2003 Kansas City Royals season explained

Kansas City Royals
Season:	2003
League:	American League
Division:	Central
Ballpark:	Kauffman Stadium
City:	Kansas City, Missouri
Record:	83–79 (.512)
Divisional Place:	3rd
Owners:	David Glass
General Managers:	Allard Baird
Managers:	Tony Peña
Television:	KMCI Royals Sports Television Network (Paul Splittorff, Bob Davis)
Radio:	KMBZ (Denny Matthews, Ryan Lefebvre, Fred White)

The 2003 Kansas City Royals season was a season in American baseball. It involved the Royals finishing third in the American League Central, with a record of 83 wins and 79 losses. It was the only winning season for the franchise between 1994 and 2013.

2003 was a hopeful and promising winning season ("We Believe" was the slogan) for the Royals, as they begin the season winning their first 9 games, and the team spent 93 days in first place in the AL Central. But the team faded down the stretch, falling out of first place for the last time on August 31, and were eliminated from playoff contention on September 23.

Offseason

October 15, 2002: AJ Hinch was released by the Kansas City Royals.^[1]
December 18, 2002: Buddy Carlyle was signed as a free agent with the Kansas City Royals.^[2]

Regular season

Opening Day starters

Michael Tucker – CF
Joe Randa – 3B
Mike Sweeney – 1B
Raúl Ibañez – LF
Brandon Berger – RF
Ken Harvey – DH
Ángel Berroa – SS
Brent Mayne – C
Carlos Febles – 2B ^[3]

Roster

2003 Kansas City Royals
Roster
Pitchers		CatchersInfielders		OutfieldersDesignated Hitters		ManagerCoaches (pitching) (first base) (third base) (hitting) (bullpen)

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos	Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
C	Brent Mayne	113	372	91	.245	6	36
1B	Ken Harvey	135	485	129	.266	13	64
2B	Desi Relaford	141	500	127	.254	8	59
SS	Ángel Berroa	158	567	163	.287	17	73
3B	Joe Randa	131	502	146	.291	16	72
LF	Raúl Ibañez	157	608	179	.294	18	90
CF	Carlos Beltrán	141	521	160	.307	26	100
RF	Aaron Guiel	99	354	98	.277	15	52
DH	Mike Sweeney	108	392	115	.293	16	83

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
104	389	102	.262	13	55
74	196	46	.235	0	11
62	189	48	.254	3	25
50	132	30	.227	2	14
52	94	26	.277	3	11
22	75	26	.347	4	21
28	57	15	.263	2	7
13	32	7	.219	0	3
10	27	2	.074	0	0
13	22	4	.182	0	0
6	15	3	.200	0	1
8	8	2	.250	0	1
12	7	2	.286	0	0
8	3	1	.333	0	0
3	2	0	.000	0	0

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
35	210.0	10	8	3.77	115
18	93.2	9	6	7.11	39
16	91.2	7	5	4.61	48
15	85.1	1	6	5.17	39
14	73.1	8	3	4.91	32
9	52.2	4	5	4.61	31
7	49.2	5	1	3.99	15
8	48.1	2	1	5.21	27
10	47.2	1	2	5.29	32
4	25.1	1	2	4.26	19
4	19.0	1	2	4.26	5

Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
36	126.0	7	6	3.93	98
29	72.2	6	3	5.33	42
11	31.1	0	2	7.18	24

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

G	W	L	SV	ERA	SO
68	3	5	27	4.08	57
76	2	6	0	5.16	58
50	6	5	2	4.82	57
28	1	1	0	6.25	28
27	1	0	2	1.73	22
19	1	1	0	4.15	19
18	0	1	1	2.53	5
16	0	2	0	10.95	8
15	4	2	0	12.71	15
13	2	0	0	7.71	12
9	1	0	0	9.58	8
7	0	2	0	10.13	6
4	0	2	0	13.50	1
2	0	0	0	16.62	3
1	0	0	0	0.00	0

Farm system

References

Notes and References

Web site: AJ Hinch Stats.
Web site: Buddy Carlyle Stats.
Web site: 2003 Kansas City Royals Statistics.
Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 3rd edition. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 2007