The Kansas City Royals have announced the seven former players who fans can vote for to enter their franchise Hall of Fame.

Those players are:

Carlos Beltran, Outfield: 1998-2004, 899 Hits, 123 Home Runs, 516 RBIs, .287/.352/483.  Beltran won the American League Rookie of the Year in 1999 on the strength of a 22 Home Run/27 Stolen Base year.  Beltran had three 170-Hit years for Kansas City and was an All-Star in 2004 after he was traded to the Houston Astros.  Beltran is likely a future Hall of Famer, after stints with the New York Mets, San Francisco Giants, St. Louis Cardinals, New York Yankees and Texas Rangers. 

Billy Butler, Designated Hitter and First Base:  2007-14, 1,273 Hits, 127 Hone Runs, 628 RBIs, .295/.359/.449.  Butler was an All-Star in 2012, and had two seasons for Kansas City where he managed 20 Home Runs and a .300 Batting Average.  Butler also won the Silver Slugger in 2012.

Kyle Davies, Pitcher:  2007-11, 29-44, 5.34 ERA, 1.576 WHIP.  Davies played five years with Kansas City and was a dependable starter.

Johnny Damon, Outfield:  1995-2000, 894 Hits, 65 Home Runs, 352 RBIs, .292/.351/.438.  Damon’s career began with Kansas City, where he would lead the American League in Rus Scored (136) and Stolen Bases (46) in his final year as a Royal.  He would later win a World Series Ring with the Boston Red Soc in 2004.

Jeremy Guthrie, Pitcher:  2012-15, 41-34, 4.38 ERA, 1.365 WHIP.  Guthrie won 15 Games in 2013, and pitched at least 200 Innings that year and the year after. Guthrie also helped the Royals win the 2015 World Series.

Luke Hochevar, Pitcher:   2007-16, 46-65, 4.98 ERA, 1.340 WHIP.  Hochevar played his entire Major League career in Kansas City, and he was a reliever on the team that won the 2015 World Series.

Yordano Ventura, Pitcher:  2013-16, 38-31, 3.89 ERA, 1.344 WHIP.  Another member of the 2015 World Series Championship, Ventura was in Kansas City’s starting rotation for three seasons, all of which saw him win at least 11 Games. Ventura was killed in a car crash in his native Dominican Republic in January of 2017.

You can vote for this year’s class here.

Unlike the Cardinals Hall of Fame, which we discussed yesterday, the winner of the on-line vote does not gain automatic entry. It will count as three votes towards the total.  The other voters are:

All living members of the Royals Hall of Fame

Select members of Royals Front Office Staff 

Royals Associates with 15 years or more service 

Select members of the Kansas City Chapter of the Baseball Writers of America 

Select Kansas City electronic media members 

According to the Royals.com site, the qualifications are as follows:

To qualify for the Royals Hall of Fame, players must have been active in the Major Leagues at some time during a period beginning twelve years before and ending three years or more prior to election. Eligible players that received a minimum of ten percent (10%) of the vote in the most recent prior election cycle remain on the ballot for up to five cycles. All eligible players must have been active with the Kansas City Royals for at least three seasons and accumulated a minimum of 1,500 plate appearances or 300 innings pitched. Those eligible shall have ceased to be an active on-field member of the Kansas City Royals (or for any other Major League Organization) in the role for which they are being considered for at least three (3) calendar years preceding the election – but may be otherwise connected to the Royals or another Major League Organization. 

Any eligible player receiving votes on seventy-five percent (75%) of the ballots cast will be deemed an elected Royals Hall of Fame member. To remain on the ballot for the next RHOF voting cycle, eligible players must receive a minimum of ten percent (10%) of the ballots cast. In odd-numbered years a separate Veterans Committee vote will consider the candidacy of non-player personnel and players who previously received Royals Hall of Fame Voting (Regular Phase) votes but are no longer eligible for election in that manner.

We have a significant retirement that will take place within a week as Kansas City Royals Outfielder, Alex Gordon, has announced that he will be retiring at the season’s end.

Gordon was drafted second overall in 2005, and the Golden Spikes Award winner made his debut for the Royals in 2007.  Gordon would become one of the best defensive players in franchise history, winning eight Gold Gloves while becoming a three-time All-Star.  He led the American League in Doubles in 2012, and he had a pair of 20 Home Run campaigns.  Gordon helped Kansas City win the 2015 World Series, and he blasted a Home Run in Game 1 that forced extra innings and led to a Kansas City victory.

At present, Gordon has 190 career Home Runs with 1,641 Hits.

Gordon will be eligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2026, and while he is unlikely to make Cooperstown, he will be on the ballot.  

Yes, we know that this is taking a while!

As many of you know, we here at Notinhalloffame.com are slowly generating the 50 of each major North American sports team.  That being said, we have existing Top 50 lists out and we always consistently look to update them when we can and based on necessity.  As such, we are very happy to present the first revision of our top 50 Kansas City Royals of all-time.

As for all of our top 50 players in baseball we look at the following: 

1.  Advanced Statistics.

2. Traditional statistics and how they finished in the American League. 

This is the first revision since we put up this list in 2017.

The complete list can be found here, but as always we announce our top five in this article.  They are:

1. George Brett

2. Bret Saberhagen

3. Kevin Appier

4. Willie Wilson

5. Amos Otis

As the Royals are in rebuilding mode the last two years, beyond minor tinkering, very little has changed.   The top five remains intact from our original list.   There is one new entry in Whit Merrifield, their current Second Baseman.  He debuts at #32.

We welcome your input and commentsand as always, we thank you for your support.

Whit Merrifield helped the University of South Carolina win the 2010 College World Series, and the Kansas City Royals would draft him in the Ninth Round that year.

