#Kc royals magic number free#
The club also prioritizes the 1-1 count and free bases. “We not only chart it and get reports on it,” Matheny said, “but we also send it out (to the players) each day that show how we did as a club.” By comparison, the Toronto Blue Jays lead in first-pitch strike rate (64.9 percent), while the Los Angeles Dodgers (64 percent), San Francisco Giants (62.5 percent) and New York Yankees (62.4 percent) also rank in the top five. Last year, the club ranked 57.3 percent (30th in MLB). The Royals’ first-pitch strike rate - 57.7 percent - ranks 30th in MLB. “Every day,” manager Mike Matheny said this week in Arlington, Texas. Internally, the Royals keep track of their pitchers’ first-pitch strike rate. 324, meaning his numbers should continue to progress, especially if he continues to hit the ball hard. 370 in his last six games, and his BABIP has crept up. This metric is dependent on how hard a player is hitting the ball, and Merrifield’s average exit velocity (83.7 mph) and hard-hit rate (21.6 percent) are both the lowest of his career to this point. So, what is BABIP? Batting average on balls in play measures how often a ball in play goes for a hit a ball is “in play” when a plate appearance ends in something other than a strikeout, walk, hit batter, catcher’s interference, sacrifice bunt or home run. Only five hitters posted a worse BABIP than Whit Merrifield prior to Sunday (.191).Ībraham Toro (.129), Max Muncy (.167), Jonathan Schoop (.177), Jurickson Profar (.184) and Marcus Semien (.190). Whether Jonathan Heasley is starting in their place or Brady Singer, what’s paramount is that the Royals provide themselves a better start out of the gate. Hernández may need to move to the bullpen or Triple-A Omaha to clean up some of his location issues (and the fact that his curveball and slider have blended a bit). Bubic is no longer starting at the big-league level. In five first-inning appearances, Kris Bubic allowed 14 earned runs, and in six first-inning appearances, Daniel Lynch and Carlos Hernández have allowed six earned runs. And they’ve allowed 12 first-inning home runs (30th in MLB). They’ve only hit one home run in the first inning (29th in MLB). They’ve scored eight first-inning runs (28th in MLB). They’ve allowed 34 first-inning runs (the most in MLB).
The first inning sets the tone for a baseball game, and no MLB team has been worse in the first inning this season than the Royals. Here are all 11, selected prior to Sunday’s contest: Magic number: 34 Some need to remain the same for the Royals to maintain their mojo from Sunday’s victory.
#Kc royals magic number series#
And yet the challenge remains for a club at 12-20: Can it carry the momentum from one game to the next?Įleven series into this season, we felt as if it would be valuable to select 11 statistics. Taylor web gem, a few beautiful plate appearances and a go-ahead single hit by - who else? - Salvador Perez to turn the tide.
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