There haven't been too many bright spots on a Royals team this year, that many, (including myself) were duped into thinking had a chance to compete for the division, or at least flirt with .500. But, sadly, that hasn't been the case with the Royals yet again, so we as fans, are forced to try and look at the few things that are right on this team.
The obvious bright spot being Grienke, who leads the league in ERA at a clip of 2.08. And if it weren't for the abysmal offense, and at often times horrid bullpen, he would be leading the league in wins as well.
But I would like to take a closer look at an up-and-coming star on this Royals team, Billy Butler. I for one was always an "Alex Gordon guy" when the two were coming up in the minors together, and always looked at Butler as an overweight DH that can't play the field and can't hit more than 10 home runs in a season. And although it is too soon to officially label Gordon a bust, it is safe to say that Butler is the better bet to be a solid player in this league.
After last season and the start of this season I began to give up on Butler as a potential 30 home run guy, and wasn't encouraged by his .285 career average either. So I decided to extrapolate the numbers over Butler's 3 years in the big leagues. And so far in 98 games, Butler has hit a career high 31 doubles with 60 games to go (he hit 22 in 124 games last season) Now when I see this statistic, it tells me a couple things: 1. Butler has developing power that as I've witnessed isn't quite big league power but good enough to hit the gaps. 2. Butler isn't Carlos Gomez, so he's not legging out these doubles, which means they're well hit balls to the wall.
The next statistic to look at when a guy is showing potential to hit for home run power, is walks. Butler in 99 games has drawn 31 BB. Not fantastic but a big improvement from the 33 that he had all last season. When the number of BB starts to increase in a young hitter, it means he is learning plate discipline and that will ultimately lead to more home runs, just ask Albert Pujols. Butler's OPS has also gone up significantly at .806, as well as a spike in his strike outs, 64, but he is still wavering around a .300 average. Butler may only have 47 rbi's, but it's not exactly his fault that no one is on base in front of him when he's raking all these doubles.
Now I'm not saying that an increase in strikeouts is a good thing, but it does, when compiled with the aforementioned statistics show a sign in a hitter having potential for increasing home run power. Now to get to my main stat line, home runs, Butler has 11. Not earth shattering, not even all that impressive, string-bean Short stop Alexei Ramirez has 11 as well. But that ties the total that Butler came up with last year, and I look for him to be able to approach 20 this year, but more than likely finish somewhere in the mid-teens.
ESPN the Magazine, at the beginning of last season in their, "Fantasy Baseball" issue, labeled Butler a "fantasy stud." They predicted him to hit over .300 drive in over 100 and hit 30 home runs. They were slightly off, but more so, slightly early with their predictions. I don't believe Butler will ever possess those numbers in his career, but he definitely has the potential to put up numbers close to that in the coming years.
So what I look for in Butler next season, aside from another abysmal performance in the field, is a 25-30 home run type year, along with a wealth of doubles, but less so than he's going to put up this year, because some of those balls are going to start getting out of the park. I also expect an increase in walks and strikeouts once again for Butler, all while actually achieving above a .300 average.
The Royals are all about the future, unfortunately, and for Butler as a big league hitter, the future is bright.
