The halfway point of the 2019 was (mercifully) reached Wednesday when the Royals lost at Cleveland. The Royals’ 28-53 record has them on pace for the second pick in the 2020 amateur draft, which is about the only good thing that may result from this season.

But with 81 of 162 games in the books, Wednesday provided the perfect opportunity to look at some individual statistics, and the Royals actually have some personal performances worthy of note.

Jorge Soler is on pace to do something no Royal has ever done – hit 40 home runs. With 21 as of Wednesday, Soler is well ahead of pace to eclipse Mike Moustakas’ team record of 38. The Royals remain the only team in baseball that has never had a 40-homer season.

Soler is becoming the power source the Royals envisioned when they traded for him prior to 2017. The 27-year-old Cuban is on pace to drive in 106 runs. As of Wednesday his home run total ranked fifth in the American League, and his RBI total ranked sixth. To lead the league in either category would be historic. Not since Hal McRae in 1982 has a Royal led the American League in RBIs. No Royal has ever led the league in homers.

2019 Projected Team Leaders at Midseason:

Hits: Whit Merrifield, 204; Home Runs: Jorge Soler, 42; RBI: Jorge Soler, 106; Stolen Bases: Adalberto Mondesi, 54; Wins: Homer Bailey, 14; Saves: Ian Kennedy, 20; Strikeouts: Jakob Junis 168

Amazingly, despite their putrid record, the Royals stand to finish atop several of baseball’s statistical lists. Whit Merrifield is currently leading all of baseball in hits, while Adalberto Mondesi, despite missing 10 games, leads in triples and stolen bases.

Merrifield knows a little about statistical accomplishments. Last year, he led all of baseball in hits and stolen bases. He said that individual accomplishments can feel like something to build on.

“Individually, the numbers can tell you that you got off to a good start, and can give you an idea if you’re doing things that could help your team win,” said the 30-year-old.

“You look around and see other guys who are individually having good years, so that’s encouraging to think that in the near future, all that could come together to turn into winning more games.”

After leading the MLB with 192 hits last year, Merrifield led at the halfway point of this year with 102. Only seven Royals have ever achieved 200 hits, the last being Melky Cabrera in 2011.

Merrifield emphasized, however, that no one in the Royals clubhouse puts individual accomplishments ahead of the team.

“It’s good to have guys having individual success because it makes you think that some of the pieces are there. But at the end of the day, that’s not what it’s about. You kind of have the attitude of ‘Great. But we didn’t win. So how do we fix it?’”

That the Royals aren’t winning is certainly true. They are on pace to win 56 games, which would tie 2005 for the worst season in franchise history.

One area in which the Royals are feasting, but which has not resulted in wins, is the category of stolen bases. The Royals stocked up on speedy players in the offseason in hopes they could steal some wins by swiping a lot of bases. Skeptics argued early on that the stolen base is a somewhat empty statistic that wouldn’t lead to much success.

At the middle of the season, the naysayers appear to be right. The Royals stole 78 through Wednesday, 13 more than the next closest challenger, and more than double the league average. Going into the season, it was speculated that Kansas City might steal 200 bases, a mark reached by only one team since 2000. They are not up to that pace, and a couple of their primary thieves – Billy Hamilton and Terrance Gore – might well be traded before this season is up.

Individually, Mondesi’s 27 stolen bases through Wednesday have him on pace to place sixth on the Royals single season list, and to become the sixth member of the organization to lead the American League in steals, joining Amos Otis (52 in 1971), Freddie Patek (53 in 1977), Willie Wilson (83 in 1979), Johnny Damon (46 in 2000), and Merrifield (34 in 2017 and 45 in 2018).

The Royals are setting the pace in another speed statistic, triples. Mondesi and Merrifield sat atop all of baseball on Wednesday with eight and seven triples, respectively. As a team, the Royals led with 26 three-baggers.

