Royals greater than sum of their parts
The Kansas City Royals are not loaded with stars. They don’t havea player like Mike Trout or Bryce Harper, Felix Hernandez or Madison Bumgarner. Kansas City is not a team with a ton of flash or pizzazz, but simply a group of 25 guys who love to play together. The Royals have proven they are not the flash in the pan so many believed them to be coming into the 2015 season.
In fact, they are proving to be a great team and the odds-on favorite to make a second consecutive trip to the World Series.
Kansas City is sitting at 68-46 and 11.5 games ahead of the second-place of the Minnesota Twins in the American League Central. Barring a complete collapse, Kansas City will win the division for the first time since 1985, which also happens to be the same year it last won the World Series. Oddly enough, it beat the St. Louis Cardinals, who currently have the best record in baseball.
The Royals are not going to wow you with the starting rotation or the lineup. Sure, Alex Gordon, Lorenzo Cain and Eric Hosmer are very nice players, but none are getting national commercials any time soon. The best all-around player on the team might just be Salvador Perez, who fittingly wears a mask that hides his face throughout the proceedings.
On the mound, the Royals are without any major stars. Yordano Ventura was supposed to be a young phenom and the ace of the staff, but he has been up and down while dealing with a demotion to Triple-A. Jason Vargas has also been dealing with injuries while the rest of the staff has simply tried to get the job done.
Of course, general manager Dayton Moore did finally add a bonafied star to the roster, trading a litany of youngsters for legitimate ace Johnny Cueto. Whether or not Cueto stays in Kansas City or tests free agency after the season remains up in the air, but right now, who cares?
The Royals are fun to watch because they play together and do so with a boatload of attitude. You want to hit one of their hitters? Kansas City is ready to retaliate and fight. While that can get old from an observation standpoint, it lets everyone in that clubhouse know that every back is watched. Stuff like that matters. When you are not just playing for yourself, but playing because you don’t want to let the other guys down, is when you can truly be great.
Kansas City has a chance to deliver a championship to a city that is starving for true success. Every one of the Royals will be lauded as heroes in the heartland for the rest of time.
Don’t be surprised if in a few months, we are having a parade in Kansas City.
