Royals are approaching the all Star break as a team in a disarray. Pitching so far dismal as I have observed before, four of the starters have ERA of 5.97, 5.50, 5.36, and 4.52. Greg Holland is tied with five saves but he also has blown4 saves. Barlow has 4 saves and blew 3 others.
Holland is interesting case since he has leads the team in save opportunities and there are times that he looks like the Holland of old. And there are times that he is an old Holland. His ERA of nearly 5 runs sums up where he is in his career. He is not the consistent closer of years past but so far no one else has yet to take the closer role. Staumont looked like he was headed in that direction but a stint on IR slowed Staumont down. Royals are closer by committee and Holland is not what he was but there are very little choice not to use him.
Royals are near last with a 5.04 ERA, given up 112 homers and have blown 15 saves as a team. Can’t win with that.
I had high hopes for this team, since it is a better team than what we have seen over the past three years. Bringing in Benintendi and Santana has worked out. Benintendi is close to the Benintendi of 2018 an Santana is hitting .250, getting walks and have 14 homers. Where you expected him to be. 2019, Dozier and Soler showed that they were ready to be power hitters and RBI’s producers but since then, they have gone south. It leaves a big hole when your power hitters are hitting below .200 and Ryan O’Hearn is hitting .217. Merrifield leads the league in stolen bases but is hitting 20 points below his lifetime .293 but Perez is hitting well with 20 homers and 51 RBI’s going into the All Star Break.
In spite of Soler and Dozier failures, the Royals are number 10th in batting average.
The Donelson Files 