Top 5 Royal Home Run Hitters Since 1993

by royalsreview on Jan 5, 2007 5:17 PM EST in News Comment 9 comments

George Brett retired after the 1993 season. Since Brett leads the Royals in just about every single statistical category, I thought it would be interesting to examine the Royals leaderboards for the post-Brett era. At random intervals over the off-season, I hope to do just that.

Without further ado, the leaders:

Top 5 Royal HR Hitters Since 1993:

1. Mike Sweeney- 190
2. Carlos Beltran- 123
3. Joe Randa- 86
4. Jermaine Dye- 85
5. Johnny Damon- 65

Its a little surprising to see Joe Randa come out ahead of Jermaine Dye on this list, although Randa did play nearly twice as many games as a Royal (1019 to 547). Randa's final homer as a Royal came on September 25th, 2004 against the White Sox, the only Royal highlight in a 5-1 loss that pushed the Royals to 57-97. Moreover, I've always felt Dye was a little overrated as a player, at least until his random MVP-level season in 2006. After a solid 1999 with the Royals, Dye went nuts in April/May of 2000, hitting .388/.459/.847 with 11 homers. Considering he finished the season hitting .321/.390/.561 with 33 homers, you wouldn't say he was horrible the rest of the way, but he did cease being a truly elite player. Still, thanks to the early season glory he earned an All-Star berth and a disproportionate amount of media coverage. If he'd thrown up his 1.306 OPS in a July/August stretch only the rotoheads would have truly noticed... But anyway, nothing against Jermaine Dye, but he is out-homered as a Royal by Randa.

After Damon's 65, Raul Ibanez comes in at 6th in the post-Brett era with 55 homers, followed by yes... the one and only Angel Berroa with 45. Actually, Berroa's tied with the Mighty Mark Quinn at the moment, but should inevitably pass him.

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After reading this

our lack of power is really sad. Maybe with Gordon/Butler/Shealy/Teahen, we can be better they all have 20-30 HR potential. Time will tell.

lordbyronk

by lordbyronk on Jan 5, 2007 5:31 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Lets hope the newcomers will

blow that list apart in a couple of years. Berroa as 45 homeruns in 4 years. I am surprised. I didn't think he had it in him.

by grudz69 on Jan 5, 2007 9:00 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

numbers

those are sad. however, given our inability to even get runners on base, the list of RBI's will be even bleaker. come on Spring Training!!!

by buddyball on Jan 5, 2007 9:43 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

sweeney

kinda shocked he doesnt have more homers than that, considering he has actuially been around for a long time

FIRE BELL

by FireBell on Jan 6, 2007 12:02 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

Balboni

36....thats less that half of the record...why wasn't Grimsley supplying the team???

Buy the ticket, take the ride.

by PhattStairs on Jan 6, 2007 1:38 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

1999-2000 Royals

What's most amazing about this is we had all five of these guys in the starting lineup during these years and yet failed, miserably, to have a winning season. Those Royals offenses were good. Too bad our pitching was AA level.

by nycroyal on Jan 7, 2007 1:37 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Royals homerun record

has provided yearly entertainment for me for over 20 seasons now. It was a mere footnote at first, but as time passes I find myself sorta rooting for Balboni to keep it a while longer. He survived some near misses (Dean Palmer and Gary Gaetti). There was just something about Balboni that made me really root for him. It could have been the fact that we stole him from the Yankees, or that he raked in the minors and nobody ever would give him a chance, or the fact that he looked like just a regular guy - balding, overweight, and not so good looking. I swear, if you didn't know he was a ballplayer, he could have passed for being your mechanic or plumber or something. Just a real underdog vibe to the whole thing.

Others have looked like they could have done it (Mark Quinn). Still others certainly would have, had the Royals kept them (Dye, Beltran). In fact, Beltran actually did beat it the year we traded him, but only half of his total was with KC...

Anyway, we have a new crop of guys who could threaten it. Who will it be? Gordon or Butler? Or does anybody think Shealy could? (I think Shealy is a nice hitter, but I don't think he will ever break the 36 mark)

My hope is Alex Gordon - he will have the chance before Butler. Butler might ultimately develop even more power than Gordon - but hopefully he will be chasing Gordon's HR record, not Balboni's.

by loyal2s dad on Jan 8, 2007 10:43 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

A Balboni story

I remember one time after Steve was traded away from the Royals and was back in town to play against us, on a Saturday night after the game a bunch of us vendors went to Fuddrucker's on Noland Road after the game to grab a burger. Lo and behold, there was Steve eating dinner with his wife (I think they still lived in KC after he switched teams).

Now, probably the real reason they were there is it's hard to find places open to eat dinner at that late at night, but I always saw it as more proof that this was just a regular guy, not a primma donna by any stretch of the imagination.

by loyal2s dad on Jan 8, 2007 10:47 AM EST reply actions 0 recs