If a team is the sum of its parts, then the Royals would appear to have some parts that could eventually amount to an impressive sum. Though not a league leader, Hunter Dozier is having a remarkable season, on pace to hit .302 with 26 homers and 84 RBIs despite missing nearly a third of the first 81 games. Mondesi has superstar written all over him. Merrifield, if he’s not traded, is as efficient and versatile as any player in the game. And Soler is realizing his potential as a power hitter.

But the parts aren’t constituting a winner yet. Can it happen soon? The Royals have been open about their belief they can be competitive by as soon as 2021. There is significant help coming up through the minor leagues, but for now the significant individual performances are being wasted on an underperforming unit.

One of the few things that can salvage a losing season is a player battling to the end in pursuit of some individual statistical accomplishment. The race for a batting title or home run championship keeps fans looking at the box scores, even when all hope for team success has been abandoned.

Royals fans enjoyed such pursuits most significantly when George Brett raced for batting titles. Brett famously chased immortality in 1980, not in pursuit of a batting title – there was no other player near him in the race – but rather to finish with a .400 batting average. He fell just short, but owns the honor of being the only player to win batting titles in three separate decades (1976, 1980 and 1990).

The 1976 batting race was particularly interesting, because two Royals duked it out until the final day. Brett edged teammate Hal McRae by a single point, winning .333 to .332.

Dan Quisenberry won the most titles for Kansas City. He led the league in saves 5 times during the Royals heyday of the early 1980s. Royals players have led the league in wins and ERA multiple times.

In spite of all their failures this year, one Royal is in hot pursuit of a significant mark that is keeping things interesting. Whit Merrifield is giving fans a reason to stay tuned – with just a week’s worth of games left, he is leading the American League in stolen bases.

With 38 steals through Friday’s win at Detroit, Merrifield leads Mallex Smith of the Tampa Bay Rays by three.

Making Merrifield’s accomplishment even more significant is the fact that he led the American League in stolen bases last season as well. Four other Royals have led the league in larceny, but none ever did it twice.

Who better than announcer Denny Matthews, who has been with the Royals for every one of their 50 seasons, to analyze Merrifield’s thievery.

“He’s very good at picking up tendencies of pitchers, and looking at video, and talking to other guys about the pitchers,” Matthews said of Merrifield. “He studies and he works at it.”

Amos Otis was the first Royal to lead the league in stolen bases, with 52 in 1971. Freddie Patek was next to do it, with 53 in 1977. Willie Wilson set the team record for steals in a season when he led the league with 83 in 1979. And Johnny Damon led the American League in 2000 with 46.

Merrifield led the league with 34 last year. His stolen base totals pale in comparison to some of the Royals of the past. But Matthews said that is a product of the times.

“It depends on the era,” said Matthews. “Right now, home runs are a big deal. Stolen bases don’t mean all that much. They used to. The game was played differently. We’ve had some great base stealers. Freddie Patek was very good. Amos Otis was terrific. Whit’s that kind of a player.

“And while maybe in this era stolen bases don’t mean as much, they do to this team. Because of the park they play in, home runs don’t come that easily. The Royals have to manufacture runs any way they can, and Whit’s very attuned to that.”

One key to stealing bases is weighing the value of moving up 90 feet versus the potential for being thrown out. Merrifield is successful 79.6 percent of the time, which manager Ned Yost deems an acceptable rate to keep it up.

Merrifield isn’t successful as frequently as some of the Kansas City’s greatest base stealers. Carlos Beltran swiped 164 bases as a Royal and was only caught 12.3 percent of the time. Jerrod Dyson ripped off 176 bases with a 14.6 percent success rate. Wilson, the greatest base stealer in team history, stole 612 as a Royal and was caught just 16.3 percent of the time. Wilson stole 668 bases in his career to rank 12th all time.

Merrifield won’t approach any of those totals, but his success rate compares favorably to Otis (20.4), Damon (21.2) and Patek (24.3). And his ability to advance around the bases helps stoke the Royals’ offense.

“It sets a tone for each game. It’s taking the attitude of ‘What have I got to do to help the team win in this situation? I’ve got to get from first base to second base to give my team a better chance of getting a run in.’ That’s Whit’s thinking. That’s the type of player he is.”

