1980 97-65 WS appearance
1986 76-86 3rd of 7 in division (WS win attendance bump)
1987 83-79 2nd of 7
1988 84-77 3rd of 7
1989 92-70 2nd of 7 (tied for 3rd best record in MLB, but OAK won division by 7 games!)

Now looking at how their division is currently constructed and taking into account a wildcard, where would the Royals finish?

1980 – 1st in current division by 13 games(Baltimore missed the playoffs with 100 wins! NY had 103.)
1986 – 3rd, 11 GB Detroit
1987 – 3rd in current division set up 15 GB of DET who ran away with 98 wins, but only won their division by 2 games that year
1988 – 3rd in current division by 6.5 games
1989 – 1st in current division by 12 games, 2nd best record in AL (wildcard)

If Oakland hadn’t run away maybe the Royals would have won it all again that year or at least gone to a WS. They would have faced a Toronto team with just 4 above average hitters (according to OPS+), and 1-2 above average starters (119 ERA+ for Cerutti, 109 for Stieb). Their strength was in their bullpen with Tom Henke (190 ERA+) and David Wells (153).

And then they could have faced the Giants in the Series. The Giants were carried by Will Clark (175 OPS+) and Kevin Mitchell (192). Their pitching was filthy though. At age 40, Rick Reuschel put up a 114 ERA+, and their other above average starter was Scott Garrelts with a 147. The bullpen contained closers Craig Lefferts (ERA+ 125, 20 SV), Steve Bedrosian (127, 17 SV), and Hall of Famer Goose Gossage with a 125 ERA+ and 4 SV.

The Royals offense contained 4 stars that year:
Tartabull 128 OPS+
Bo Jackson 124
G Brett 123
Eisenreich 122 OPS+

Seitzer had a 106 OPS+, but had a .387 OBP! With just 23 XBHs though, he was a singles hitter. Frank White (80), Willie Wilson (85), and Pat Tabler (80), were offensive sinkholes. I’m not sure how Tabler got that many ABs with Eisenreich, Tartabull, Willie Wilson, and Bo roaming the OF. Surely Eisenreich should have played DH over him.

But where the Royals lost the battle with Oakland was with the pitching staff. While Sabes (180 ERA+, CYA) and Gubi (128 ERA+) were excellent, Leibrandt and Floyd Bannister really struggled. It was so bad, the Royals actually converted Tom Gordon to a starter in July and either they had a 4 man rotation, or they got extremely desperate and started pitching Gordon on 3 and 4 days rest, a lot. The brutal stretch came at the end of August, 6 ER in 7 IP, 4 days rest, 3 ER in 7.2 IP, 3 days rest, 6 ER in .2 IP (yes, that was a start!), 4 days rest, 5 ER in 6.1, 3 days rest, 5 ER in 2 (these are all starts!), 3 days rest, 1 ER in 6 (gutsy!), 3 days rest, 2 ER in 1.1 (another start), 4 days rest, 2 ER in 6, season over. He went 17-9 (10-2 as a reliever!), made 7 September starts, and only won his final one. Sharp contrast to August where he was 5-1 in 6 starts.

Other pitchers of note include Steve Crawford (54 bullpen IP, 137 ERA+), and Jeff FREAKIN Montgomery who only had a 284 ERA+ that year with just 18 SV (looks like Steve Farr finished out a fair amount of games as he had 18 SV as well, Monty had 92 IP so he likely was an actual fireman, what a concept!). The Royals were 1 or 2 pitchers away from making up the difference with Oakland unfortunately. 62 of the Royals wins were credited to Sabes, Gubi, Tom Gordon, and Monty. That’s more than 2/3 of the total! Together those same 4 had 29 losses, and just 16 NDs between Saberhagen and Gubicza.

I remember listening a lot to the teams of the late 80s as they were my intro to Royals baseball.

That was too damn long… Time for bed.