The 2014 Kansas City Royals weren’t a great team. They were a good team that played great in October and shocked the sport with a playoff run that went all the way to Game 7 of the World Series, falling 90 feet short from tying that game.

Maybe those 90 feet added a little inspiration to help push the Royals through the long grind of this season, or simply provided that extra edge to head to spring training with a little more belief in themselves and a little more hunger to get back here and prove wrong the critics who said they looked like a mere .500 team. Or maybe those 90 feet didn’t really mean anything except 90 feet between tying Game 7 of the World Series and losing the World Series. Whatever pop psychology angle you wish to use or ignore, this you can agree with: The 2015 Royals are a better team than the 2014 Royals.

That improvement came on the offensive end. The Royals allowed 17 more runs than they did in 2014 but scored 73 more. Their offensive approach and style remain the same -- the Royals led the American League both years in fewest strikeouts and fewest walks drawn with nearly identical totals -- but they increased their team batting average from .263 to .269 and, most importantly, hit 46 more home runs. They accumulated 213 more total bases. They added power, but they’re still the Royals: Put the ball in play; don’t strike out.

So, while their defense remains excellent and their bullpen remains a dominant force even without Greg Holland and the rotation has only Yordano Ventura remaining from last year's World Series starters (and is arguably better if Johnny Cueto pitches well), here are five reasons the 2015 Royals are better:

1. The maturation of Mike Moustakas and Eric Hosmer

Moustakas was a big reason the Royals had a deep playoff run in 2014, belting five home runs in the postseason, with seven of his 14 hits going for extra bases. But that was a fluke of sorts, a few timely home runs: Moustakas was a lousy offensive player in 2014, hitting .212/.271/.361 with 15 home runs in 457 at-bats and getting sent back down to Triple-A for a short time.

After years of lazy fly balls and too many infield pop-ups, Moustakas came to spring training with a new swing and a new approach. His bat head remained more upright instead of dropping down, making it easier to spray balls all around the field. He went from being a dead-pull hitter to a good hitter. Check out his hit charts from 2014 and 2015:

Moustakas improved against both sides of pitchers:

Left-handers

2014: .172/.241/.313, .554 OPS

2015: .282/.338/.485, .823 OPS

Right-handers

2014: .223/.279/.374, .653 OPS

2015: .286/.353/.461, .814 OPS

Moustakas is not only a force now -- the hitter the Royals envisioned when he was the No. 2 pick in the 2007 draft -- but a force against all pitchers.

Moustakas said on Monday that the mechanical adjustments allowed him to let the ball get deeper in the strike zone and thus go more to the opposite field. "I'd always been a pull hitter my whole life," he said, but after hitting .212 last year and constantly hitting into the shift, he understood changes had to be made. The moment when he knew he wasn't going to hit .212 again? "I got three hits the first game."

As for Hosmer, he added more than 100 points of OPS, improving from a .270/.318/.398 line to .297/.363/.459, doubling his home run output from nine to 18 and increasing his walk rate from 6.4 percent to 9.2 percent. Unlike Moustakas, he didn’t do anything dramatically different. In fact, he still hits too many ground balls for a guy with a lot of raw power, but he did make big strides against left-handers, improving from a .676 OPS to .730, mainly by cutting down on his chase rate and drawing more walks. This postseason, we’ve seen him step in against tough left-handers such as Tony Sipp and David Price and deliver some big hits.

2. Lineup balance

An important aspect of the improvement of Moustakas and Hosmer is that it’s difficult to get the platoon advantage against the Royals. One reason Madison Bumgarner was able to mow through the Royals a year ago was that those two struggled against lefties. And now, with switch-hitters Ben Zobrist and Kendrys Morales in the No. 2 and No. 5 spots in the batting order, Ned Yost goes R-S-R-L-S-L-R-L-R. Only No. 9 hitter Alex Rios and leadoff hitter Alcides Escobar are same-side hitters who hit back to back.

Although the Mets’ bullpen isn’t big on specific matchups -- Jonathon Niese, a starter in the regular season, is the only lefty Terry Collins is likely to use in a key situation in the middle innings -- it still means that the Mets’ right-handed relievers won’t get to face a string of right-handed batters, either. And that one of the Mets’ three right-handed starters -- Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard -- will have to face some opposite-side hitters to get out of jams.