The 2018 Royals were expected to be bad, and a rebuilding process was anticipated. For a blueprint of how to build the next great roster, the current Royals could look to the expansion process for cues of how to become competitive without a long dry spell.

A previous column looked back at the early Royals’ use of the draft to build the franchise: http://www.cjonline.com/sports/20180623/royals-rundown-early-royals-showed-amateur-draft-often-is-uncertain-building-block

The Royals selected a cadre of young players with solid character in the 1968 Expansion Draft. From that point, in the days before free agency, they emphasized three keys: executing good trades, developing raw prospects, and competing to win from day one.

The Royals did not draft particularly well in the early years. But general manager Cedric Tallis hit immediate home runs with some crucial trades that infused the big league club with cornerstone players, while trading away very little in return.

“One thing Tallis did in the first few years was he made great trades, with exclusively National League teams,” said Royals announcer Denny Matthews, who was part of the broadcast crew from day one. “He did that because the National League was the better league at that time – it had the better players, better races, so the best talent was in the NL. Look at all the trades he made early on, they were almost all with NL teams.”

Just before the 1969 season, the Royals traded a couple of no-names to fellow American League expansion team the Seattle Pilots for Lou Piniella, who became Kansas City’s first star.

After the inaugural season, they dealt a promising player selected in the expansion draft named Joe Foy to the New York Mets. In return the Royals got one of the stalwarts of their heyday, Amos Otis. In addition, they also received a pitcher named Bob Johnson, who, after one solid season in Kansas City, was part of a package deal that brought Freddie Patek to the Royals.

And in the middle of 1970, the Royals traded a player of no significance to the Philadelphia Phillies for Cookie Rojas.

Thus, the foundation for the early 1970s was laid through four astute trades in which the Royals gave away almost nothing and received stars in return. Two more trades in the early 1970s brought John Mayberry and Hal McRae from National League teams, and the Royals were suddenly an elite squad.

The early Royals didn’t just sit back hoping to acquire polished performers. They were innovative in developing raw potential as well.

“The Royals tried unique things to try to develop players,” Matthews said. “Ewing Kauffman (the Royals’ initial owner) had the idea to try the Baseball Academy, which a lot of baseball people thought would never work. They thought it was kind of crazy.”

The Royals started a school in Florida – the Royals Baseball Academy – that took undeveloped but talented athletes, and taught them to play baseball. In just 5 years, the academy produced 14 eventual major leaguers, but never won over traditionalists and was closed in 1974.

“A lot of baseball people are slow to accept anything new and different,” said Matthews. “But we got Frank White and UL Washington out of it. It was another thing they tried to speed up the process to make the Royals a viable franchise.”

While the Royals haven’t run an academy in more than 40 years, they should view the development of raw prospects as integral to their rebuilding process. That is particularly true in one area that in which the Royals can offset free agency – international scouting and development.

“Things have changes so much. Free agency and the escalation of salaries have really changed the process,” said Matthews. “But the thing that is the same is, when you are checking out a player, it’s easy to scout the physical, but you don’t really know what’s inside of them. It’s just an unscientific process.”

While the Royals aren’t a big-market team that can lure ultra-expensive stars through free agency, they can scout, sign and develop international talent not subject to the amateur draft. The Royals current roster features nine players who as international signees were not drafted.

Finally, and perhaps most significantly, the Royals never tanked, not for a second, during those early years. They were proud to finish ahead of three established teams as well as the other three expansion franchises in 1969. They saw nothing to be gained by tanking, and they were relentless as they chased down the dominant teams of the 1970s.

Current general manager Dayton Moore believes in the importance of a culture of winning, and he signed veteran players to keep the big league club competitive while it builds from the bottom up. It’s resulted in an atrocious product in 2018. And sadly this rebuild won’t be as quick as the original construction of 1969.

But by astutely dealing some of the players they currently possess, scouting, signing and developing young talents from around the globe, and never discontinuing the fight, the Royals can mimic the process that quickly took the original team from birth to relevance in just a couple of years.