After dominating the Cubs’ powerful lineup in the NLCS, the Mets may face their biggest challenge yet against the Royals. While Kansas City’s lineup isn’t nearly as dangerous, they could match up better against Mets’ star studded staff due to their excellent contact hitting skills.
The Royals had the best strikeout rate in the majors this season whereas the Cubs recorded the most strikeouts in baseball.
According to Ben Lindbergh of Grantland, this is the reason why Royals fare better against power pitching than most. Lindbergh talked to sabermetric analyst Mitchel Lichtman, who crunched all the numbers and found that the ability to hit for contact does provide them with a slight advantage against power arms.
“The Royals recorded a .292 wOBA against power pitchers this season, 10 points better than the .282 mark we would have expected based on their overall performance and the performance of the power pitchers they played.”
“That is around a 1.5 percent win expectancy per game. It’s not nothing, but it’s also not something you would ‘notice.’ It probably gives them an extra 2 percent or so to win a series.”
While it’s not a huge advantage, this factor could partially explain the Royals dominance in the postseason the past two years. Power pitching is more prevalent in October, and team’s who hit for contact have had a lot more success in the playoffs since the MLB expanded the strike zone in 2009.
Litchman found that contact hitting team’s like the Royals have a record of 32-14 in the postseason during this span.
The Royals don’t have the big name stars like the Blue Jays possess, but they clearly are an opponent who shouldn’t be taken lightly. They are a team that’s built for the playoffs with their tremendous combination of contact, speed and defense.
However, the Mets certainly talent to beat them and could dash their hopes of winning a World Series for the second straight year.
