Royals at Cardinals in Game One or Game Three - A Preview

The new league alignment has led to the unique/odd two and two scheduling with your interleague rival and thus the Royals find themselves in St. Louis tonight after having just dropped two games at home to the very same, hated Cardinals. That's not the real news.

The Kansas City Royals sit next to last in baseball in home runs with just 28 on the season. Only the Miami Marlins, who are essentially trying to blow the season, have less...ONE less...with the pitcher batting every ninth time. The Royals are also 27th in walk rate, ahead of three National League teams. They are 26th in slugging, ahead of three National League teams and the Twins. Only four American League teams have worse on-base percentages. Their home run to fly ball percentage (6.4%) is better than only the Marlins.

But it's not their fault.

Blame Kaufmann Stadium and the glorious bastards who built it. Just ask Jack Maloof.

"There is no reward for us to hit home runs here". Maloof is quoted via Fox Sports.

"Other teams come in here from Anaheim or other places and they have their swing already down." Maloof spews further courtesy of Fox. "This park doesn't even enter their minds when they hit here."

"Go ahead and hit the ball in play. You're not going to hit a home run, anyway."

And yet, Kevin Seitzer was fired for the fact his hitters did not hit for power. That and, I suspect, for not really being in tune with Eric Hosmer and Mike Moustakas. You know, the Hosmer who currently is slugging .333 out of the five hole and the Moustakas who sports a triple slash of .178/.252/.308.

Yeah, blame it on the stadium. The same stadium where the opposition has hit 32 home runs to the Royals' 11. The same stadium that was there last year and the year before and the year before that.

Really?

There is not one of us who didn't know 10 years ago that Kaufmann was a doubles hitter's paradise and a home run hitter's nightmare. Although it should be pointed out that the Royals are just 18th in doubles and, in unrelated news, have grounded into more double plays than all but five other teams in baseball (one of those the Marlins, who may or may not count).

Congratulations, Dayton Moore. Your young lineup doesn't hit. Your manager is a snippy, condescending public relations disaster and your lead hitting coach just figured out that it is hard to hit home runs in Kaufmann Stadium.

Oh and your team takes on one of the best teams in baseball tonight. They have lost 18 of their last 22 and scored three runs or less in 15 of those contests. And Luis Mendoza is on the mound.