Here's some good news for Thursday morning: the Royal hitters we should care about (save Moose) are hitting well. It honestly looks like we've got a good offense at times. And while there's been a concerted effort to praise the Royals' running and small-ball approach for the glories of being league average in something, it really looks to me like the Royals just have good hitters.
Just because we can, here are the Royal offensive leaders in the second half, by OPS:
| PAs | BA | OBP | SLG | |
| Butler | 227 | .308 | .346 | .561 |
| Gordon | 233 | .301 | .386 | .519 |
| Francoeur | 214 | .312 | .367 | .513 |
| Hosmer | 223 | .306 | .356 | .490 |
| Cabrera | 218 | .313 | .339 | .486 |
| Perez | 90 | .302 | .337 | .430 |
That looks like it should be a very good offense. Nevertheless, the Royals are just 8th in the AL in runs since the Break, which is likely related to some bad luck/event distribution, Yost's love of outs, and the other offensive sinkholes we play constantly.
Moose and Escobar aren't hitting, and Gio just barely, but you can see how just about the core of the lineup (plus the random Perez performance) has had a nice second half. The lineup holes are dragging the group down, but in a lost season, I care more about individual performances anyway.