The Royals have never been a franchise willing to take a pitch. Since their inception in 1969, they have been dead last in baseball in walk rate. They have not finished in the top half of the league in walks drawn since 1989, and have finished dead last in the category ten times since then.
The team exemplified that free-swinging approach under Dayton Moore, but there was hope that with J.J. Picollo at the helm, the team philosophy on hitting would evolve to a more patient approach at the plate. With the promotion of Alec Zumwalt to hitting coach last spring, there was a lot of talk about being able to take pitches that weren’t in the zone and waiting for the right pitch to do damage.