Local television ratings for 29 of the 30 teams in Major League Baseball were released last week and the Kansas City is still in the top 5.
The Cardinals are first, followed by the Indians, Red Sox and Brewers. So you've got the Best Fans in Baseball (#BFIB), followed by three teams leading their respective divisions.
And in the No. 5 spot is a team that is 40 games under .500 after a win Saturday against the White Sox. Why ratings for only 29 of the 30 MLB teams? The Blue Jays don't get to post a number because the Nielsen ratings don't go north of the border.
The ratings show people are still interested what has been a historically poor product. That means the franchise hasn't had to deal with the dreaded "A" word.
Not anger, but apathy.
You can deal with anger, that means they still care. And a dumpster drive into the cesspool social media all too often evolves into shows there is more than a little anger out there among the Royals faithful. A few of the hot button topics include:
Why is manager Ned Yost still employed? Well, he led the team to back-to-back World Series just a couple of years ago and frankly, it's not exactly an attractive job right now. I don't know if you're going to get anybody better to sign on at the moment.
Why does Alcides Escobar play every day? Well, now he's not. But for everybody talking about what Escobar can't do, here's something he does do - show up every day and play hard. There's value in that.
Why didn't you re-sign Eric Hosmer? Well, they tried and from all accounts and were close to making a deal. But evidently the dollars got little too high for the Royals and he left for San Diego.
What is going on with the pitching staff that seemingly can't get anybody out? I can't argue here. Ian Kennedy, brought in to see if the team could keep its postseason run going, can't stay healthy. He's on the disabled list again and the next time he's on the mound should be in 2019 spring training. And maybe in a different uniform. Jason Hammel, signed after the untimely death of Yordano Ventura, has been a disaster and is now biding his time in the bullpen. It's so bad two Rule 5 selections in the offseason - players their previous teams decided not to protect on their 40-man rosters in Brad Keller and Burch Smith - are currently in the starting rotation.
Apathy, that's completely different because once you lose a fan, it's hard to get them back. There are just too many other things going on these days if people suddenly realize spending three hours a day watching really, really bad baseball may not be the optimal use of their time.
I think one of the reasons people are still interested is to see the familiar names on the roster - such as Mike Moustakas, Danny Duffy, Salvador Perez and Whit Merrifield.
I don't know how long fans are going to be able to watch Moustakas in the royal blue. He was signed with the hopes of making a trade and with the deadline of July 31 looming, Moose could be on the move to teams such as the Yankees or Braves.
Duffy is another potential trade piece, he would get the Royals far more in return than Moustakas. Duffy's the one starter who's been able to consistently get people out - a 2.73 ERA in his last 10 starts. But do you trade the one guy who can keep you in a game?
Perez and Merrifield are different matters. I don't know how you trade Perez, unarguably the face of the franchise, or Merrifield, a guy under your control (that's code for relatively inexpensive) for the next few years that can play almost anywhere on the field. Give Merrifield a raise and pencil him in the lineup. And only start Perez at catcher four times a week to save his legs for down the road, he can DH the rest of the time.
It's time for guys like Hunter Dozier, Adalberto Mondesi and Rosell Herrera to play every day to see if they are part of the future. In September, it's time for guys like Bubba Starling to get their chance to play on the big stage to sink or swim.
It's do-over time for the Royals, who likely won't contend until at least 2021 at the earliest. Hope that doesn't make you angry. But don't allow yourself to become apathetic.