1998 Kansas City Royals season

1998 Kansas City Royals
LeagueAmerican League
DivisionCentral
BallparkKauffman Stadium
CityKansas City, Missouri
Record72–89 (.447)
Divisional place3rd
OwnersDavid Glass
General managersHerk Robinson
ManagersTony Muser
TelevisionKMBC-TV
KCWB
Fox Sports Rocky Mountain
(Paul Splittorff, Bob Davis)
RadioWKBZ
(Denny Matthews, Fred White)
← 1997 Seasons 1999 →

The 1998 Kansas City Royals season was the 30th season for the franchise, and their 26th at Kauffman Stadium. The Royals finished third in the American League Central with a record of 72 wins and 89 losses and missed the postseason for the 13th consecutive season.

Offseason

  • November 18, 1997: Yamil Benitez was drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks from the Kansas City Royals as the 19th pick in the 1997 expansion draft.[1]
  • January 20, 1998: Terry Pendleton was signed as a free agent with the Kansas City Royals.[2]
  • January 20, 1998: Lee Smith signed as a free agent with the Kansas City Royals.[3]
  • March 17, 1998: Ernie Young was purchased by the Kansas City Royals from the Oakland Athletics.[4]

Regular season

Before the 1998 regular season began, two new teams—the Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Devil Rays—were added by Major League Baseball. This resulted in the American League and National League having fifteen teams. However, in order for MLB officials to continue primarily intraleague play, both leagues would need to carry a number of teams that was divisible by two, so the decision was made to move one club from the AL Central to the NL Central.

This realignment was widely considered to have great financial benefit to the club moving. However, to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, Commissioner (then club owner) Bud Selig decided another team should have the first chance to switch leagues. The choice was offered to the Kansas City Royals, who ultimately decided to stay in the American League and bypassing the opportunity to build a full-time rivalry with the St. Louis Cardinals.[5] The choice then fell to the Brewers, who, on November 6, 1997, elected to move to the National League. Had the Brewers elected not to move to the National League, the Minnesota Twins would have been offered the opportunity to switch leagues.[6]

Season standings

AL Central
Team W L Pct. GB Home Road
Cleveland Indians 89 73 .549 — 46‍–‍35 43‍–‍38
Chicago White Sox 80 82 .494 9 44‍–‍37 36‍–‍45
Kansas City Royals 72 89 .447 16½ 29‍–‍51 43‍–‍38
Minnesota Twins 70 92 .432 19 35‍–‍46 35‍–‍46
Detroit Tigers 65 97 .401 24 32‍–‍49 33‍–‍48

Record vs. opponents

1998 American League record

Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14]
Team ANA BAL BOS CWS CLE DET KC MIN NYY OAK SEA TB TEX TOR NL 
Anaheim — 5–6 6–5 5–6 4–7 8–3 6–5 6–5 6–5 5–7 9–3 6–5 5–7 4–7 10–6
Baltimore 6–5 — 6–6 2–9 5–6 10–1 5–6 7–3 3–9 8–3 6–5 5–7 6–5 5–7 5–11
Boston 5–6 6–6 — 5–6 8–3 5–5 8–3 5–6 5–7 9–2 7–4 9–3 6–5 5–7 9–7
Chicago 6–5 9–2 6–5 — 6–6 6–6 8–4 6–6 4–7 4–7 4–7 5–6 5–6 4–6–1 7–9
Cleveland 7–4 6–5 3–8 6–6 — 9–3 8–4 6–6 4–7 3–8 9–2 7–3 4–7 7–4 10–6
Detroit 3–8 1–10 5–5 6–6 3–9 — 6–6 8–4 3–8 7–4 3–8 5–6 3–8 5–6 7–9
Kansas City 5–6 6–5 3–8 4–8 4–8 6–6 — 7–5 0–10 7–4 4–6 8–3 3–8 6–5 9–7
Minnesota 5–6 3–7 6–5 6–6 6–6 4–8 5–7 — 4–7 4–7 2–9 7–4 7–4 4–7 7–9
New York 5–6 9–3 7–5 7–4 7–4 8–3 10–0 7–4 — 8–3 8–3 11–1 8–3 6–6 13–3
Oakland 7–5 3–8 2–9 7–4 8–3 4–7 4–7 7–4 3–8 — 5–7 5–6 6–6 5–6 8–8
Seattle 3–9 5–6 4–7 7–4 2–9 8–3 6–4 9–2 3–8 7–5 — 6–5 5–7 4–7 7–9
Tampa Bay 5–6 7–5 3–9 6–5 3–7 6–5 3–8 4–7 1–11 6–5 5–6 — 4–7 5–7 5–11
Texas 7–5 5–6 5–6 6–5 7–4 8–3 8–3 4–7 3–8 6–6 7–5 7–4 — 7–4 8–8
Toronto 7–4 7–5 7–5 6–4–1 4–7 6–5 5–6 7–4 6–6 6–5 7–4 7–5 4–7 — 9–7


