Here's a look at our beloved former Royals chasing a World Series ring in the National League playoffs. The totals are a little low this season. For a time it seemed like every National League playoff team had a random Royal or two in both the bullpen and on the bench. (LOL NL sucks) Where have you gone Chad Durbin?
Philadelphia:
- Raul Ibanez: We honored Raul Ibanez here. He is the 57th greatest Royal of all-time.
- Ross Gload has been a Phillie the last two season as part of Ruben Amaro's brilliant "get old now" plan. Serving primarily as a pinch-hitter, Gload has hit .270/.304/.411 in 254 PAs with the Phils over two seasons. As always, expect him to EXPLODE this post-season.
St. Louis:
- Octavio Dotel: Dotel was a Royal for about a month in 2007 and I don't think any of us have been the same. I was actually stunned to see he was still in baseball earlier this season. He's actually still effective. Since 2007 he's appeared in 267 games, is striking out 11 men per nine, and has an ERA+ of 119.
Arizona:
- Willie Bloomquist: The pinnacle of hustle, professionalism and winning. Where would the Diamondbacks be without Bloomquist's 79 OPS+?
Milwaukee:
- Yuni Betancourt: The greatest Polk Point collector of them all. Yuni posted a .271 OBP for the Brewers.
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Zack Greinke: Greinke struck out an absurd 10.5 batters per nine this season, but gave up a fair amount of hits en route to a 102 ERA+. He certainly wasn't helped out by his defense, although his lingering HR issues were a little more pronounced this year. I think the random timing and sequencing of events feel in an unlucky distribution for him as well. You look at his numbers, and it was essentially a typical Zack Greinke season, minus 2009's outlier.