2015 KC Royals: The Phenomenal Story of an Underdog

this period of royals baseball is so fascinating to me it might deserve a video one day behind one to nothing tonight little different situation we'll see how he handles it george will pinch it for motley little swimmer to the right side juarel races over to cover the throw doesn't get him his argument as he gets the side of the bag and clark with the toss oh yes this is the 1985 world series and that player you see lunging the first base george orta was called safe on this play about 20 minutes later the kansas city royals were celebrating at home plate as they had just forced a game seven [Applause] the 1985 royals won their first championship in team history after six playoff appearances in the previous 10 seasons three of those playoff appearances were under the management of whitey herzog the manager of the st louis cardinals in 1985. so the question is how should this championship win be viewed the royals were given a very lucky break with no outs in the ninth inning but they still needed to capitalize on it it's not their fault jack clark misread a pot fly which led to a single in fact after that single orta the player who started this rally was thrown out at third base which didn't even matter because on the next at-bat a past ball moved the game-winning run to second base with one out to go the cardinals made the decision to load the bases to induce a double play which led to the game-winning single the following day the cardinals offense fell silent as the royals scored 11 unanswered runs and won their first world series could the royals have still made a two-run comeback with two outs to work with sure maybe in another universe they did but we'll never know so does this mean the royals didn't deserve to win these two games after that blown call they scored 13 runs unanswered that seems to be a cardinals problem more than a royals problem also prior to this blown call in the bottom of the fourth inning frank white was thrown out trying to steal second base when he was actually safe a couple pitches later pat sheridan hit a single that would have tied the game if white wasn't called out all of this is to say baseball isn't fair no matter how much you prepare for a game no matter how much you win in the regular season your season can derail in an instant in recent years replay review has been implemented and three true outcome baseball has taken over the point of these developments is to remove uncertainty not just with bad calls but with outcomes if a player hits a ball to a fielder the ball is either fielded cleanly for the out or something else may happen maybe the fielder commits an error or the ball hits the base and the runner ends up being safe the three true outcomes eliminate this uncertainty and that's part of the reason why teams have embraced this concept in recent years however the 2014 and 2015 royals thrived off uncertainty which allowed them to form their own identity as a team that rejects the new movement as well as some traditional unwritten rules and this idea of forming a unique identity is ingrained in the history of this franchise in 1967 after the kansas city athletics moved to oakland kansas city was without a professional baseball team for the first time since 1883. however with pressure from missouri senator stuart symington the city of kansas city was awarded one of the four expansion teams that was slated to start playing in 1969. pharmaceutical executive and kansas city native ewing kaufman was granted ownership for the new team a team that was eventually named the kansas city royals while kaufman was known as a generous and caring individual to the community in the baseball world he was one of the earliest proponents of analytics and baseball even bill james the father of sabermetrics said kaufman was too far ahead of his time for his innovations to have great effect perhaps kaufman's most ambitious venture illustrated what bill james meant kaufman wanted his organization to have the best minor league coaches in the league in order to expedite player development and create the best organization in the sport however he concluded there were four main ways to improve through the amateur draft minor league draft trades and buying players none of these traditional options were appealing to kaufman so after much thinking he devised something radical kaufman created the royals baseball academy where the premise was to turn raw athletes into major league baseball players the academy was built in sarasota florida on 121 acres of land dormitories offices lecture halls and multiple fields were constructed and the academy was opened in august 1970. more than 7 000 players from 14 states tried out these applicants had to follow some prerequisites an applicant must have completed his high school eligibility be less than 20 years old be able to run 60 yards in 6.9 seconds in baseball shoes and not be enrolled in a four-year college nor have been drafted by a baseball team what was the final number of players chosen for the inaugural class 42 these players were exposed to progressive forms of instruction using tools like radar guns and videotapes this academy was the first to employ mandatory stretching and strength and conditioning programs there were also psychological practices in play muriel kaufman the wife of ewing told sports illustrated that she chose colors like green and gold as educational psychologists determined soft colors are the best colors