Yeah that’s kinda what DM looks for
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Rank among 30 teams

Infield hit rate: #1
Bunt hits: #1
Swinging rate: #3
Swinging rate pitches outside zone: #3
Swinging rate inside zone: #3
Babip: #15
Runs vs fastballs: #27
Walk rate: #28



We swing at everything, make weak contact, never walk, and can’t hit fastballs. WOOF!
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I'm fine if you want to get a bunch of guys that 'swing away', but if you're gonna do that your organization and coaches need to be teaching the importance of contact rate and putting the ball in play. We excelled at that from 2013-2016 and, for the most part, still have a lot of the same guys employed in the Royals organization. The biggest difference is the current major league coaching staff. Mathany and his hitting coaches, which Duncan alluded to in an earlier post. If you're gonna employ those types of hitters, you need to teach them to approach their at bats a certain way, and that teaching certainly continues at the Major League level. At least, it should.

Since Terry Bradshaw became the hitting coach in 2018, the strikeouts have steadily gone up. Not saying its all his fault, as I realize some guys have sold out for power in their approach, but I think it's safe to say at this point that they're not being taught the same thing they were a few years back when Sveum was the hitting coach.

I think that explains part of the problem. Not all of it, obviously.


Edit: In fairness to the Royals organization, I think they recognized some of their shortcomings the past few years, which is a big reason why they signed Santana and went after Beni on the cheap. They recognize the problem to some degree, but rather than fix it internally, they seemed to have just gone out and picked up a couple guys who have a different approach. But that doesn't change the fact that you still have the same hitting coaches working with these guys everyday. And we're simply NOT seeing results . . . . . at least, not positive ones.
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He was 3 for 4 last night. Starting with the Angels series through last night his OBP at .429.
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The entire organization needs a complete overhaul and change in philosophy.
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DM is solely responsible for the wild hackers plaguing our lineups. He brought in guys like Duda, Mondi, Soler, Doze, Phillips, Starling, M Taylor, ROH, McBroom, KG, and even gave Owongs 145PA (whiffed 55x before mercifully being cut)
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If the Royals have any hope of finishing around the .500 mark, he's GOT TO start producing runs and OPS'ing closer to 800+ the balance of the season.
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Ironically Soler for the month of June is OPS at .900. He is starting to get going which is a good sign. He missed a dong last night by 6 inches.

Now with Benny out, we just have too many AAAA players in the lineup towards the bottom. You can live with Michael Taylor in the 9 hole because of his defense with a good lineup above him.
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That is a positive sign at least. The Royals REALLY need his bat to turn the corner if they have any hopes of winning games with this offense.

The only reliable part of the lineup at this point is your top 3 and Whit has been scuffling a bit for a while, Santana is REALLY struggling right now and then Salvy, who has been their most consistent hitter all year despite his free swinging approach. But hey, it's worked out for him (so far).
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He also had a critical AB with multiple runners on base (possibly loaded, IIRC), and he swung so hard he fell over and hit a weak popup. He's gotta stop doing that.
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Soler is extremely important to this current lineup. He can't be throwing up zeros. Let's hope his June trend continues.
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Mondesi back tonight?
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Tom, you are certainly the Wile E Coyote of Royals Troubleshooting. As you said previously:

"Check my post history in this thread lately versus yours, if you wanna talk about meaningful baseball discussion. I'll stand on my body of work in the baseball thread versus yours anyday."

OK. Fair Enough. Question:

Is Mathany the Royals equivalent to the Chiefs Bart Vatch?

I'm looking forward to another evening of wildly entertaining and provocative Royals baseball. Are you?
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Bring up O’hearn!

He’s crushing it!
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Mondesi gone tomorrow?
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