The Kansas City Royals are on track to blow away a franchise-wide feat few would envy some 48 games into the 2023 MLB regular season.
The Royals are currently on pace to post the team’s lowest year-end winning percentage in the franchise’s 55-year history — much to the dismay of Kansas sports betting — with Kansas City sitting at 14-34 (.292) entering Monday’s game against the Tigers.
If the Mike Matheny-coached Royals keep at that pace through 162 games, they’d knock off the 2005 team that went 56-106 (.346) as the worst in franchise history, winning percentage wise.
It’s of little surprise then that oddsmakers at BetMGM Sportsbook Kansas currently have the Royals at +20000 to win the AL Central, as they sit 11.5 games behind the Twins in the division.
How Royals Have Fared With No. 1 Draft Pick
Kansas City currently holds the second-worst record in the 30-team MLB, between Oakland (.208) and the Chicago White Sox (.396).
Kansas sports betting apps rank the Royals, A’s, Colorado and Washington as the four least likely teams to win the World Series (+100000).
The Royals have only held the No. 1 pick in the MLB Draft once, when they took starting pitcher Luke Hochevar out of the University of Tennessee in 2006.
The right-handed pitcher wound up posting a 3.7 WAR across 279 games in his career, while seven other first round picks that year went on to have All-Star worthy careers.
That list includes future Hall of Fame southpaw Clayton Kershaw, who was taken seventh, and flamethrowing righty Max Scherzer (taken by the Diamondbacks with the 11th pick).
Other possible Cooperstown inductees during the 2006 draft include Evan Longoria (taken third overall by the Rays) and Tim Lincecum (10th overall pick by the Giants), while the rest of the All Star selectees were southpaw Andrew Miller, closer Jeremy Jeffries and right hander Chris Perez.
Hochevar’s 3.7 WAR finished ahead of No. 2 pick Greg Reynolds of the Rockies (-1.5 WAR), No. 4 pick Brad Lincoln of the Pirates (0.4 WAR) and ninth overall selection Billy Rowell of the Orioles (0 MLB games).
Where K.C. Stands Among Historic Losers
Kansas City’s current .292 winning percentage would rank as the 18th lowest year-end total in baseball’s modern era (1901 to present), coming in between the 2019 Detroit Tigers and 1911 Boston Rustlers (.291) and the 1909 Boston Doves (.294).
Since the 2000 MLB season, only four MLB teams have had a winning percentage that’s equal or worse than the Royals’ current .292 figure — this year’s A’s (.208), the 2003 Tigers (.265), the 2018 Baltimore Orioles (.290) and the 2019 Tigers (.292).
The Royals and A’s are currently on pace to become the fourth and fifth MLB teams to finish with a winning percentage at or below .300 since the turn of the 21st century — so maybe it would be wise to use Kansas sportsbook promos to bet on Chiefs futures instead.
