SubscribeHere Come the Royals
There have been stories breaking left and right in baseball, especially with young players being inked to long term deals. To some people, however, it’s still a slow news day. Yesterday I read a piece on FOX Sports about teams who they’re predicting to have “surprise” seasons. I’m not sure as to whether this constitutes as news, however I do agree with their selections. Cincinatti will definitely make some noise this year in the NL Central, and I do think that Tampa Bay has some great young talent to compete. One team that I was highly surprised to see omitted was the Kansas City Royals.
Like Tampa Bay, the Royals failed to crack the 70 win mark in 2007. However one thing that the two teams have in common is a cache of great young talent. Granted Tampa might have a great 1-3 punch in their rotation with Scott Kazmir, Matt Garza and James Shields, however Kansas City is not too far behind. Gil Meche is a legit ace, while Brian Bannister and Zack Grenkie are rising quickly. The team has plenty of rotation depth (as well as bullpen depth) to decide the other spots in their rotation.
One move the team made this offseason which I absolutely love is when they signed Jose Guillen to a 3yr/36MM contract. Granted this signing didn’t go over too well, especially with the release of the Mitchell Report a few weeks later, however after his suspension is over, he’ll be a force in their lineup. News of this apparently didn’t go over very well in Kansas City. I remember people quoting that Mark Teahen was a little wary about playing with him in 2008, and people on MLBTR are wanting to ask Brian Bannister for his opinions on Guillen. Seriously, are people really that scared of Guillen?
Deep down, Guillen is probably a nice guy. Some other things that the media won’t tell you about Guillen is that he enjoys pottery, loves his family and is active as a leader in the community. The only people that should be scared of Guillen are the American League pitchers that he will continue to face. He should hit 25 homers and drive in 100, even with missing a few games due to the substance abuse problems.
The team also has a deep bullpen, led by the signing of Ron Mahay and last year’s diamond-in-the-rough Joakim Soria. Many people would love to see Soria in their rotation, and so would I. Soria would provide more value to the team as a starter than a reliever. In addition to this, closers are much easier to develop than front-line starters, which Soria has the potential to be one day (closing could be something that Brett Tomko might do well at.)
Kansas City might not have deep farm system that Tampa Bay has, but they still have some young talented players. One player that I’m expecting a monster year from is Alex Gordon. He’s one of those players that will hit for power (something in the tune of 30 homers), and he also has the speed to steal the same number of bases. He’ll be solid at their hot corner for years to come. In addition to Gordon, cather John Buck is bound to become a force behind the plate (they brought Miguel Olivo in to remind him that he’d better perform.)
On paper, Kansas City isn’t as far along as Tampa is, however there’s no doubt on my mind that they won’t be able to improve their results from on last season. They still need a few players to make that happen (Corey Patterson would be a good start.) Still they have the chips in place for something big in the future. Alex Gordon is going to be a star; I’ll take him over Tampa’s Evan Longoria any day as my third baseman. Now in regards to Eva Longoria, that’s another question.
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