The Royals Unoffensive Off Season

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 may be a few more deals before pitchers and catchers report.