.

Hunter Dozier came off the IL in August, and while he did his best to match his strong, ASG-caliber 2019, it wasn't much of a match. In 44 games, Dozier hit .228 with 12 RBIs. Not too great, despite some decent power numbers.

2021 Prediction: If he doesn't hit for average by June, he'll be DFA'd. 

The other rookie starting pitcher for KC was a crafty one named Kris Bubic. His 1-6 ERA and high WHIP hide the fact that he still had a 4.32 ERA and 49 Ks, and is a really interesting, clever pitcher just with some control issues.

2021 Prediction: 10 wins, a low WHIP, and some external factor that limits him to 22 games.

Of course, 2020 was the final one for Alex Gordon, a guy that's been a Royal since the year I started collecting. Gordo had some great power years and defensive years in the 2010s, and while he didn't exactly live up to expectations, he was still a consistent player and a Royals HOFer for sure. His mediocre 2020 stats, like a .209 average and 11 RBIs, were an afterthought. Gordon will be missed, and the Royals will need to establish a new type of consistency to live up to.

Coming Tomorrow- I genuinely have a ton of Detroit Tigers for tomorrow.

Uncustomed Heroes of 2019: Royals

 Four years after the title run, the Royals parted ways with Ned Yost, and finished with only 59 wins. Baseball is a fickle, revolving door of a sport. Dominance is too fleeting.

Just look at Billy Hamilton: The guy was signed in an effort to bring speed and star power back to Kansas City, and by August he's playing for the Braves. Even the temporary solutions aren't permanent.

 Nicky Lopez was brought in around April to be a speedy 2nd-baseman rookie, and he hit .240 with 30 RBIs in 105 games. I equate him to Cole Tucker from the Pirates in the category of 'minors mainstay who underwhelmed'.
Why Him in 2019?: Brought in as a major piece for the rebuilding era of the Royals
2020 Prediction: Will start the whole season at 2nd and do marginally better than this year, but when the big guns get traded (and they will), no one will exactly look to Lopez as a figure of leadership or authority.

 Speaking of leadership and authority, Danny Duffy rounded out his decade of pitching for the Royals with his usual consistency to a point, with a 4.34 ERA and 115 strikeouts in 23 starts. The Royals have him locked up for 2 more years, and I equate him to someone like Kevin Appier who becomes a pitching mainstay solely because he stays in one place and doesn't have many bad seasons.
Why Him in 2019?: Rare veteran starter in KC who had a positive W/L ratio and stayed until September.
2020 Prediction: Will start 30 games, get 10 wins, and not really get much credit for it

 In the place of former rotation giants like Edinson Volquez, Jason Vargas and James Shields, the Royals settled on homegrown guys like Jakob Junis, Brad Keller and Glenn Sparkman, the latter of whom had some amusing starts late in the season but finished with a 6.02 ERA
Why Him in 2019?: His May/June starting numbers gave the team hope.
2020 Prediction: A slightly lower ERA, but a lot of the same mediocrity

After a mid-season trade, Mike Montgomery, the guy who threw the final out of the 2016 World Series for Chicago, found himself in Kansas City, with something he didn't have on the Cubs- an opportunity to start games. In 13 starts he had a 4.64 ERA with 51 strikeouts.
Why Him in 2019?: 31 of those strikeouts came in his scorching August, where he posted a 2.43 ERA.
2020 Prediction: A full season in Kansas City will lead him to an eventual Mike-Minor-esque career reformation post-trade.

Coming Tonight: An equally meek AL Central team, those...hard-to-write-about Detroit Tigers

The Race to 100 Losses

The Orioles have already wrapped up the title of the Worst Team in Baseball for 2018. But that doesn't mean the Kansas City Royals can't notch 100 losses along with Baltimore's current tally of 104.

Looking at this team's baseball reference page, you can see why: everyone who made a positive impact on this team in the last few years (save for Alex Gordon and Salvador Perez) is gone. And the replacements really aren't worth it. A ton of inexperienced, just-plain-pathetic players are being trusted with trying to lead this team, and it's not...really working? I dunno. Some guy named Ryan O'Hearn has 10 home runs as DH in 33 games, but...again, it's unknowns doing all the work. The best pitcher on this team is Brad Keller, and the best hitter is Whit Merrifield. Household names they are not.

Like with the Marlins, the veterans are dragging this team down, as well. Alcides Escobar is lagging at short, Jason Hammel has squandered his Chicago graces, and even Ian Kennedy and Danny Duffy are being dragged down by the weight of this unenthusiastic team. It's a full mess, and with 96 losses under their belt, the only accolade the Royals can hope for at this point is the 100 losses marker.

I also have to ask how long it's going to be until the Royals can compete again, and...it's hazy. Because there's still a chance that something could come around, and there could be a complete farm system refurbishment that could save this team...but unless they clean all the unspectacular veterans off the roster and just start relatively fresh, I can't see this happening in the next two years.

Coming Tonight: A guy who bopped around a bit too much over the past few seasons, but seems to have found a niche as a starter in a surging, NL Wild Card-ready team.

Chucking Out Time

Nothing is more efficient in signaling the end of your team's playoff run than a DWI from the injured ace.

The Royals had a nice comeback season, with star turns from Lorenzo Cain, Jason Vargas, and ESPECIALLY Mike Moustakas. The main point of this season was to prove that the main core of this team, the one that had been to two World Series' and dominated the league, was still intact and capable of winning games, and not worthy of dismantling. This team is nowhere near Philly 2013 levels of age...nor are they near Philly 2017 levels of age, so, it's a nice sweet spot to be in.

But the lack of consistent competent pitching is what did them in. Ian Kennedy, Jason Hammel and the barrage of rookies that were called on to fix the staff were...not great. They may have sunk the team. Plus, Danny Duffy was having a great season...then he got injured...AND THEN HE GOT CAUGHT WITH A DWI. Even if the Royals are still capable of maaaaybe catching up to someone...there are too many teams in the Wild Card race that HAVE momentum.

The Royals probably aren't going to make the playoffs, so the goal is to ensure that A.) the core of the lineup sticks around, and B.) There's enough of a competent pitching staff for 2018 that it doesn't get embarrassing with every division matchup.

Coming Tonight: He's quick, he's dangerous, and...he's injured, leaving his team even more hopeless than they were.

And Somehow the Royals Have Come Back

I don't think the Royals are going to be able to finish the season in first place this year- that ship has sadly sailed...but they're making a heck of a case for literally every other position in the divisional standings this season- they can't decide on one, really. Right now they're gaining like heck on the Tigers for 2nd place, but any other point in the season they could be circling 4th or 5th- they're an inconstant team that doesn't know what they want.

Right now they've won nine games in a row, thanks to the revival of the pitching staff, and people like Danny Duffy giving solid performances in the absence of a lot of the injured, struggling players. Billy Burns, shipped in from Oakland, is doing a pretty solid job and is giving some nice average stuff.

And this is...roughly a month after the Royals essentially threw in the towel and slumped their way underneath the White Sox to take fourth. It's a zig-zaggy kind of year for them, which is pretty sad after they had a solid, constant incline last year.

I don't know if this means they'll be vying for the Wild Card, and I honestly don't think their roster's in the proper condition for a postseason run. Honestly, I think they'll just spend the rest of the season just where they are, in third.

Coming Tomorrow- A career reclamation story years in the making...and, of course, it's happening in Chicago.