Follow @RoyalsBlue_com It was not long ago that the Royals had the best bullpen in baseball, spearheaded by their backend, which was historic, in fact – the B-BOAT. Fast forward three seasons to this one, and the Royals, just three seasons removed from a World Series and one from the End of an Era, are 4-14. The bullpen is the worst in baseball…AND ITS NOT CLOSE. What a long fall it’s been. The bullpen results are not surprising when you see who the dudes are in the pen. But, the construction of the pen is a bit of a surprise when you consider what GM Dayton Moore has been able to do with the bullpen in his tenure. He demonstrated in his early years in Kansas City that he was able to build a bullpen – even on the bad teams. And, he was able to do it finding cheap guys off the scrapheap. The Royals revolutionizing how bullpens were built and used is well known. The league is now mimicking (or trying to) what the Royals did during their Golden Age. The build up started way back in 2012, when they posted the fourth best bullpen ERA (3.17) in the AL (3.17), despite a 72-90 record, but were still in the bottom half of the league on WHIP (3.14) behind Jonathan Broxton (2.27 ERA, 1.451 WHIP and 23/27 saves before a trade deadline deal), who was a fan vote candidate for the All-Star Game, Greg Holland (7-4, 2.96 ERA, 1.373 WHIP, 16 saves, 9 holds, 12.2 K/9), Aaron Crow (3-1, 3.48 ERA, 1.175 WHIP, 2 saves, 19 holds), Kelvin Herrera (2.35 ERA, 1.186 WHIP, 3 saves, 19 holds) and Tim Collins (5-4, 3.36 ERA, 1.278 WHIP, 11 holds). Holland, who took over as closer after the Broxton trade, combined for 39 saves with Broxton as the team racked up 44. In 2013, many of the same faces remained. Plus, enter failed starter Luke Hochevar, who all of a sudden had a power arsenal that played in the pen. As an entire staff, they led all of baseball with a 3.45 ERA, thanks to James Shields and Ervin Santana anchoring the rotation. But, in the pen, they posted the best ERA (2.56), WHIP (2.56), and batting average against (.217) in the American League, and 52 saves, second in MLB (Baltimore, 57). Ned hadn’t morphed into the defined bullpen role guy, yet, as the set-up duties were a combined effort and fluid situation all year – sort of a set-up by committee. Holland closed all year and was great (1.21 ERA, 0.866 WHIP, 13.8 K/9 with a franchise-record 47 saves), and teamed with Herrera (5-7, 3.86 ERA, 1.183 WHIP, 2 saves, 20 holds) and Papa Hoch (5-2, 1.92 ERA, 0.825 WHIP, 10.5 K/9), HHH was actually better this year (2.25 ERA, 0.95 WHIP, 11.91 K/9) than HDH (Herrera-Davis-Holland) were in 2015 (2.33 ERA, 1.05 WHIP, 9.5 K/9). Crow, the 2011 All-Star, started the year as the dude getting the ball in the eighth inning, with Herrera pitching the seventh. But, Hochevar worked his way into a high-leverage role, and had passed Crow in the pecking order by mid-summer. Crow still had a solid year (7-5, 3.38 ERA with 20 holds), but his WHIP (1.479) was a sign of things to come for him. Additionally, Wade Davis, another failed starter, moved to the bullpen for the last month of the season and teased dominance (2-1, 0.90 ERA, 0.70 WHIP, .094 average against) in 7 appearances. Will Smith, who came over in the Alberto Collaspo deal (Angels) was also good (3.24 ERA, 0.930 WHIP, 11.6 K/9) in 19 appearances, and Harold Louis...