The Kansas City Royals HiV LOB, Part II

Every once in a while, we come up with a great new feature idea, then promptly ditch it like a prom date with crabs. This will likely be one of those, and may, from time to time, have snarky commentary from the locals.

Look, Sluggerrr doesn't mind if you want to celebrate 4-20, bro, but Sluggerrr wants you to utilize a little tact, for Pete's sake.

Your refresher is this: this feature is a mildly researched, thoroughly unprofessional comparison of the base hits generated by the Royals, versus those they leave on the bags. We'll attempt to visit this topic every seven games since that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

Anyway, we last checked in with the Royals after game one in the Cleveland series. Their week One totals: 45 hits, 18 runs scored, 47 runners left on.

In week two of the season, we saw some improvement from the boys in blue. The numbers look a little bit like this:

Week Two

4/14 vs. CLE: 3-9 (W); 11 hits, five left on
4/15 vs. CLE: 5-4 (L); seven hits, seven left on
4/17 @ TEX: 12-3 (W); 19 hits, 10 left on
4/18 @ TEX: 2-0 (W); five hits, seven left on
4/19 @ TEX: 5-6 (L); nine hits, eight left on

The week's totals: 51 hits, 32 runs plated, 37 stranded, an improvement in every category, albeit five fewer games played, which is fantastic for the first two categories, a bit concerning in the third.

The season's totals: 96 base hits, 50 runs, 84 left on. I'd go into detail about how they need to whittle that last number down, but frankly, I'm exhausted from all the extensive absurdities surrounding fan-base doubt in Trey Hillman based on his late-game decisions yesterday in Texas. Personally, I like giving the team the chance to win without The Mexicutioner on multiple, consecutive occasions. I like keeping Callaspo in at second late in the game because his bat was fantastic all series, and he had a couple of stellar defensive plays on Saturday. I approve of going to Mahay to face Hamilton because, in all honesty, Hamilton was due, and Mahay got the job done. And finally, I don't, for the record, like Kyle Farnsworth. I do, however, appreciate Hillman giving him the opportunity to do something good, to gain back some confidence. Given now, though, that he is significantly responsible for three of the Royals' five losses, I would not put him in in that, or any similar, situation again. At all. Tough loss. Felt like the whole world knew he was gonna serve it up.
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The Kansas City Royals HiV LOB, Take One

Every once in a while, we come up with a great new feature idea, then promptly ditch it like a prom date with crabs. This will likely be one of those.

In case you're wondering, and I know, crazy reader, that you are, the HiV LOB is this: an mildly researched, thoroughly unprofessional comparison of the base hits generated by the Royals, versus those they leave on the bags. We'll attempt to visit this topic every seven games since that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

On the flip side, you may note, as evidenced by the above nearly impossible-to-see photo, that I've already taken in one game in which the KC starter was Zach Greinke. I'll make many an effort to be in attendance for his starts this year, as Old No. 7 has proudly (but really only because he drafted him in fantasy) proclaimed that the Greinkmeister has embarked upon a Cy Young campaign, dubbed "Gettin' Stanky with Zach Greinke," but that, of course, is another post, for another day, one neither of us will likely ever get to.

Through seven games, however, the atrocity known as the Royals' offense, looks like this:

Week One

4/7 @ CWS: 2-4 (L); seven hits, 11 left on
4/8 @ CWS: 2-0 (W); six hits, six left on
4/9 @ CWS: 2-1 (W); nine hits, 11 left on
4/10 vs. NYY: 4-1 (L); four hits, six left on
4/11 vs. NYY: 6-1 (L); seven hits, eight left on
4/12 vs. NYY: 4-6 (W); seven hits, two left on
4/13 vs. CLE: 2-4 (W); five hits, five left on

That brings the week-one totals to 45 hits, 47 runners left on base, and 18 runs scored, meaning the Royals have capitalized on 40 percent of their non-HBP, non-BB base runners, and could've scored a ton more.

I'm no statistician, and, for the record, I have no idea if there's already a sabremetric to figure this for you, but those are not great numbers. Add to that that, of the regular starters, one guy is hitting over .200, and that's Mark Teahen. Further conclusion of KC's chances of making a run at the Central: Need more better.

That was fun, no?

Great. Let's do it again next week.

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