Are The Royals On The Verge Of Becoming MLB’s Next Great Dynasty?

After years of futility, the Kansas City Royals experienced a season for the ages a year ago when came within 90 feet shy of sending a decisive Game 7 into extra innings. If it weren’t for a Herculean effort by Madison Bumgarner, perhaps the Royals would’ve become the most unlikely champions in recent times.

Halfway to the 2015 World Series title, Kansas City is showing that their Cinderella story from a season ago was no fluke. They may one of MLB’s smaller markets, however, they may just be on the verge of becoming baseball’s elite.

The Royals are a unique bunch. They don’t boast a star-studded pitching staff and there aren’t dynamic sluggers in the heart of their batting order. Heck, to the casual fan there aren’t even household names on their roster.

This may seem like a big stretch, but this Kansas City squad is starting to remind me of a team that to many would seem incomparable — the Yankees of the mid to late 1990’s. I know, it’s ridiculous to compare the two considering the Royals have no hardware to flaunt to the baseball universe, but if you dig deeper into the numbers, you can’t help but notice the similarities.

Think back to that great Yankee team that won the 1996 World Series kicking off a stretch when they were champions four times in five years. Were there dynamic sluggers in their lineup? Were any of their position players transcendent stars at the time? Remember, all of the superstars came or developed in the years to follow.

Why was that Yankee team so great? Aside from clutch pitching, they didn’t give away outs via the strikeout and they made opposing pitchers work. Their cumulative team batting average, BABIP, and “balls in-play” percentage ranked amongst the best in the American League. They may have had the third lowest home run total but they also had the second fewest strikeouts.

Does this sound similar to these present day Royals? As a contact hitting team they didn’t strike out often this year (fewest in all of MLB) and they had the highest “balls in-play” percentage in all of baseball by a substantial margin. They slugged the second fewest home runs but compiled the third highest batting average and BABIP.

The Yankees weren’t a power team but bested two of them (Baltimore and Texas) in route to the World Series where they were handled the premier pitching staff of the Atlanta Braves. The Royals have defeated two slugging teams in Houston and Toronto while clinching the AL Pennant and now seem to be handling arguably the most talented pitching staff in the league.

The depth of their lineup, patience at the plate, ability to make contact, and knack for timely hits have given the Royals the ability to put up crooked numbers without the luxury of the long ball. It just goes to show you that a series of walks and singles can be more dangerous to opposing pitchers. In case you were wondering, Kendrys Morales and Mike Moustakas led the Royals with 22 homers each. Back in ’96, the Yankees had two hitters who finished north of 20 home runs, Bernie Williams (29) and Tino Martinez (25).

The parallels don’t stop there as both teams featured bullpens that rarely squandered a lead when given the opportunity to protect it. Could you make the case that Wade Davis and Kelvin Herrera are just as dominant now as John Wettland and Mariano Rivera were then? Think about what could’ve been had Greg Holland not been injured.

The Royals are two wins away from their first title in thirty years. There was a lot of pain and suffering over the last decade before this young core grew together to form this resilient, cohesive unit.

It’s a bold claim but baseball’s next great team may be forming before our very own eyes.