for a learning environment speaking of learning environments these players didn't just practice baseball all day they also attended mandatory community college courses in fact here's what the tenure of the royals academy baseball player looked like players were trained at the academy for a minimum of 10 months they were paid between 100 and 200 per month depending if they were in season or not they received a room three meals per day insurance and a round-trip plane ticket home for christmas also three mornings per week a player had to attend classes at nearby manatee junior college on the remaining days they were instructed at the academy in the afternoon these players practice baseball and unlike the traditional baseball training of spending a few minutes in a batting cage hitters faced live pitching and a pitching machine for at least 30 minutes per day mlb commissioner bowie kuhn said this would start a new era in baseball and the chicago tribune praised the forward-thinking nature of the academy but the rest of baseball laughed in their faces in 1974 the academy was discontinued due to financial reasons but this project was far from a failure in 1971 the academy sent its squad to the gulf coast league a league on the lowest rung of the minor league ladder the royals crushed their opponents they got on base ran the bases well hit for power and their pitching was great in the bigger picture kaufman wanted the academy to produce two major leaguers per year 14 players who spent time in this academy ended up making the big leagues including ul washington ron washington and royals hall of famer frank white white recalled the academy being like a boot camp but he remembered the many new ideas that were explored that stayed with him throughout his career while the royals academy was short-lived it serves as one of the earliest attempts at diverging from traditional baseball thinking towards something grander it also serves as ewing kaufman's early installation of organizational philosophy creating the finest organization in major league baseball and creating happiness for the city of kansas city i came up with the idea that you didn't have to play baseball all your life to be a good baseball player that's what the old-timers in baseball thought i thought that if you had the physical attributes necessary to be a baseball star you could be taught basically for the title [Music] hey [Music] after the royals world series win in 1985 the organization fell into a downward spiral they didn't recover from for nearly three decades even with great players like george brett kevin apierre brett saberhagen and bo jackson the 1995 season was the last time the royals finished in second place or higher for nearly two decades so what happened well long time gm john sherholtz left the royals and joined the braves also in 1993 owner ewing kaufman died from bone cancer but before he died through an incredibly complex process he constructed a plan to ensure whoever buys the royals must keep the team in kansas city after kaufman's death former walmart executive david glass became the interim ceo and chairman eventually purchasing the team and becoming the sole owner in 2000. after the 1994 season the royals slashed payroll a trend that continued through the rest of the decade as attendance numbers dwindled young players like johnny damon jermaine dye and carlos beltran were being traded in the late 90s and early 2000s in 2002 the royals suffered their first 100 lost season although they did follow up with their first season over 500 since 1993 led by manager tony pena and players like carlos beltran daryl may and rookie of the year angel baroa the royals shocked the baseball world with their success were things finally looking up for the royals no of course not so what happened to the three players i mentioned well beltron was traded to the astros may led the league in losses and baroa regressed hard in short 2004 was their worst season in franchise history actually scratch that 2005 was their worst season in franchise history 2006 was slightly better but if you ever wanted to know who's arguably the worst all-star in mlb history the answer is starting pitcher mark redmon remember every team must be represented in the all-star game and redmon was apparently the best option the royals spent the next few seasons on the same path but eventually a bright spot came around and in 2009 at the age of 25 he pitched one of the best seasons in modern history and a new pitcher on the hill that's going to be zac rinke and how about the numbers that jump off the page on this kansas city royals right-hand prospect taking his pitches to another level strikes out the sides [Music] pitched arguably the best season in royals history becoming the fourth player in franchise history to win the cy young award however the royals still weren't winning in fact their record was 10 games worse in 2009 than in 2008. this cycle continued for the next couple seasons so there was no point to keep a guy like grenkey after the 2010 season granky was traded to the brewers for four players young big leaguers lorenzo kane and alcita's escobar were the biggest names in the deal along with jeremy jeffress and jake order izzy this trade added on to an already great farm system how good was this farm system well baseball america ranked them as the best farm system heading into the 2011 season with the best prospects all being hitters mike mustakis eric hosmer and will myers the team was only