Three unexpected preseason numbers, including the Kansas City Royals’ slugging

Though the 2024 baseball season is just getting started, this is the ideal time of year to examine statistics and ask yourself, “What if?” Out of 12 games played this season, Mookie Betts has five home runs. He is on track to hit 68 home runs in a game. It would be impressive if a Dodger were to surpass Barry Bonds’ record of 73 home runs in a season. Will it take place? Most likely not. Perhaps when the Oakland A’s relocate to their minor-league stadium, which is slated to be the “most intimate ballpark in Major League Baseball,” next year.

Starting Monday at 3-7, the Houston Astros are tied for last place in the AL West with the Oakland A’s, who are in the tank. With a combined ERA of 3.89 through 10 games, they are currently ranked 13th in baseball, but Ronel Blanco is putting in a lot of work, allowing only one hit in 15 innings. They’ll get rolling as a unit, but in the AL West, they’re already 3.5 games behind the Texas Rangers. Not only are the Rangers not yet at full strength, but it’s still too early to make up that difference.

Pitching is typically the first thing that fans think of when thinking about the Tampa Bay Rays. Perhaps not this year. The squad’s 5.24 team ERA currently ranks 26th in the league, largely due to two high-scoring games played at Colorado’s Coors Field. They also surrendered eight and nine runs in their home opener against the Toronto Blue Jays, as well as nine more runs in their home game against the Rangers. Even though Tampa Bay is starting the season against strong opposition, it would still be shocking to see them struggle at the plate at any time.

Those are just a taste of the odd stuff happening around baseball to begin the year. Now let’s get real wild.

Kansas City Royals, noted baseball mashers

Now that enough games have been played and a sample size has been created, the stats over at Baseball Savant now include the 2024 season. Would it surprise you to find out that the Kansas City Royals have three players that are hitting the crap out of the ball?

Bobby Witt Jr., MJ Melendez, and Maikel Garcia rank in the top-11 in barrels per plate appearance. In essence, that means that they’re hitting the ball hard consistently when they come up to the plate. Luis García Jr. of the Washington Nationals leads all of MLB at 23.8% Brls/PA, followed by Adam Duvall of the Atlanta Braves. Coming in third is Witt at 17.5%. Melendez ranks seventh at 16.1%, and Garcia rounds out the top-11 at 15.0%, right behind Yordan Alvarez.

Three of these men are a mashing starting in 2024 for the Royals. There are multiple for no other team. With Jake Meyers in the eighth and Alvarez in the tenth, the Astros are the only club that even somewhat comes close. Jose Altuve is their 38th-ranked player and ranked third.

The Royals have a +19 run differential going into Monday, largely because of their excellent pitching staff, which has a total 2.53 ERA. After the Boston Red Sox and Cleveland Guardians, two teams who have faced the A’s to begin the season, it ranks third in baseball.

Watch out for the Royals?

Pittsburgh Pirates outperforming the Los Angeles Dodgers

Name a way to measure team success.

Did you say winning percentage? The Pirates hold a .800 in that field thanks to an 8-2 start. The Dodgers (8-4) are slightly behind at .667. The Yankees are the only other club with a winning percentage as high as Pittsburgh’s, with New York also holding an 8-2 record.

How about the ERA of the team? With a cumulative ERA of 3.60, Pittsburgh is ranked 10th in baseball, while L.A. is ranked 18th with a 4.21 ERA.

Would you like to use runs scored? Due to playing two extra games, the Dodgers hold an advantage in overall runs scored (69); yet, the Pirates have them beat in terms of average runs per game. The Dodgers have managed a pitiful 69 runs in 12 games (5.75/game), while Pittsburgh has scored 59 runs in 10 games (5.9/game).

The NL Central may be completely open this season, even though nobody is really expecting this trend to sustain over the long run. Is it too much to ask that the Pirates shock a few folks by making a postseason run? They might have a chance if they can finish with a few games remaining and go.500 the rest of the way. Nevertheless, they finished the previous season in fourth place in the division with a 20-8 record around the end of April.

Atlanta’s starting woes

When it’s so early in the season, a bad outing or two can really influence the statistics. That’s been the case for the starting five in Atlanta, who ranked 27th in baseball with a 5.81 ERA heading into Sunday. A lot of that damage has been done in the two Max Fried starts, where he has totaled just five innings, and given up 11 runs (10 earned) on 12 hits and four walks while striking out six. He has an 18.00 ERA, which is quite a bit higher than his career 3.13.

Related: MLB stadium rankings

After a 5-2 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks, Atlanta’s starter’s ERA dropped to 5.45, which moved them all the way up to 25th. Early season stats are so much fun because they can fluctuate wildly from day to day. That said, it’s not all fun and games for the Braves.

Not only did Spencer Strider’s 7.00 ERA through two starts not help the situation much, the team also reported on Saturday that Strider had an MRI, which showed UCL injury. Strider might miss the remainder of the season for Atlanta, which would be devastating to their hopes of winning the pennant.

The good news is that Chris Sale (3.38), Reynaldo López (1.50), and Charlie Morton (0.00) have all completed at least five frames during the first turn of the rotation. How this team tries to short- or even long-term replace Strider in the rotation will be the question.

Atlanta’s bullpen has performed admirably thus far, ranking seventh in baseball with a 1.87 ERA overall. This is still a playoffs squad, but how far they advance will be determined by the additions they make to the starting lineup.