By 2000, MIke Sweeney, Johnny Damon and Jermaine Dye had become monsters on a 4th
place team. Sweeney now 26, slammed 30 doubles, 29 Homers and took over the Royals
all time RBI lead from Hal McRae which was set way back in 1982 as Sweeney
posted 144 RBIs to go along with his stellar .333 batting average. Jermaine Dye
meanwhile slammed 41 doubles, 33 HRs and put up 118 RBI's of his own to go along
with his impressive .321 batting average. Johnny Damon was now starting to
show his maturity batting .327 with 42 doubles, 10 triples, 16 homers, 88 RBIs
and 46 stolen bases. Mark Quinn also came to Kansas City at 26 joining the youth
movement hitting 33 2Bs, 20 HRs and batting .294. Joe Randa was solid as always
at 3B with 29 2B, 16 HR, 106 RBI and a .304 average. With a lineup this spectacular,
you really need some god-awful pitching to be able to finish 8 games
under .500, and the Royals had plenty of that too. Jeff Suppan (10-9, 4.94) was
the highlight of a pitching staff which continued to decend to the bowels of the
American League putting up an atrocious 5.48 team ERA, dashing any hopes that
this fantastic lineup could offer up. By January Johnny Damon was traded to the
Athletics for A.J. Hinch who promptly batted .157. Mike Sweeney tried
to hold down the fort with 46 2Bs, 29 HRs, 99 RBIs and a .304 average. Beltran
meanwhile continued to come into his own with 32 2Bs, 12 3Bs, 24 HRs and 101 RBI's
while batting .306. Rey Sanchez would also hit .308. Pitching continued to
be miserable as the Royals again hit the 97 loss mark. |