slightly better in 2011 but many hitters on this team had really good seasons hosmer and mustakas were called up with varying levels of success billy butler continued his great offensive play alex gordon and melky cabrera both had breakout seasons and even catching prospect salvador perez had a solid short stint however pitching was the weak point of this team something that continued through the 2012 season so after the 2012 season the royals traded for rey's pitchers james shields and wade davis and they gave up top prospects like will myers and jake order izzy shields a 7 year veteran and 2011 all-star performed well in the 2012 season davis never really found his footing as a starter in tampa bay but he was great as a reliever in 2012 a hefty price for the royals to pay but it paid off in the 2013 season while the team finished in third place for the second straight year they had their first winning season since 2003 shields and irvine santana both trade acquisitions after the 2012 season led the royals rotation the hitting side was a mixed bag while hosmer perez and butler were improving gordon was regressing and mustacha still hadn't found his footing in the majors still what was most important was that this team had won 86 games and there was lots of room for improvement that alone is encouraging unfortunately what wasn't encouraging was the first half of the royals 2014 season while three royals players were in the all-star game the team ended the first half only two games above 500. to make matters worse the team lost their first four games out of the all-star break bringing their record under 500 for the first time since april 16th in the midst of this streak veteran raul ibanez made a passionate speech to his teammates despite being a member of the team for only one month this speech completely shifted the mood of the clubhouse however having the confidence to perform is only one half of the equation the other half of that equation well i'll just show [Music] [Applause] in the you four days [Music] [Music] norrie hits it up the left hit within one month the royals had put themselves in first place in the al central the players traced their success back to the ibanya's speech the rest of the season was a fight for first place with the detroit tigers unfortunately the royals ended the year in second place only one game behind the tigers nonetheless the royals still made the postseason or at least they were a wild card win away from the postseason and this falls well hit to right and you can forget about it over the bullpen and it's two-nothing [Applause] in the air to center field and pretty well hit lorenzo kane is back and has no chance and there's a shot to center and that's going to score another run goes and the throw is high runner going [Applause] [Music] [Applause] throw to third a long run ball gets away and the runner moves up to third slapped into left field and the a's have the lead osman [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] through sheer will the royals came back in one of the best wild card games in baseball history well sheer will and stolen bases the royals stole seven bases in this game in only one other game in 2014 did a team steal seven bases and it was the royals we'll get into the intricacies of the royal squad in a little bit but right now the royals are riding high off their first playoff win since their 1985 world series run is this foreshadowing fly ball well hit to right calhoun is back and that ball has reached the seats and there's a drive to right by eric hosmer and it is gone and the kansas city royals have the lead left center field kane diving he made the catch well hit to center kane charging again and he did it again in the air to deep right and the kansas city royals have taken the lead down the line fair ball into right field [Applause] rounded into left field base hit up the middle enfonte gloves it throws him out grounded the first they're gonna come to the plate and the ball gets away it was kicked out of the glove two [Music] [Music] and 29 years of frustration has ended the royals are going to the world series [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] the royals were as close as they could get to a world series title game seven game tying run on third it just wasn't meant to be they were the first team ever to win their first eight straight postseason games a run that allowed them to reach the world series but they couldn't finish the job however the energy and passion was clearly there from the players to the fans this team had reinvigorated baseball in kansas city and it wasn't just because they were winning they were playing their own type of baseball the type of baseball that was being pushed out of the league these royals were becoming masters of small ball in the 2010s three true outcome baseball was on the rise if you don't know the three true outcomes in baseball are strikeouts walks and home runs as teams and players have placed an emphasis in finding optimal launch angle and exit velocity hitters are hitting more home runs than ever at the same time hitters are more patient and defenses are using the shift more than ever this has led to an environment where you either swing for the fences strike out trying or at the very least just get on base in fact between 2010 and 2019 three true outcome percentage has risen exponentially not only were the royals not leading this new movement they were doing something completely different remember how