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Published on October 1st, 2017 | by Leonard Jackson

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Royals Record by the Numbers

Now that the 2017 MLB season is winding down and we’re hearing all the experts’ opinions and analysis, the “I told you so’s” and the second guesses are beginning to surface. The first call for dismantling the Royals appeared last week. The customary cry for a new general manager and a field manager as well as a new ownership group was made in the KC Star last week. This will set the tone for others, including the Star’s own staff, which will soon follow. Get rid of everybody and send all the players to Omaha – that’ll show ’em.

One of the greatest benefits of winning is that silence from the “experts.” When you participate in two World Series’ back to back it’s hard for them to come up with much criticism. This bunch will think of something but it rings hollow when you’ve had success and it’ll take a few years of losing seasons to lose this new breed of Royals fans who, for now, keep the faith and the spirit win or lose.

No matter how many new performance measurements are introduced the only numbers that are truly meaningful and really matter are those at season’s end – how many games won and how many games lost. These actual final numbers rarely (almost never) jibe with the “expert’s” prognostications and why they are offered, or even worse, given any credibility beats me. But these tell the year’s story – how the team fared and how their season compared with the 29 other teams.

So what I’ve done is rate the performance for the past five years for each of the 30 teams in MLB. Where they finished and how they compared to the competition at the end of the year. We awarded the most points to the year’s champion – the World Series winner; and next the runner-up. Winning the division title is the next highest accomplishment and the best league record should get noticed. Participating in the playoffs is the first goal in the spring and the first measure for a successful season and should get rewarded as well as a winning (82 wins) season. We also gave one point for a 100 wins and we deducted one point for 100 losses.

I did not realize the Royals would rank as high as they did and that’s not why I did all this number crunching. I was just curious as to how MLB teams compared over a period of time and who was the best long term operation, Also, octogenarians in retirement do the strangest things to stay awake.

Interesting findings: the Yankees just celebrated 25 straight years of winning seasons (82plus). Only the Dodgers, Cardinals and Nationals and the Yankees, of course, had winning seasons the past 5 years. Only the Yankees had 10 or more – they now have 25. That’s how hard that was to accomplish. Love ’em or hate ’em that’s a professional operation.

I was not so surprised by the Cardinals being the most successful team in the past 5 years, but the margin over the second place Nationals (and the rest of the pack) was startling. The Red Birds were only in one World Series (which they lost) but were in the playoffs 4 out of 5 years, division winners 3 out of 5 and won 82 or more games all 5 years. The Nationals (well ahead of every team but the Cardinals) did not make it to the World Series at all, but had 5 winning seasons and won their division 3 out of 5 times. Another interesting fact: the National League had the 4 top teams and the bottom 5 teams. A bigger spread between the haves and the have-nots. I don’t know what this means, but it’s hard to imagine that 5 teams have not won a point in five years and the Marlins were actually a minus one for their 100 losses in 2013.

Here is my scoring matrix:

Points Finish

10 World Series winner
9 World Series runner-up
7 Division Title
5 Best League Record
4 Playoff Participant
3 Winning Season – 82 wins or more
1 100 Wins
-1 100 Losses

The results for the five seasons 2012 – 2016 are as follows:

Tags: party, Royals

About the Author

Leonard Jackson As I prepare my “reentry” into the e-world of blogging, I am advised that I should provide my prospective audience with a brief biographical résumé covering my life’s work and future aspirations so that I, and my work, can be properly categorized and thus judged in the proper venue. Since I will be joining a new group in just a few short months, it came to my attention that for a quick summary I can cover my life span in 20 year segments that pretty well sum up the route that I took to get to where I am today. In December, the Lord willing, I will become a member of that esteemed group known as Octogenarians. . Now that may be a disturbing, even scary, pigeonhole for some folks to find themselves assigned to, but I’m beginning to realize some real benefits from being maturity advantaged. The first 20 years I grew up, was educated and began my married life and my career. Second period was about 20 years in the cotton business in Memphis, TN. Trading this commodity in the world’s largest inland cotton market. Third period was spent in the municipal bond industry in Memphis, Houston TX Chicago and finally to my present home in Kansas City, MO. The fourth 20 years I served as a registered investment adviser to a number of individual clients which I continue to do in a semi-retired capacity. In addition to all this, over all these years, I have been blessed with a loving wife of sixty years, four children, four grandchildren, two great grandchildren, and a menagerie of grand horses, dogs, cats and a donkey. Providentially, none of these, except of course my patient wife, are still living in the family home. And now the fifth period will be consumed in my new career. For the first time in all the years I have an opportunity to share my opinions with the world. I can truly express my thoughts without regard to any extenuating conditions. I can just say how I feel about any subject. How liberating. Let the blogging begin!!!! By the way – what I do in the next period remains to be seen and depends on how well I do in the fifth period.

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