No Offense, But Royals' Offense Stinks

This is starting to get a little ridiculous. This Kansas City offense is bad, plain and simple, and if it wasn't for some great pitching to start the season, the Royals's 14-18 record would be noticeably worse.

Kansas City has scored three runs or less in 17 of 32 games this season, and its record in those games is 4-13. But the sad fact that is that Royals pitchers have held opponents to five runs or less in 13 of those 17 games. So the team has been benefitting from solid pitching, but the offense isn't holding up its end of the deal.

Heading into today's series finale against the Angels, the Royals rank last, or next-to-last, in the American League in the following categories: runs scored (110, 14th), doubles (49, 13th), home runs (16, 13th), walks (85, 13th), on-base percentage (.308, 13th), and slugging percentage (.350, 14th).

Here are some more ugly numbers to digest:

--Kansas City is batting just .237/.305/.321 in games at Kauffman Stadium
--In the Royals' 14 wins, the team has batted .279/.341/.414 with 63 runs scored (4.5 per game), 45 walks, 90 strikeouts, four sacrifice hits, 13 stolen bases in 20 attempts, and has grounded into just four double plays. But in the team's 18 losses, it is batting just .229/.279/.298 with 47 runs scored (2.6 per game), 40 walks, 110 strikeouts, only one sacrifice hit, just three stolen bases in nine attempts, and has grounded into 17 double plays.
--Royals substitutes are batting .182/.217/.182 with zero extra-base hits, and pinch hitters are hitting just .222/.222/.222
--Through 32 games, Kansas City has yet to have a batter lead off a game by drawing a walk
--Kansas City cleanup hitters have combined to produce a miserable line of .192/.261/.296 with four doubles, three home runs, and 24 strikeouts
--Without factoring in sacrifice hits or sacrifice flies, Royals players have accumulated 168 at bats against the first pitch in the count, which is 24 more at bats than in any other situation
--Kansas City hitters are batting .128/.146/.149 when facing an 0-2 count, and are a combined .177/.248/.246 in two-strike situations
--With the bases loaded, KC players are batting just .167/.154/.167 with no extra-base hits
--Oddly, Kansas City has an impressive line of .571/.607/.857 with a runner on third base, but those numbers fall to just .158/.200/.184 in the same situation with two outs
--With two outs and runners in scoring position, Royals batters are hitting just .229/.321/.288

Something needs to be done, and I'm thinking that Rany Jazayerli hit the nail on the head when he proposed that hitting coach Mike Barnett needs to be replaced. I don't like to see a guy lose his job, and I'm sure Barnett is a solid hitting instructor, but whatever he's been doing lately hasn't been sinking in, and it's time for a change.