i said the royals stole seven bases in the 2014 wild card game pretty cool stat right well in 2014 not only did the royals lead the league in stolen bases they were the only team to hit less than 100 home runs they were also the only team that struck out less than 1 000 times and they had the least number of walks across all teams since 2000 only 5 teams have finished a season on par with the royals 2014 numbers however the royals are the only winning team in this group why is that well while the 2011 padres had more stolen bases than the 2014 royals they had many more strikeouts and much less hits and while the 2008 giants had more hits they struck out more and didn't steal as many bases basically the 2014 royals were the perfect anti-progressive team a team that didn't strike out and didn't walk but still capitalized on their chances by being aggressive on the base paths they ranked fourth league wide and base runners scoring percentage and within the top 5 they had the least amount of total base runners throughout the whole season in other words the royals were the masters of the unknown the three true outcome era is characterized by certain results home runs strikeouts and walks however there's no certainty that you will successfully steal a base or a ground ball or line drive will get past the shift in fact the average number of runs this team scored per game was just below league average looking at the most notable individual hitters on this team the only players with an ops plus above 100 were alex gordon and lorenzo kane this leads me to the other side of this team the pitching looking at the starting rotation for the most part they played pretty well however as a team the royals weren't league leaders when it came to pitching stats even though they had three of the best relievers in the league in fact this trio was arguably the greatest bullpen trio in baseball history only one team has had more than one pitcher finish a season with an era plus of at least 270 while pitching at least 60 innings throughout the season the 2014 royals had three pitchers who fit this criteria no other team in baseball history has had more than one but remember this pitching staff as a whole was around league average so considering the amount of runs the royals scored and gave up was roughly league average what set them apart from the rest well considering every pitcher in the rotation and the trio of relievers had a fip higher than their era the answer is pretty easy to figure out center field and kane with the diving catch to hosmer and the royals will get the out at second base and a double play [Applause] the 2014 royals had one of the best defenses in baseball leading the league in ultimate zone rating and sitting eighth in defensive runs saved while the royals weren't the best in one specific broad category they made the most of their success much of this success can be attributed to manager neddy yost who talked about how teams were abandoning the use of bunts stolen bases and aggressive play overall while the royals were in the bottom half of the league in successful sacrifice bunts they were eighth in the league in bunt hits and sixth in infield hits without the leadership of ned yost i think it's likely the royals don't have the success they had i also like to think that late owner ewing kaufman would have been completely on board with these strategies yes he believed in science above all else but he also believed in finding value where no one was looking hence why he created the royals baseball academy it's not that using traditional play styles has no value it's the likelihood of squandered potential but if everyone else in the league is playing the same play style that means there's some players being overlooked this is how the royals created their own brand of baseball but their success wasn't only made off of finding value where no one was looking it was also made off of camaraderie makes it a three-run game in the 8th inning [Applause] despite this being only seven years ago players didn't show as much emotion as they do today the unwritten rules still applied the royals were the exception to these rules sure opponents celebrated from time to time but not nearly to the extent of the royals and well in the 2014 alcs the royals got a bit more cocky particularly with gerard dyson saying the orioles wouldn't play another game at camden yards after game two which was correct by the way and after game three jeremy guthrie wore a shirt that said these o's ain't royal a play on the hook from chris brown's song loyal some fans took exception to this and some were cool with it either way guthrie was forced to apologize for the shirt still it didn't take long for some fans and players to sour on the royals while they came into the playoffs as the underdogs that title was stripped after the playoffs were over now the royals had to prove their 2014 season wasn't a fluke unfortunately that was going to be tough as the royals lost some key players in free agency like james shields billy butler and nori aoki losing shields was a big deal not just because of his play on the field but his presence off the field he was a big part of the creation of this team's identity particularly with their celebrations after every win in the 2014 season the team used a fog machine and strobe light to celebrate in short shields was a big part of the team's culture change would the signings of kendricks morales alex rios and edinson volquez be enough to recoup