Roster

1998 Kansas City Royals
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders

Other batters

Manager

Coaches

Player stats

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; R = Runs; H = Hits; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in; Avg. = Batting average; Slg. = Slugging average; SB = Stolen bases

Pos Player G AB R H HR RBI Avg. Slg. SB
C Mike Sweeney 92 282 32 73 8 35 .259 .408 2
1B Jeff King 131 486 83 128 24 93 .263 .451 10
2B José Offerman 158 607 102 191 7 66 .315 .438 45
3B Dean Palmer 152 572 84 159 34 119 .278 .510 8
SS Mendy López 74 206 18 50 1 15 .243 .325 5
LF Jeff Conine 93 309 30 79 8 43 .256 .417 3
CF Johnny Damon 161 642 104 178 18 66 .277 .439 26
RF Larry Sutton 111 310 29 76 5 42 .245 .352 3
DH Terry Pendleton 79 237 17 61 3 29 .257 .338 1

[7]

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
Hal Morris 127 472 146 .309 1 40
Larry Sutton 111 310 76 .245 5 42
Sal Fasano 74 216 49 .227 8 31
Shane Mack 66 207 58 .280 6 29
Shane Halter 86 204 45 .221 2 13
Luis Rivera 42 89 22 .247 0 7
Félix Martínez 34 85 11 .129 0 5
Jermaine Allensworth 30 73 15 .205 0 3
Jeremy Giambi 18 58 13 .224 2 8
Carlos Beltrán 14 58 16 .276 0 7
Ernie Young 25 53 10 .189 1 3
Scott Leius 17 46 8 .174 0 4
Tim Spehr 11 25 6 .240 1 2
Carlos Febles 11 25 10 .400 0 2
Chris Hatcher 8 15 1 .067 0 1
Mike Macfarlane 3 11 1 .091 0 0
Chris Turner 4 9 0 .000 0 0
Joe Vitiello 3 7 1 .143 0 0
Héctor Ortiz 4 4 0 .000 0 0
Jed Hansen 4 3 0 .000 0 0
Dee Brown 5 3 0 .000 0 0

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Tim Belcher 34 234.0 14 14 4.27 130
Pat Rapp 32 188.1 12 13 5.30 132
José Rosado 38 174.2 8 11 4.69 135
Glendon Rusch 29 154.2 6 15 5.88 94
Brian Barber 8 42.0 2 4 6.00 24
Kevin Appier 3 15.0 1 2 7.80 9

Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Hipólito Pichardo 27 112.1 7 8 5.13 55
Chris Haney 33 97.1 6 6 7.03 51
Jamie Walker 6 17.1 0 1 9.87 15
Jeff Suppan 4 12.2 0 0 0.71 12
Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G W L SV ERA SO
Jeff Montgomery 56 2 5 36 4.98 54
Scott Service 73 6 4 4 3.48 95
Matt Whisenant 70 2 1 2 4.90 45
Jim Pittsley 39 1 1 0 6.59 44
Brian Bevil 39 3 1 0 6.30 47
Ricky Bones 32 2 2 1 3.04 38
Bart Evans 8 0 0 0 3.00 7
Allen McDill 7 0 0 0 10.50 3
Danny Rios 5 0 1 0 6.14 6
Tim Byrdak 3 0 0 0 5.40 1
José Santiago 2 0 0 0 9.00 2
Shane Halter 1 0 0 0 0.00 0

Farm system

See also: Minor League Baseball
Level Team League Manager
AAA Omaha Royals Pacific Coast League Ron Johnson
AA Wichita Wranglers Texas League John Mizerock
A Wilmington Blue Rocks Carolina League Darrell Evans, Kevin Long and Brian Poldberg
A Lansing Lugnuts Midwest League Bob Herold
A-Short Season Spokane Indians Northwest League Jeff Garber
Rookie GCL Royals Gulf Coast League Andre David

[8]

References

  1. ^ "Yamil Benitez Stats".
  2. ^ Terry Pendleton Statistics Baseball-Reference.com
  3. ^ Lee Smith Statistics Baseball-Reference.com
  4. ^ "Ernie Young Stats".
  5. ^ "Brewers switch leagues, join Reds in NL Central". The Kentucky Post (Associated Press). E. W. Scripps Company. November 6, 1997. Archived from the original on May 5, 2005.
  6. ^ Pappas, Doug, "News Briefs: Fall 1997" Archived July 27, 2008, at the Wayback Machine, Outside the Lines, Fall 1997.
  7. ^ "1998 Seattle Mariners Statistics".
  8. ^ Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 3rd edition. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 2007