In his second season of managing, Matt Quatraro is engineering one of the biggest improvements in baseball history. After losing 106 games last year, the Royals have already won 20 more games this year with several weeks to go. If they manage to win 15 of their final 21 games, they will tie the 1999 Diamondbacks for the biggest single-season improvement in baseball history - 35 wins.
The improvement wildly exceeds expectations for the club before the season. Although the Royals were one of the biggest spenders this off-season, few observers felt the team was anywhere close to contention.