How are they crushing the ball?
By swinging less.
Before the break, the proverbial first half, the Royals had the sixth-highest swing rate in the majors. In and of itself, that’s not necessarily terrible, but this part of the statistic is: They also had the fourth-highest chase rate.
I analyzed all of that earlier this year, as the offense barreled toward the possibility of the lowest-scoring team in franchise history. The Royals were swinging at all the wrong pitches.
Were.
In the second half, the Royals have the fourth-lowest chase rate in baseball. That’s after the fourth-highest for the initial three-plus months. And overall, they have swung at fewer pitches than any team in the AL.