Inside The Numbers-Jim Thome vs Kansas City Royals

While watching Sunday afternoon's game between the White Sox and Royals, I noticed something I had to look into.

The Royals' lineup could be one of the worst this season. They were without Reggie Sanders and Mike Sweeney due to injuries, and had a lot of guys just up from the minors. Here was their lineup:

1. Esteban German-3B
2. Mark Grudzielanek-2B
3. Tony Graffanino-1B
4. Emil Brown-RF
5. Angel Berroa-SS
6. Aaron Guiel-LF
7. John Buck-C
8. Justin Huber-DH
9. Kerry Robinson-CF

Not exactly the scariest in the world, is it?

Then I noticed that the entire Royal lineup had three home runs COMBINED. Three!

So the thought hit me: I wonder how the Royals combined lineup stacks up against Jim Thome?

Well let's look:

Royals Lineup (454 at bats) .248 3HR 39RBI 47R 30BB

Jim Thome (101 at bats) .307 13HR 32RBI 32R 28BB

Jim has out hit and out homered the Royals, while he's slightly behind in RBIs, runs and walks.

But what if Jim had 454 at bats like the Royals' lineup?

Jim Thome (454 at bats) .307 58HR 144RBI 144R 126BB

I guess those comparisons go a long way in explaining why the Royals have a major league worst record of 7-22.

The the oddities don't stop there, though. Of the Royals' seven wins, 43% of them have come against the team with the best record in the majors, the Chicago White Sox (22-9). The Royals are 3-6 against the Sox so far this season. So 33% of the Sox' losses are to KC.

You gotta love baseball.