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The month of May was looking to be
great times for the team and Royals fans. It was the last day of April the
Royals sit in first place of the AL Central. The team had just won a huge
motivational game behind the arm of James Shields against his old team the
Rays. Fans have to remember this game Shields was in a pitching duel like
usual. He was facing Alex Cobb of the Rays who was on a hot start to the
season. Mike Moustakas pulled a home run to right field in late innings to give
the Royals and Shields the win against Tampa. The momentum from the big win
continued on to the first day of May beating the Rays again pretty handily.
Kansas City was excited about the Royals in early May. Fans felt for once the
team wasn’t already calling it a season early after the first month. Some call
it the wheels falling off a hot team. I am going to call it the raining out of the
Royals. After the two inspirational wins against the Rays came the second and
third rain outs in a week for the team. That is when the team started to fall
apart going through May with a 6-15 record and 1-8 losing skid.
May was a really tough month for
the Royals and created a lot of questions about the team’s future. Sure the
Royals are only a few games under .500, but the thing that frustrates fans is
during this losing streak the Royals can’t win the close games. Losing 1 run
games with good pitching from Guthrie, Shields, and Santana has been the killer
for the Royals. You have to look at the offense for the struggles of this team.
When Dayton Moore traded away the farm system for James Shields and Wade Davis,
he made a statement across baseball that this small market team is ready to
compete now and willing to trade part of the future for wins now. Making a big trade to win baseball now can
close a window for a young team in a small market. Dayton is putting all of his
chips in on Mike Moustakas and Eric Hosmer to have a successful franchise again in
Kansas City. Finally the Royals have a chance to be the winning team they hoped
to be. Alex Gordon and Billy Butler are
productive like usual for the Royals this year. The real problem lies in the
future of this team. Yes Billy and Alex are a huge part of this teams future as
leaders, but the guys who are supposed to be the studs making plays for the
Royals are struggling badly.
Alex Gordon is having possibly his
best year ever as a Royal and playing like what most thought he would be like
early as a 1st round pick. The sad thing about this team is Gordon
is killing the ball hitting 3rd in the lineup and hardly has runners
on in front of him. Billy is protecting Alex hitting behind him in the 4 spot.
With your best bats on the team batting 3 and 4 in the lineup puts pressure on
the young guys to get on base. Problems like Moustakas pulling every ball to
first base on the ground and Hosmer losing his power. These two batters are struggling and need
protection batting behind them and Jeff Francouer batting behind them isn’t
helping.
How do you fix these massive
problems that can really hurt this teams future? Ned needs to stop putting
Moustakas and Hosmer in the 4, 5, and 6 spots in the lineup to drive in runs.
Hosmer can’t pull the ball or hit home runs right now. So why not put him in
the 2 spot in front of Gordon so he will see the best pitches? Hosmer’s average is ok, but not hitting for power shows a move up in the lineup couldn’t hurt. The real
struggle comes from Moustakas who tore it up this spring in Arizona. Moose has
been on a long skid of struggles dropping his average down to .178 under the
Mendoza line of 200. You can see the frustration he has in his skills after
every at bat that doesn’t go good for Moustakas. That is the first sign that a
struggling player needs to be sent down. The way I see it is if Alex Gordon and
Billy Butler can be sent down by the Royals so can Mike Moustakas. This team
can rebound but major changes must come.
