Small Sample Sizes, Underwhelming Offense!

When suffering from writer’s block, steal from someone else.

Looking at Baseball-Reference.com (primarily this page, but elsewhere on that amazing site, too), let’s check out some of the numbers from this young Royals season.

--John Buck’s .429 batting average, .520 on-base percentage and .905 slugging percentage over 7 games is pretty good, no?

--Fun underproduction numbers: Ryan Shealy, in 11 games, went .108/.171/.216; Alex Gordon, in 11 games, went .125/.205/.225; Emil Brown, in 10 games, went .176/.200/.235; Mark Teahen, in 13 games, went .179/.319/.282; Mike Sweeney, in 10 games, went .152/.216/.152 (correct, zero extra base hits along with five singles and two walks); and Jason LaRue, in 9 games, has gone .125/.154/.250.

--Our lineup’s average age is 29.2, and they’ve hit .228/.293/.362, plus an OPS+ of 78. Our pitching’s average age is 27.3, and they’ve pitched to a 4.79 ERA, good for a ERA+ of 90.

--Some ranks, compared to the total of 14 AL teams: 5th in at bats, 12th in runs, 8th in hits, 10th in home runs, 11th in walks / 1st in strikeouts. Some pitching ranks: 12th in ERA, 14th (last) in wins, 1st in losses, 9th in saves, 4th in innings pitched—interestingly, 4th in strikeouts.

--Of those qualified, David DeJesus leads the team in average, OBP, SLG, OPS, ABs, PAs, runs, hits, total bases, doubles (tied with John Buck), singles, OPS+, runs created, extra-base hits, and times on base. He is tied with Mark Teahen and Tony Pena with games played at 13—all games played.

--Alex Gordon, on the other hand, leads two categories: hit by pitch (4 times in 13 games), and he’s tied for caught stealing with Esteban German and Ross Gload at one.

--The park factor for Kauffman Stadium this year is 107 for batting, 106 for pitching, both slightly favoring batters.

--Attendance has been 127,113, good for 12th out of 14.

--The youngest hitters are Alex Gordon (23), Mark Teahen (25), John Buck (26) and Tony Pena (26). Ryan Shealy and David DeJesus weigh in at 27 years of age.

--The youngest pitchers are Zack Greinke (23), Joakim Soria (23), Jimmy Gobble (25), Ryan Braun (26) and Jorge de la Rosa (26).

--The oldest Royals: Reggie Sanders (39), Mark Grudzielanek (37), Jason LaRue (33) and Mike Sweeney (33). Emil Brown at 32 and Ross Gload at 31 are honorable mention.

--Giving the Royals an AL-wide context: David DeJesus is tied with the most games at 13, tied for second in hits (two behind the leader), and tied for fourth in total bases (13 behind the leader), tied for fourth in times on base (four behind the leader). Tony Pena leads the league in triples with four. Only two others in the AL have a plurality of triples—both Curtis Granderson and Travis Buck have two. Strikeouts is a dubious category for the Royals. Mark Teahen leads the AL, and Alex Gordon—only one behind him—is tied for second. Ryan Shealy—one more behind Gordon—is tied for third.