Keep these splits in mind:

Harvey: .676 OPS vs. LHB (15 HR), .544 vs. RHB (3 HR)

DeGrom: .663 OPS vs. LHB (12 HR), .475 vs. RHB (4 HR)

Syndergaard: .691 OPS vs. LHB (10 HR), .601 vs. RHB (9 HR)

Yost could get another left-handed bat in the lineup by playing Jarrod Dyson over Rios, but Dyson has just one at-bat this postseason. Given the splits of those pitchers, however, it’s a strategic option worth considering.

Anyway, we’ve seen how difficult it can be to churn through this lineup in the late innings. The left-handed batters can hit lefties; the switch-hitters are good from both sides of the plate. It's one reason the Royals hit .281 with runners in scoring position. And the No. 3 hitter has also improved from last season.

3. Lorenzo Cain became a superstar

Last season, we saw Cain develop into a star, especially when he made highlight catch after highlight catch in the playoffs. This year, we’ve seen him grow even more, adding power to his defense and .300 batting average. Remember, Cain hit third all last postseason after hitting just five home runs in the regular season. You wouldn’t have viewed him as a power threat. He hit 16 home runs this year, and pitchers now have to be much more cognizant of that home run potential.

A key matchup to watch: Cain against those fastballs from the Mets' starters. Cain is a terrific fastball hitter; he hit .326 against fastballs from right-handed pitchers (and .387 last season). He’s more of a high fastball hitter but can be punched out at the very top of the zone:

4. Kendrys Morales isn't washed up

When the Royals signed Morales to replace Billy Butler, some moron wrote this: "They lost fan favorite Butler because they didn't want to pick up his $12.5 million option but then signed Morales -- who was even worse than Butler in 2014 -- for $17 million over two years. ... Is this any way to follow up your first playoff trip in 29 years? Shame on you, David Glass."

Yes, I wrote that. Hey, kudos to GM Dayton Moore for believing Morales’ awful 2014 wasn’t indicative of a player in decline. "We have to be able to drive the ball better -- a lot of times we'd come up with bases loaded or first and second, we'd hit a single or what have you," Moore said when Morales signed. "Kendrys, we think, is a necessary part of that, to produce more runs, as our lineup continues to gain more experience."

Moore was right. Butler hit .271/.323/.379 with 9 home runs, 32 doubles and 66 RBIs. Morales hit .290/.362/.485 with 22 home runs, 41 doubles and 106 RBIs. Butler created about 64 runs a year ago; in just a few more plate appearances, Morales created 95. Call him Moore’s $17 million bargain.

Note: The Royals will likely lose Morales when the series shifts to New York, or maybe Morales will move to first base when lefty Steven Matz starts, with Hosmer sitting (Hosmer did play three innings in the outfield this year, but it seems unlikely Yost would take the defensive hit there). So some of the advantages of the balanced lineup and Morales' production will be lost for those middle games.

5. Ben Zobrist is awesome

Remember: The offense is better than last year even though it carried the dead weight of Omar Infante for four months before Moore acquired Zobrist to play second base. While Yost hits Escobar and his .293 OBP in the leadoff spot -- yes, Escobar was the ALCS MVP -- Zobrist brings a solid .359 OBP to the second spot. In some ways, he’s different from his new Royals teammates: He likes to take pitches and draw walks. But he also puts the ball in play, finishing the season with more walks than strikeouts. He hit 13 home runs between the A’s and Royals and had a big ALCS, as well, hitting .320 with two home runs, three doubles and eight runs in six games.

He’s been a really, really good player for a lot of years, recognized by stats analysts and maybe fantasy players but playing in relative obscurity in Tampa. Because he wasn't on the team until the trade deadline, Zobrist takes a back seat to the longer-tenured Royals. But this trade might prove to be bigger than the Johnny Cueto deal.

So there you go. You'll hear a lot of other reasons the Royals are back. That now they have experience. That they have desire and attitude and that certain something. That maybe Cueto will pitch like an ace. That Yost is the perfect guy for this team. But mostly the Royals are back because a few guys got better and Moore made two great acquisitions. It's what happens between the lines.