No one believes in the Royals.
Not PECOTA, which projected them to win 69 games (revised up to 72 wins). Not Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight, who projects them to win 74. Not Fangraphs, who projects them to win 76.
It is not just the statistical models, even the baseball experts are down on the Royals’ chances of post-season action. All six writers at CBS Sports picked the Indians to win the division. All six writers at Yahoo Sports picked the Royals to finish third. None of the 22 experts for MLB Network Radio picked the Royals to make the playoffs (et tu, Matt Diaz?