As we sit at the All-Star Break, we take some time to reflect on the Kansas City Royals performance by position in the first half of the season.

There is no denying that expectations were higher for this Royals team. With this being the first year having most of the young players Royals’ fans have been hearing about starting the season with the team, it is only natural that fans expected to see production right away. Well, for the first week, things looked pretty decent. Then Johnny Broxton blew a game in Oakland and everything went to hell in a handbasket for 2 weeks. The Royals proceeded to get blown out on their home opener in front of a sold out crowd, in the second of 12 consecutive losses. Once the Royals finally snapped their losing streak, they actually began playing well. Despite several more injuries to key players, they managed to claw back to 5-6 games out of first place. Then they hit a swoon last week that puts them currently at 37-47 and 9 1/2 games out of first place in the division. How has each position performed? We will fill you in on that right now:

Starting Pitcher-C minus

People may feel like this is being too generous. But based on the injuries to guys like Duffy and Paulino, what more could you expect? Bruce Chen has regressed a little, and Luke Hochevar has been his same unreliable and inconsistent self. But Luis Mendoza has been a pleasant surprise, and guys like Vin Mazzarro, Nate Adcock, and Everett Teaford have done an ok job filling in. If it wasn’t for Jonathan Sanchez, I might be able to give this group a B minus.

Catcher-B
Brayan Pena will always be Brayan Pena. But this year he has solidified himself as a solid clubhouse presence as well as a high quality backup catcher. He and Humberto Quintero had to start more games than the Royals would have preferred due to Salvador Perez‘s knee injury, but that’s what they’re there for. Quintero is now gone, and since Perez returned from injury, he has been a monster in every respect. It would not surprise me if the Catcher position receives an A for its final grade based on what Perez is able to contribute in the second half of the season.

First Base-D plus

Eric Hosmer now has his batting average up to .231. This is saying something, considering it doesn’t seem that long ago that he was hitting a meager .179. The Royals and their fans expected more out of Hosmer this season, as they should have. I believe he will turn it around and have a very solid 2nd half of the season.

2nd Base-B

The tandem of Yuniesky Betancourt and Chris Getz (when he as been healthy) has certainly outpaced expectations for this year. Johnny Giovatella’s less than inspiring performance after getting called up is certainly a downer, but overall I think the Royals have gotten more offensively than they expected to out of the 2nd Base position.

3rd Base-A

Mike Moustakas has exceeded all expectations both offensively and defensively. He is currently on pace for 29 HR’s and 91 RBI. While nobody doubted he could put up numbers like this eventually, nobody expected it to come this year. On top of that, he is playing gold glove calibur defense.

Shortstop-A

Alcides Escobar is hitting .307 and slugging .410. He also has 21 doubles at the break. And is probably the best defensive shortstop in the game. Yes, we will take that.

Outfield-C

Defensively, the trio of Alex Gordon, Jeff Francoeur, and Jarrod Dyson has performed quite well. Offensively, however, the production coming from the 3 outfield spots is well below where it was last year and well below where anyone expected it to be this year. After a slow start, Alex Gordon has now raised his batting average to .274 with 27 doubles. However, his 5 HR’s are well off the pace of the 23 that he clubbed in 2011. His speed on the basebaths has also somehow disappeared, as he sits at 3 SB’s after swiping 17 bags last year. Jeff Francoeur has been similarly disappointing at the plate. After hitting .285 with 20 HR, 85 RBI, and 22 SB’s a season ago, he currently sits with a batting average of .251, 7 HR, 25 RBI, and just 1 SB. This is far from the kind of production they were hoping for in 2012, and is the primary reason Royals fans are clamoring for Wil Myers to replace Frenchy in RF. And the lack of production in CF is almost entirely due to the injury of Lorenzo Cain, who is scheduled to return this coming weekend. Jarrod Dyson is a nice player with a limited skillset, so he is performing about as well as one could reasonably expect him to. So once Cain comes back we should see an uptick in production from the CF position.

Bullpen-A minus

A lot has been asked of this bullpen and for the most part they have delivered. Even with Joakim Soria going down before the season, Jonathan Broxton has stepped up and performed admirably in the closer’s role. Kelvin Herrera, Tim Collins, Jose Mijares, Greg Holland, and Aaron Crow have also been very reliable options out of the pen. The hope is that this group was not over-used in the first half of the season and doesn’t break down, but time will tell.

Looking at these performances, it is hard to not feel somewhat optimistic about the 2nd half of the season. With drastic increases in production expected from Catcher (Perez), Right Field (Myers), Center-Field (Cain), and the opportunity for Gordon to show improvement from the first half, the Royals could find themselves in position to make some noise in the 2nd half of 2012.

Many theories have been advanced as to why the Cardinals seem to swoon late in seasons these days. I can’t help but wonder if the root cause is in how the roster has changed.

At the end of the 2006 season, the Cardinals had been in the playoffs three consecutive years, the NLCS every year, the World Series twice, and were the reigning World Champions. Since, they have not won a playoff game. The 2007 team saw a lot of injuries, and after that season two stalwarts of those mid-decade juggernauts left via trade: Jim Edmonds (to San Diego) and Scott Rolen (to exile, er, Toronto).

