Big League Chatter

After having only two winning seasons in the past thirteen years, the Kansas City Royals are looking to recapture the success they experienced in the 70’s and 80’s.  Last season the team decided to bring in Dayton Moore as their new General Manager.   Moore, a long time assistant of John Schuerholtz, is looking to rebuild the Royals from within much like the Braves have done for the last decade. The 2008 Royals have plenty of young talent that will help Moore’s vision come to fruition.  Kansas City made a handful of moves in the off-season bringing in free agents Jose Guillen and Brett Tomko.  The Royals also brought in a new manager in Trey Hillman, who was previously the manager of the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters for the past four seasons.  Probably the biggest move of all was the decision not to resign team captain Mike Sweeney, who had struggled with injuries the past couple of seasons.

With another year of experience the Royals offense should be much improved over last season.  The start of the 07 campaign was a tough one for rookie Alex Gordon, but he bounced back to have a decent first year.  Gordon batted .247 with 16 home runs and 60 RBI’s.  Along with Gordon the Royals have a host of young players to build their offense around such as Mark Teahen, Tony Pena, and Billy Butler.  Veteran Jose Guillen should provide Kansas City with some much needed pop after hitting 23 homers and driving in 99 for the Seattle Mariners in 2007.  The Royals are expecting good things from DH Billy Butler who batted .292 with 8 home runs and 52 RBI’s, in a limited role.  Butler has a great eye at the plate and is expected to develop better power numbers as he gets more major league experience.  The rest of the lineup is solid, but on paper the Royals lineup doesn’t match up very well with the rest of the AL Central teams.  The projected lineup is as follows:

1B   Ryan Shealy/Ross Gload/Billy Butler

2B   Mark Grudzielanek

SS   Tony Pena

3B   Alex Gordon

RF   Jose Guillen

CF   David DeJesus/Joey Gathright

LF   Mark Teahen

C    John Buck

DH   Billy Butler

Kansas City’s starting rotation could be their biggest bright spot this season.  Gil Meche, Brian Bannister, and Zack Greinke all had ERA’s under 4.00 last year.  The Royals were criticized when they signed Meche to a 5 year 55 million dollar deal.  The acquisition paid immediate dividends in 2007 as Meche went 9-13 with a 3.67 ERA in 216 innings.  Bannister, who was traded from the Mets, was a serious contender for rookie of the year honors by posting a 12-9 record with a 3.87 ERA in 165 innings.  The third spot in the rotation belongs to Zack Greinke, who missed virtually all of 2006 with personal problems.  Greinke  had a nice comeback season in 07 going 7-7 with a 3.69 ERA in 122 innings.  The rest of the rotation was shaping up to be a four horse race but 2006 first round pick Luke Hochevar was sent to the minors for some more seasoning.  With Hochevar out of the picture the last two spots in the rotation will be between Jorge De La Rosa, Brett Tomko, and Kyle Davies. 

The bullpen will be anchored by, last year’s rule five draft pick, Joakim Soria.  Soria started out last year as the Royals closer until Octavio Dotel came off the disabled list.  Dotel was the closer for the Royals until he was traded to Atlanta for Kyle Davies.  Soria retained the closer’s role after Dotel’s departure and saved a total of 17 games in 2007.  Others who are competing for bullpen jobs are Joel Peralta, Ron Mahay, Brandon Duckworth, Jimmy Gobble, Yasuhiko Yabuta, and Luke Hudson.

Kansas City fans should have a lot to look forward to in the coming years.  Unfortunately the American League Central is one of the toughest in baseball.  It could be a long season for Trey Hillman’s club although there is no substitute for talent regardless of the age.  Look for the Royals to be competitive in 2008 and cause a lot of problems for the rest of the division.