The KC Royals open the 2016 season Sunday in an nationally televised game against World Series rival New York Mets. Can Kansas City Royals fans reasonably expect them to repeat?
As most KC Royals fans know, most sabermetric inclined projections systems have severely underestimated them the last two seasons in which they won back-to-back American League pennants. Baseball Prospectus’ PECOTA system famously predicted 76 wins in 2015 before the Royals went on to win the World Series, and has again projected a mere 76 wins in 2016. Fangraphs.com isn’t any more bullish on the defending World Champions, predicting 77 wins.