Kansas City Royals 2015 MLB season preview and predictions
By Will Osgood
Looking back at the Kansas City Royals’ magical 2014 campaign and ahead to see if they can sustain their success in 2015.
Introduction/2014 Capsule
No team in baseball was more fun to watch in 2014 than the Kansas City Royals. Part of that assessment is naturally a result of the fact that Kansas City had a magical playoff run which came up one run shy of a World Series title—and they almost certainly would have scored the necessary two runs in the final five innings against the Giants if Madison Bumgarner didn’t transform into Superman in the postseason.
The Royals did, however, lose Game 7 at home against the least renowned dynasty in the history of sports, the current San Francisco Giants, who have won three world championships in five seasons.
But the Royals are still the team most non-Giants fan will look back and remember in a decade or quarter century. They played a postseason game for the first time in 29 years, won that game, swept baseball’s best team in the regular season—the Los Angeles Angels—and then blew by the Baltimore Orioles before the fascinating seven-game series with Bruce Bochy’s team.
It almost does not matter that the Royals snuck into the postseason as a Wild Card team. In fact, it merely adds to their charm.
They did it with the second lowest run differential of any team in the postseason—only the Cardinals were worse. And they were in possession of the lead of the AL Central with about a week to play and lost it. But those things are not important.
What’s important is that Kansas City got its baseball groove back. The Royals were the talk of the town—and much of baseball—for the first time in my lifetime.
2014 Record: 89-73 (.549); 2nd in AL Central; 1st Wild Card
2014 Run Differential: +27
Other Key Stats: -Gave up 2nd fewest runs in MLB on the road
-Fewest home runs in MLB w/ 95
-Lowest offensive K rate in MLB at 6.3% (that’s a good thing)
-4th in BA at .263
-1st in SPD at 5.1
-2nd in contact percentage at 82.7
Lasting Memory from 2014 season: It’s impossible to pick just one moment from the Royals’ magical playoff run, but here in video form is my personal favorite.
That’s just raw emotion man.
Next: Key Royals additions & subtractions