Yes, this is taking a while!

As many of you know, we here at Notinhalloffame.com are slowly generating the 50 of each major North American sports team. We have a new one to unveil today, that of the Kansas City Royals, two time World Series Champions.

As for all of our top 50 players in basketball we look at the following:

1. Advanced Statistics.

2. Traditional statistics and how they finished in the American League.

3. Playoff accomplishments.

4. Their overall impact on the team and other intangibles not reflected in a stat sheet.

Remember, this is ONLY based on what a player does on that particular team and not what he accomplished elsewhere and also note that we have placed an increased importance on the first two categories.

This list is updated up until the end of the 2016-17 Season.

The complete list can be found here, but as always we announce our top five in this article. They are:

1. George Brett

2. Bret Saberhagen

3. Kevin Appier

4. Willie Wilson

5. Amos Otis

We will continue our adjustments on our existing lists and will continue developing our new lists.

As always we thank you for your support.

For a time, “The Bull”, Danny Tartabull was one of the more feared power hitters in the sport.  The New York Yankees certainly thought so when they signed him from the Kansas City Royals where he was coming off his best season, but he never did duplicate that production in the Bronx (though he did get a Seinfeld episode out of it).

Before he played a game in the Majors, Dick Drago was selected by the Royals in the expansion draft and as such probably entered a starting rotation a little earlier than he would have had he stayed in Motown.

This one might be a bit of a surprise, but allow us to explain.

The career of Jose Rosado should have been so much more, but as in all professional sports, this is another case of athletics meeting injury resulting in a shortened career.

With one of the greatest names in Baseball, Cookie Rojas was a four-time All-Star for the Kansas City Royals.  Rojas had four straight .260 seasons with 120 Hits, which included a .300 Batting Average season in 1971.  Rojas would receive MVP votes in two different years (1971 & 1973) and was certainly one of the more popular figures in the team’s history.

Danny Duffy played 12 years in the Majors, all of which have been for the Kansas City Royals.  Duffy has been used primarily as a Starting Pitcher, his highlight being the 2016 season where he went 12-3 with 188 Strikeouts.  He was the Royals’ Opening Day Pitcher in both 2016 & 2017 and prior to that in a relief role he helped KC win the 2015 World Series.

A reliever for his entire career with the Kansas City Royals Kelvin Herrera worked his way through the bullpen and by 2014 he established himself as the seventh inning Pitcher for the team.  Herrera excelled in this role and was gold as a setup man for the team and his contribution to the organizations back-to-back World Series appearances cannot be discounted.  Herrera’s post-season record for Kansas City was 2-0 with a 1.26 ERA and he was a two-time All-Star for the team.  He would later be named the closer and he recorded 57 Saves for KC.

Certainly hampered on this list by his lack of defensive skills, Billy Butler was best used as a Designated Hitter, a role he spent approximately two thirds of his Royals career at.  Focusing on his offensive skills, Butler was a more than capable DH winning the Edgar Martinez Award as the DH of the year in 2012.  Five years in a row (2009-13) he would hit 15 or more Home Runs and he would post two .300 seasons with a decent career Royals Batting Average of .295.

Far more than a player who feuded with Ed Farmer (Google it) Al Cowens was a good defensive Rightfielder who would provide 784 Hits for Kansas City.

Joe Randa was drafted by the Kansas City Royals in 1991 and he would work his way up to the main roster only to be traded shorty after to Pittsburgh, drafted by Arizona in the expansion draft, traded to Detroit, then the New York Mets and then back to the Royals again.  It was in that second run with the Royals where the Randa would go on the greatest run of his career.

Greg Holland rose up the ranks in the Kansas City Royals organization where he was designed to be a reliever from the get-go.  With his reliable four-seam fastball, Holland would never start a game for KC but would work his way from middle relief to the full-time closer’s role when Jonathan Broxton was traded to Cincinnati on July 31, 2012.  It proved to be a wise trade for the Royals.

An original Kansas City Royal, Al Fitzmorris arrived to KC via the Expansion Draft and he would play eight seasons for the Royals.  In the first half of his run with Kansas City he would be in and out of the bullpen trying to find his groove but he would be promoted to a regular starter in 1973 and from 1974 to 1976 he would win 13 or more Games for the Royals and would win 70 overall against 48 Losses.

After three seasons playing for the Milwaukee Brewers, Alcides Escobar was traded to the Kansas City Royals, where he would play eight years.  Escobar has collected numerous Hits as five of his seasons with KC have seen him go 150 or more and he has also given them four 20 Stolen Base seasons.  While his hit accumulation has been good (he is one of the few Royals who have over 1,000 Hits for the team) he is certainly penalized on this list for having an abysmal On Base Percentage.  As a Royal, the Venezuelan Shortstop has only had two seasons of .300 OBP and his career OBP for Kansas City is .295.  Throw in a lack of power and there are clearly some deficiencies in his game. 

Mike Macfarlane played eleven seasons with the Kansas City Royals where the workmanlike Catcher would serve as a rock for the team.   A good defensive Catcher who expertly handled his staff, Macfarlane wasn’t known for his offensive spark, but he did have good power numbers.  Macfarlane had a 20 Home Run season in 1993 with five other 10 Home Run campaigns.  Notably, he also led the American League twice in being Hit by Pitches.

As a Royal, Macfarlane accumulated 717 Hits.

Mike Moustakas played the first eight and a half seasons of his career with the Kansas City Royals, where he may not have been the best player, but he was among the most popular.  While it can be debated that he hasn’t had the production you would hope for in regards to a second overall pick, Moustakas (or “Moose” as he is called) has certainly had a good career and was vital to the Royals 2015 World Series Championship.