The Royals Unoffensive Off Season
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H.G. Miller | Wednesday, January 3, 2007 |
Since the crickets are chirping on Royals coverage while the Chiefs make their “miracle” run into the NFL playoffs, let’s take a moment to examine what General Manager Dayton Moore has done with the offense this off season.
Given that the team finished near the bottom of the league in runs scored last year, you’d think Moore would be stockpiling bats in the same manner he’s been picking up arms.
However, the only additions so far have been 1B/DH Ross Gload and Catcher Jason LaRue.
Of course, Moore did spruce up the lineup a bit during the season, and a look at the OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging average) month-by-month does show some modest improvement.
Apr 681 May 732 Jun 743 Jul 760 Aug 764 Sep 762
Unfortunately, their best month was barely average.
David Cohen over at The Good Phight has posted a list of the stats for each lineup position on every team and here is how the Royals stacked up in 2006:
Rank Pos AVG OBP SLG OPS 47 5 .293 .365 .498 .862 122 3 .280 .355 .425 .779 126 1 .289 .351 .423 .775 128 6 .273 .338 .437 .775 145 2 .290 .342 .416 .758 152 4 .253 .319 .436 .755 218 7 .262 .312 .375 .687 240 9 .258 .309 .346 .655 251 8 .236 .289 .327 .616
The overall OPS in 2006 was .765. That means that over half of the Royals lineup was worse than league average, and in the case of the #8 spot, barely better than the pitchers hit in the National League.
Ross Gload and Jason LaRue? Really?
Okay, let’s not panic just yet.
Here is a look at some 2007 projections using Dan Szymborski’s ZiPS projections:
Name P AVG OBP SLG OPS Shealy 1b .288 .349 .479 .828 Teahen 3b .277 .349 .461 .810 Sweeney dh .275 .338 .470 .808 DeJesus cf .287 .355 .431 .786 Brown lf .281 .343 .438 .781 Sanders rf .252 .312 .438 .750 Buck c .251 .307 .432 .739 Grudz 2b .288 .327 .382 .709 Berroa ss .252 .288 .365 .653 BENCH Gload dh .302 .350 .467 .817 German 2b .290 .359 .386 .745 LaRue c .234 .331 .411 .742 Gthrght cf .269 .335 .330 .665 MINORS Gordon 3b .275 .361 .473 .834 Huber 1b .272 .337 .456 .793 Butler lf .292 .339 .447 .786
First of all, simply keeping Sweeney healthy and having Mark Teahen not turn into a pumpkin will help the Royals offense tremendously next season.
Hopefully, having Gil Meche make as much money as he does will stave off the pressure that seems to land on Sweeney’s bad back every season.
The jury is still out on Joey Gathwright, but Ryan Shealy looked like a good addition in the second half last year, and Szymborski’s system seems to like Gload’s potential.
However, the biggest reason for Moore’s focus on the pitching staff is that there is real promise coming from the minor leagues.
Alex Gordon, Justin Huber and Billy Butler all project to hit better in the big leagues than almost the entire 2006 lineup.
With all of that potential piling up at triple-A and Emil Brown and Reggie Sanders both on the wrong side of the age curve, I imagine there will be a few more deals before the season is over.
- Royals call up Billy Butler from Omaha
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- Scouting Report: Billy Butler
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- 2007 AL Central Stat Projections
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