Looking back, St Louis had seen this before. In 1987 the Cardinals concluded their most successful run of sustained superior baseball since the El Birdos teams 20 years earlier. In six years, they had won the National League three times, the World Series once, and narrowly missed two other titles. But times were changing in St Louis, and with Gussie Busch taking a back seat to Fred Kuhlmann cost became the primary driver on roster decisions. Jack Clark, a free agent after the 1987 season, was not re-signed; he went to the Yankees. Tommy Herr, in his last year with the club, was traded to Minnesota for Tom Brunansky.

It should be emphasized the drivers for these sets of roster moves were different. Edmonds was traded because his injury history had caught up to him, and he was no longer the productive player he had been in 2005. Rolen’s significant shoulder injuries sapped him of his power; although the primary driver for his relocation north of the border can be traced to his acerbic relationship with manager Tony LaRussa. Clark and Herr left because the club did not want to pay them.

But the impact on the roster of losing these players was immediate and long-lasting. Clark was the lone power threat on the Whiteyball teams of the 1980s; St Louis never really did replace his production. Herr was a clubhouse leader. His departure was hugely unpopular in St Louis, and the team suffered for his loss. Save the 1989 season, the Cardinals didn’t finish within 10 games of first place in their division until they won the NL Central in 1996.

And today’s Cardinals? The 2008-2010 teams have been more competitive than their forebears of 20 years ago, but they have not succeeded either. Third base has been a revolving door since Rolen left. Colby Rasmus appeared the heir apparent to Edmonds in center until this July. Despite having strong personalities on the roster like Albert Pujols, Chris Carpenter, and Adam Wainwright, the Cardinals seem to suffer from a lack of leadership in the clubhouse – a role Scott Rolen certainly filled, and Jim Edmonds definitely did (look no further than his actions during the 2006 playoff run).

Every team, every assemblage of people working towards a common goal, needs leadership. Senior leadership can drive the problem, but only so far. The manager cannot be everywhere all the time. Peer leadership is required; and in important ways, essential. The manager can set the standard, but he is unable to lead by example. When a player is dogging it, the manager can call that guy into his office and talk to him, but it is that player’s peers that drive the message home. Men like Jim Edmonds, Jack Clark, Tommy Herr, and Scott Rolen led by example. They drove the message home.

When they left the St Louis Cardinals lost something special, and something essential. It was true 20 years ago until management and the roster rolled completely over. It is true today. The Cardinals did not replace Tommy Herr’s leadership until LaRussa brought character guys over from his Oakland A’s teams. These Cardinals have not found a replacement to Scott Rolen’s example. Until they do we will continue to see swoons in August.

Thanks to Bob Netherton for his assistance with this post.

Mike Metzger is a life-long Cardinals fan who currently blogs about the San Diego Padres.

Last August the Cardinals went to Cincinnati for a key 3-game series against the Reds. You might remember it – it included some colorful comments about St Louis from Brandon Phillips, a pseudo-brawl, and a Cardinal sweep. The Cardinals won their next game against the Chicago Cubs, but lost the final two in that series, on 14 and 15 August. That started a tumble that saw them lose 13 of 18, and nine games in the standings. Beware the Ides of August.

This week the Cardinals went to Milwaukee for a key 3-game series against the Brewers. You will remember it – it included some frustrated comments about Milwaukee fans from Tony LaRussa, a sequence of ‘you throw at our guy, we’ll throw at yours’, and the Cardinals losing 2 of 3. The Cardinals once again approach the middle of August, and find themselves in a heated pennant race for the NL Central title. What will the outcome be in 2011?

It’s a strange coincidence that both seasons seem to be mirror images. The Cardinals are trying to fight through the challenge of a division rival with little recent playoff history,but playing with a lot of passion, and carrying a large grudge from years of Cardinal dominance. St Louis was unable to overcome the passion last season, despite a supremely talented core of players (Chris Carpenter, Adam Wainwright, Albert Pujols, Matt Holliday, Yadier Molina). Many in the organization came to believe the August 2010 swoon was personality driven – the club did not have enough character guys to pick themselves up when the going got tough.

General Manager John Mozeliak went out and reconstructed the roster because of the August collapse, and precisely so they could weather that kind of challenge in 2011. Lance Berkman was the biggest name signing amongst several players brought in (or sent out) to change the tenor of the clubhouse. The Cardinals were going to be better offensively, and have the team chemistry to fight through any adversity.

It initially looked that way. The Cardinals had played well and, even after enduring a 7-game losing streak in mid-June, found themselves in first place, 7 games over .500, on 1 July. Since that day they’ve been positively mediocre (13-15). They now sit 3.5 games behind Milwaukee. Unlike last season, in which they played Cincinnati only 3 more times after that August series, they still have 9 games remaining against the Brewers. There is adversity to attend to. Pujols has not been Pujols, and the team has endured injuries as well as inconsistent performance from the bullpen in the late innings, but all teams endure injuries and poor performance during a season. The elite teams, the ‘character’ teams, fight through it. The rest of the league succumbs to it. St Louis appears to be succumbing to it.

Despite all the front office’s efforts, this team is performing a lot like last year’s. And the Ides of August approach. St Louis has the time, the schedule, and the roster to write a different ending to this story, but time is running out. The team built to fight through any adversity is going to have to fight much harder than they probably expected.