2016 Kansas City Royals discussion

[1972Shocker]

Oakland did go on from their 3-0 lead in the 1st inning to knock off the Indians 9-1.

Wild Card Standings as of Tuesday, August 23rd

Looks like Baltimore, Seattle, Detroit, Houston and New York are the teams the Royals and their fans won't be rooting for the rest of this season.

[Cdizzle]

Oakland did go on from their 3-0 lead in the 1st inning to knock off the Indians 9-1.

Wild Card Standings as of Tuesday, August 23rd

Looks like Baltimore, Seattle, Detroit, Houston and New York are the teams the Royals and their fans won't be rooting for the rest of this season.

Detroit and New York are done. Have to beat out 2 of the other 3.

[MoValley John]

Cubs slip out of a Whale's Vagina with a 6-3 win and a three game sweep of the Padres.

Clearly, the worst team in all of baseball, the Cubs finally picked up their 81'st win, guaranteeing that if they try really hard, they might finish at .500. I doubt they can finish the seasan at or above.500.

[jazztrane]

Ugh too many blown chances last night. I still fully expected a Rally Mantis miracle in the 9th, but they just couldn't come up with a timely hit. I was counting a loss vs Fernandez ahead of time but then when they so many chances it would have been great to keep the streak going.

[ShockTalk]

KC has 36 games left. They have 5 teams ahead of them and 1 tied going for a playoff spot and are 5 games out of the 2nd spot. Out playing 1 team and climbing over 4 others that far back would take a lot of help that's not under their control.

[WuDrWu]

One certainly has to be creative or overly optimistic to see the Royals in the playoffs without going at least 24-11 down the stretch. Just too many teams ahead of them.

[WuShock16]

The margin of error is certainly small...but there are things working for them:

Starting on Labor Day, they start a stretch of 14 straight games against sub-.500 teams, the last 8 of those coming at home. They certainly need to get fat on wins in that stretch.

The Royals still have 6 games each with Detroit and Cleveland, two of the teams they are chasing (Cleveland for division purposes, Detroit for both). They have to win each of those series...but the opportunity is at least there. Head-to-head wins are the best way to make up ground.

This is an ideal yet realistic way to see the season play out.

3 at BOS, 3 vs Detroit, 3 vs NY: 5-4
3 at MINN, 3 at CWS, 4 vs OAK, 4 vs CWS: 10-4
3 at CLE, 3 at DET: 4-2
3 vs MINN, 2 vs CLE: 5-1

Again, it is a small margin of error...but when broken out by opponent, 24-11 isn't horribly far-fetched. Gotta take things one game at a time, put together series win after series win...maybe throw some sweeps in there when possible.

[jazztrane]

By whatever metrics right now I think the Royals have a better shot of making the playoffs than they did coming back in the 2014 Wild Card or 2015 game 4 in Houston. :) I've learned never to count these guys out.

In the meantime, just enjoying the ride like watching the defense last night! Amazing catch by Dyson, then Mondesi & Esky almost turned the single-up-the-middle to assisted out play that Esky & Infante did last year. They're having fun, and they're fun to watch!

[1972Shocker]

Royals take the rubber game against the Marlins with a 5-2 win to take the series 2-1. A duplication of that result in Boston would make for a very solid 6-game road swing against to good teams.

[1972Shocker]

The Royals road an 8 run 6th inning to a 10-4 win in Boston and a 2-1 series win as the Royals go a very solid 4-2 on the road trip to Florida and Boston. Now it's back home to take on the Yankees in a 3 game series starting Monday. The Yanks are a half game behind the Royals in the AL wild card race.

[RoyalShock]

FiveThirtyEight.com gives the Royals a 24% chance to make the playoffs and 8% chance to win the division.

[MoValley John]

Cubs win!
Cubs win!
Cubs win!
13 innings, the hapless Cubs beat the Bucs! The Cubs have an outside shot of finishing the season above .500.

[Play Angry]

Royals are 2 games back of Baltimore for the 2nd wild card spot with Detroit still sandwiched between them. 5.5 games back of Cleveland for the division lead.

This has been a really impressive charge, I hope they have enough in the tank to finish it off over the next month+ and make the playoffs.

[WuShock16]

Royals are 2 games back of Baltimore for the 2nd wild card spot with Detroit still sandwiched between them. 5.5 games back of Cleveland for the division lead.

This has been a really impressive charge, I hope they have enough in the tank to finish it off over the next month+ and make the playoffs.

They obviously had to have this charge to put themselves back in contention. I do worry if they have peaked just a bit too soon. They have had big game after big game in these last couple of weeks. I hope they don't go flat after Labor Day when they have games with lesser opponents in Minnesota, Chicago, and Oakland.

[jazztrane]

Who would have guessed a month ago they'd be 2 games out of the wild card?!? I could see it being tough to keep up, but RALLY MANTIS!!! :) Even if they drop back a little if they can make up a game or two on Cleveland all of a sudden that last weekend in KC will be very interesting!