the losses in free agency well the royals did start off the 2015 season on a seven game winning streak however there was some bad blood the throw to the plate is not in time since here we go at this point bench is clearing here jim wolfe the whole played up fire to his credit doing a heck of a job they're keeping everybody calm and mustache flips to second base and a hard slide by lori [Applause] [Music] [Applause] back to ventura who says something to eat before throwing over to first in the first month of the season royals hitters were hit 20 times in 2014 the highest monthly total was 12. this was no accident whether the royals were in the right or wrong it didn't matter they had made enemies what was the response to this well there were two one the team kept on winning they finished april in first place and fought with the tigers and twins until eventually pulling away in mid-june what was the second response well that came from the fans the ever-expanding fanbase decided to make their voices heard at the voting ballot the all-star voting ballot voting started at the end of april and fans went right to work fans were given up to 35 opportunities to vote for the starters at the beginning of june here's what the american league starting lineup looked like yeah while trout's place wasn't in question the same couldn't be said for jose altuve as omar and fonte wasn't too far behind him altuve had a slow start to the season but he still had an ops over 200 points higher than enfonte well one week later enfonte surpassed altuve bringing the total number of potential royal starters to eight you know who was the last royal to be voted into the all-star game jermaine died back in 2000 royals fans were clearly amped up attendance was up and tv ratings were the highest of any team through may since the 2007 red sox and this was being accomplished in a much smaller market knowing that the rest of the league was sick of the royals and their fans why wouldn't royals fans want to stick it to the rest of the league these fans were ballot stuffing but the question was how many of these votes were actually legit well bob bowman mlb president of business and media said the league takes the necessary precautions to limit illegitimate ballots saying that about 20 of online votes are eliminated every year a few days later the league cancelled 60 million all-star votes seems like a big number right well at this point there were about 300 million ballots 20 of that is 60 million and a few days later in the newest voting update the royals still held 7 of the 9 starting spots still this doesn't mean some fans weren't cheating the system whether it be through coding web browser glitches or even using the public email addresses of media members some royals players were fine with the chaos and others were indifferent nonetheless the royals had the most active fan base in baseball and all the team had to do to show their appreciation was to keep winning heading into the all-star break the royals were 18 games over 500 with a four and a half game lead in first place of the yale central in the end seven royals ended up being all-stars although just because this team has a bunch of all-stars that doesn't mean they were ready for a world series run the front office knew this so they made two significant trades first the royals acquired red's ace johnny cueto at this point in the season no one had really stepped up to fill the role james shields left behind and with jason vargas suffering a season-ending injury the royals needed to add to their rotation to keep up with their opponents in the postseason cueto was set to be a free agent after the season and the reds were rebuilding so this trade made sense the second trade that was equally as important to the royals world series hopes was the trade with the oakland a's for utility man ben zobrist with the additions of cueto and zobrist the royals were ready to make the push towards a championship well once the trade deadline passed the royals kept themselves solidified as the best team in the american league a trend that continued through the end of august and the end of the regular season the royals ended the year with their first 90-plus win season since 1989 the part of the team that really stepped up were the hitters in 2014 only two regular starters had an ops plus over 100 and they still made the world series in 2015 only four regular starters did not have an ops plus over 100 and that's without counting ben who immediately turned into one of the team's best hitters like in 2014 the royals thrived off uncertainty they did up their home run total a little bit but once again they finished with the lowest strikeout and walk rates in the league the royals were very efficient with their base runners too as they had the second highest base runner scoring percentage in the league and among the top five the royals had the second lowest total number of base runners one reason why they were so efficient was their effective use of stolen bases a number that declined in 2015 but was still top five in the league as for the starting rotation it was about as solid as the 2014 rotation and while the bullpen trio of holland davis and herrera didn't perform as well as they did in 2014 they were still effective although unlike in 2014 the rest of the bullpen was also effective as for the team defense once again the royals were one of the best defensive teams in the league essentially this team was better than the 2014 squad