The Ty France All Stars
Remembering some guys who crushed the Royals despite middling overall career numbers
Minnesota Twins infielder Ty France has continued his personal Reign of Terror against the Kansas City Royals this season. Last Friday night he hit a walk-off home run against fireman Lucas Erceg, giving the Twins a 3-1 victory in the first game of the series.
France has been a regular major leaguer for the past five seasons now, but his overall numbers don’t jump out at you. He’s been worth 7.3 fWAR in his career in 755 career games played, which is currently the same number of fWAR that Jonathan India has in 573 career games played. Against the Royals, however, he somehow transforms into Aaron Judge. The Twins first baseman has a career .263/.336/.404 slash line, which is perfectly respectable but nothing particularly noteworthy. Against the Royals, however, France is hitting .392/.473/.654 in 150 plate appearances.
I assume most reading this are familiar with OPS+ (which takes the players on base percentage plus slugging percentage and then normalizes it across the rest of the league, with 100 being average), but less familiar with tOPS+. You can find the nifty stat on Baseball Reference and it lets you compare specific OPS splits relative to that players total OPS. So for example, France has a 203 tOPS+ against the Royals, which means that his OPS against KC is 103 percent better when he faces the boys in blue than his normal OPS. It’s a nice stat to show what we all have felt watching France hit; that guy has owned the Royals.
Our fearless leader had an idea to put together an All Star team full of guys like France, guys who have crushed the Royals despite not being particularly noteworthy players. Since I like remembering some guys and sports pain, I felt called to use Stathead and search for players who have hit their best against the Royals with at least 100 plate appearances against KC. Below is a starting lineup of these guys, presented by position, named in honor of France.
Catcher: Rod Barajas
Career Slash Line - .235/.284/.407
Against Royals Slash Line - .337/.382/.663
tOPS+ - 197
Rod Barajas spent 14 years in the majors as a catcher, compiling just 2.3 fWAR, but that didn’t stop him from crushing the Royals. I’ve tried to mind wipe the 2005 Royals from my brain, so I don’t remember this at all, but Barajas hit five home runs against KC in just 27 plate appearances in 2005. The Royals thought about singing Barajas for the 2010 season, but went with Jason Kendall instead.
First Baseman: Randall Simon
Career Slash Line - .283/.320/.422
Against Royals Slash Line - .410/.431/.730
tOPS+ - 208
Normally when Randall Simon is invoked during a remembering some guys session, his violence against the Milwaukee Brewers sausage is what inevitably comes up. Now you have something else you can remember Simon by! Simon played for the Detroit Tigers during the 2001 and 2002 seasons and dominated the Royals at the plate in both seasons. He had 0.3 bWAR for his career.
Second Baseman: Ty France
Career Slash Line - .263/.336/.404
Against Royals Slash Line - .392/.473/.654
tOPS+ - 203
France is mostly a first baseman but has played some second in his career, so I’m cheating a little bit and putting him here. His defense against KC hasn’t really mattered.
Shortstop: Bobby Crosby
Career Slash Line - .236/.304/.372
Against Royals Slash Line - .327/.382/.583
tOPS+ - 182
Bobby Crosby faced the Royals as a member of the Oakland Athletics across six seasons from 2004-2009; he hit better against the Royals than he did compared to his normal OPS in each of those six seasons. The shortstop only hit six home runs as a part time player in 2009, but two of them came against KC.
Third Baseman: Herbert Perry
Career Slash Line - .272/.335/.436
Against Royals Slash Line - .348/.405/.678
tOPS+ - 176
The Royals did well against Herbert Perry in 1995 when he played with Cleveland, but Perry had their number the rest of his career, whether it was with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Texas Rangers or Chicago White Sox. Perry had five home runs and three doubles against the Royals in 2002 alone. “The Milkman” delivered, at least against early 2000’s Royals pitching.
Left Fielder: Jonny Gomes
Career Slash Line - .242/.333/.436
Against Royals Slash Line - .320/.419/.796
tOPS+ - 208
Jonny Gomes was a Royals killer before he entered Kansas City lore for his role in the 2015 World Series run. In 2005, not only did Gomes have more walks (4) against Royals pitching than strikeouts (3), he also had more home runs (4)! Clearly the Royals had to acquire Gomes just so they didn’t have to face him in the playoffs.
Center Fielder: Tyler Naquin
Career Slash Line - .263/.316/.445
Against Royals Slash Line - .317/.388/.600
tOPS+ - 158
Tyler Naquin was a better career hitter than I realized; his overall career OPS+ is 100. He was inconsistent at the plate, frequently fluctuating between above average seasons with well below ones. He consistently got the better of the Royals, posting above average OPS against KC in five of the six season he played for Cleveland.
Right Fielder: Robert Fick
Career Slash Line - .258/.328/.405
Against Royals Slash Line - .308/.408/.548
tOPS+ - 160
After his first two seasons worth of games against the Royals, Robert Fick sported a .500 batting average against KC. For his career against Kansas City, he had 25 walks with only 24 strikeouts. Fick made the actual All-Star team in 2002 as the Tigers representative.
Designated Hitter: Matt Davidson
Career Slash Line - .220/.290/.430
Against Royals Slash Line - .304/.377/.716
tOPS+ - 197
Matt Davidson did the bulk of his work against the Royals 2018 in 2018, hitting 8 bombs in 12 games. Davidson only had two plate appearances against KC in 2020; one was a homer and the other was a walk. He currently plays for the NC Dinos in the KBO.
So there you have it, a lineup full of players who struck fear in the heart of Royals fans despite their inability to do so against most other MLB teams. Who did I snub from this prestigious list? Let me know in the comments.