First thing I'll say is, I think Steve Balboni's team record for HRs is probably safe. The Royals are reaching new lows of power ineptitude, they are the 2nd team in the last 20 years to have no more than 20 HRs as a team in the first 46 games. Didn't we (me) think that this team had 4 or 5 guys that could hit 20 this year? If the Royals get one guy who gets to 18 it'll be a surprise. I understand The K isn't exactly a HR hitter's paradise, but everyone else seems to be hitting the ball out there. I find myself asking the question, isn't the term "warning track power" an oxymoron? I mean if you can only max out at the warning track is that really even power? No one ever said Mike Moustakas has shallow right field power.. anyway I digress. I am going to try to be positive here, and point out that Billy Butler and Eric Hosmer have lifted the ball much more often lately. One of these years you'd think Eric Hosmer would learn to hit the back half of the baseball and generate backspin. He hit two doubles in the White Sox series that hit the base of the wall only because he had the topspin of an Andre Agassi* forearm on it.
*I understand that I am dating myself by using the Agassi analogy instead of that greasy Spainard Nadal, but it's Memorial Day weekend.. MURICA!
Billy Butler has a 6 game hit streak going raising his average from a horrible .226 to a disgusting .255. He even had a sacrifice fly in the final game of the White Sox series that people got way too excited about. Butler is still pretty much worthless when it comes to run-producing from the clean up spot. Butler has 45 more ABs than Omar Infante and still trails him by 1 RBI, Butler has an OPS lower than Nori Aoki. We are all hoping that Billy starts the slow climb to league average for clean-up hitters, but I don't know see how the power is just going to come back. By the way, when he ate it crossing first trying to leg out an infield single (because that's going to happen) this is the only thing I could think of.
In the least surprising news of May, Mike Moustakas has been optioned to Omaha where the Royals hope Moustakas finds some confidence. In my opinion if he can't find it in the PCL, a league known for being a hitter's league, he'll never find it again, at least not for the Royals. If I was Scott Boras I'd ask for a trade to the Diamondbacks. It's a pretty easy pitch; "Hey Kevin (Towers) it's Scott (long silent pause on the other end) Boras.... anyway, so have you seen the numbers my client Mike Moustakas has put up the last two years while playing in Arizona.... No, the fact that it was spring training has nothing to do with it, he just loves the weather."
I feel that Mous needs to spend the better part of the summer in Omaha regardless, the caveat being injuries in KC. He needs to show over a long period of time he can hit with any level of consistency. The worst thing for him and KC is if he goes down, crushes for 3 weeks, comes back up and immediately regresses back to what got him in Omaha in the first place.
The Royals starting pitching is starting to come back to Earth, but at 3.55 it's still good for 4th best in the AL. Jeremy Guthrie is giving up a lot of HRs which surprises no one, but the fact that when teams don't hit the ball out of the park they aren't scoring. Danny Duffy damn near threw a perfect game, he is learning how to dial it down as a starter as opposed to just letting it fly. His fastball command was as good as I have ever seen it. Hopefully this is the "eureka" moment we've been wanting Duffy to have, and the end of Bruce Chen as a starter. Wade Davis has been the savior of the bullpen this year. People act surprised that Wade Davis is better as a reliever, but he was a damn good reliever when he was in Tampa before he came to KC. He's ridiculous right now, it seems like he gets 2 strikeouts every inning he pitches. With Greg Holland seemingly allowing multiple runners in most of his appearances people have even asked if Wade Davis should be getting save opportunities, but I hate those people. Holland hasn't been absolute shutdown, but he's only blown 1 save on a solo HR this year, the job is his until he proves he can't do it.
We have arrived at Memorial Day weekend and the Royals are hovering around .500 which in comparison to Memorial Day weekends of the past is actually pretty promising. This offense has to start clicking now, 2014 is not a season where the Royals can be content with hanging around.
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