It's been a tough start for the Royals in 2022. Offense is down across all of baseball, but not many teams have been as cold at the plate as the Royals, who rank among the bottom 3-5 teams in most offensive categories. Despite a defense that's playing well and a bullpen that's been surprisingly strong to start the year, heading into the third week of games, Kansas City sits four games under .500 (5-9) and in last in the AL Central. Speaking with 610's Cody and Gold on Tuesday, Royals GM JJ Picollo went in-depth on what he sees as the main problems so far.
"Well I think every guy has different things that they have going on as individuals, but you know, generally speaking, right now our chase rates are a little bit higher than we'd like to see them," Picollo said. "And then also, which I think gets overlooked a lot, when you do get good pitches to hit, and you don't hit the ball hard, now it's typically a foul ball, or it's a taken strike, or maybe you swung through it, and that's the pitch in the at-bat you could have done some damage with. I think by in large, the thing we're looking at is the pitches that we've missed -- when a ball is a hanging breaking ball, when those balls are in the top of the zone, we've got to capitalize on it. It's really a mistake pitch, and we've got to capitalize. And until we start doing that consistently, the at-bats are going to be tough. But I think, to answer your question, it's just focusing on the type of at-bats that we're taking. What's our pitch selection been like? What have our swing decisions been? And if we focus on that, the results will be better. The hard hit will be better, and our production will go up."
You can listen to Picollo's entire interview (26:00 mark) in the player below:
