A career .305 batting average, 3,154 career hits, 13 All Star appearances and that’s just the tip of the iceberg when talking about Kansas City Royals legend George Brett. Brett is also a member of the Hall of Fame, inducted in 1999, and the key piece of the only Royals World Series win in franchise history in 1985. Having spent his entire 21-year career with the Royals, he looks to add yet another accomplishment to his list, savior of the Royals offense.
Last season, the team got off to an early start, and then fell off hard. The hitting was pretty good, but the pitching was horrible. The best ERA of any of their regular starters was Jeremy Guthrie at 3.16, but that was in only 14 starts after he came over from the Rockies in a trade. The team overall ended with a 4.30 ERA, good for 26th in the league. This season, the team is pitching much better, with a 3.75 team ERA, 11th in the league currently. They’ve turned that part of the team around, yet they are still losing because the offense has regressed. In comes Brett, the offensive savior.
On May 30th, the Royals reassigned their hitting coaches to the minors and hired the Hall of Famer as the interim hitting coach. Bringing Brett in can’t hurt, the team’s once highly regarded young nucleus is not performing up to expectations, and nothing else the Royals have been doing for the last season and two months has helped rectify that issue. Third baseman Mike Moustakas, was so highly rated coming up through the minors that he pushed Royals star Alex Gordon to the outfield. This year, he is batting .183 and is in serious danger of being sent back down to AAA ball. Moustakas has shown promise. Last season he hit 20 home runs and drove in 73 runs in 149 games, showing a lot of promise and making a lot of people in the Royals organization believe in him.
Moustakas is not alone in the doghouse of the Royals, Eric Hosmer finished third in the Rookie of Year voting in 2011, but has not lived up to the hype in the last two seasons. Hosmer played in 128 games his rookie year, and belted 19 home runs, drove in 78 runs and hit .293. In the season and two months since Hosmer has played in 205 games and has not even come close to matching the numbers of his rookie year, hitting only 15 home runs, driving in only 77 runs and batting only .240.
Those are only two of the Royals who need the guidance of someone like Brett. If the Royals are going to take the next step and become a team that challenges for the division after years of futility like the Washington Nationals have done, then these two guys are going to have to be a big part of the team.
The Royals are hoping that they can steal a page out of the Oakland Athletics’ playbook when they hired Chili Davis to be their hitting coach. Davis was a fantastic hitter, and his insight has helped players that have not lived up to expectations in the past like Chris Carter and Brandon Moss, and he was not quite the prolific hitter in his 19 seasons that Brett was. If Brett can do what Davis has done, and help teach the players how to read scouting reports, shorten their swings when needed and make in game adjustments then he should help the Royals just like Davis helped the Athletics.
Expect the Royals to improve with Brett in the fold. The guy has knowledge to spare after his 21 seasons in the MLB, and his pure will to win should rub off on these players. After all, who could not follow a guy who once said, "If a tie is like kissing your sister, losing is like kissing your grandmother with her teeth out." Brett always wants to win, and as long as he has anything to say about it, you better believe, this team will win.