in every single way unlike 2014 they were now in the top 10 in scoring runs and run prevention however it would be all for nothing if the royals don't end october holding up that piece of metal he'll go to work on colby rasmus evan gaddis and luis valpuena and colby rasmus jumps him on the first pitch and hits it out and kansas city has taken its first lead of the series [Applause] and the astros first home postseason game in a decade puts them one victory away from moving on to the alcs a high drive into deep right center gomez can only watch it and that one is gone a two-run lead for kansas city morales center field george springer represents the last chance orlando on his horse back there to make the catch of the wall that the kansas city royals move on for a date with the blue james [Music] [Applause] left side donaldson two games [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] not anymore [Music] that's into right field [Music] [Applause] they didn't win eight in a row like in 2014 but for the first time in franchise history the royals were heading to the world series in consecutive seasons their opponents the new york mets while the royals were more successful in the regular season the mets were coming off a sweep of the cubs in the nlcs the rotation was looking great and nlcs mvp daniel murphy was playing like prime ted williams predictions for this matchup were very mixed with the vast majority of them ending in six or seven games pretty nerve-wracking for the royals and mets fans but for the neutral fans this meant we were in for a great match-up hopefully you weren't in the bathroom during the first pitch of the series it is [Music] [Applause] [Music] and that one is gone right side and it gets through here comes lagaris and the mets take the lead back at the wall this game is [Music] here comes escobar the royals win game one [Music] can't flag it down eskimo [Applause] the defense has shined for the royals how about quito royals up two games to nothing [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] and the game is over and now the royals are one win away [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] 2015 world champions you are the kansas city [Applause] ladies and gentlemen would you direct your attention to the royals hall of fame out in left field in particular there's a new flag flying in between number 10 and number five after 30 years the royals had finally won the world series a fan base that had endured so much finally had a reason to celebrate not only had the 2015 royals reinvigorated an entire city but they succeeded in their own way in the emergence of a new era of baseball the royals proved there is more than one way to succeed they won with contact speed pitching and defense ops home runs who cares all that mattered was the royals scored more than the other team enough times to win the world series since the 2015 season most of the roster has either moved on to different teams or have retired from baseball the player i'm glad is still part of the royals is salvador perez in fact he's thriving despite being more than 10 years into his big league career unfortunately the royals haven't been to the playoffs since 2015 and have been rebuilding since 2018. however i don't think this franchise is too far from their next great team and i like to think that perez will be productive on those teams too so what's the legacy of the 2015 royals well this was a team who proved their 2014 success wasn't a fluke this was a team that played their own brand of baseball while they may have made enemies out of a good portion of the league they rejuvenated a dormant fan base but most of all this team saw where baseball was heading and decided to make a mockery of it late owner ewing kaufman once said baseball is full of traditions and myths that won't stand up to analysis this doesn't mean you can't find value in these traditions and i think kaufman would have understood that because at the end of the day all kaufman wanted was a successful baseball team in kansas city kaufman got his wish in the 80s and the 2015 royals continued the tradition he set i hope you guys enjoyed the video leave a like if you did and subscribe for more content just like this happy new year to you all see you in 2022 thanks for watching [Music] [Music] you

Channel: SportStorm

Views: 200,862

Keywords: kansas city royals, kc royals, 2015 royals, 2014 royals, 2015 world series, 2014 world series, underdogs, baseball, mlb, game 7, 2014 world series game 7, mlb playoffs, mlb postseason, kansas city royals underdogs, royals, kc royals champions, kansas city royals champions, kc royals champs, kansas city royals champs, kc royals underdogs, 1985 world series, kc royals world series, royals world series, sportstorm

Id: zvWZtzso8ag

Length: 41min 17sec (2477 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 30 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/MimonFishbaum]

As fun as that season was, I don't know if you can call them underdogs. They led wire to wire.

[u/Comfortable-Pick-375]

The Royals had the best record in the AL and we’re defending AL Champs. Let’s relax on calling them underdogs.

[u/rustybacon-]

More of underdogs in the 2014 season. 2015 we were dominating basically the whole season.

[u/sskor]

We were the favorites to win the Series from Opening Day onward. 2015 wasn't so much an underdog year

[u/GuitarDad1989]

For everyone saying 2015 weren’t underdogs, he literally says this in the video.