Royals Report: Team Needs an Offensive Punch

It's a large understatement to say that the Kansas City Royals need some offensive firepower inserted into their lineup. The Royals have average an abysmal 3.75 runs a game, which is not nearly enough to help support a recently struggling starting rotation. 

Lets take a look at the lineup, and analyze the problem. At the top, Coco Crisp has been a solid lead-off hitter for the team, however he is hitting at a weak .233 clip. Alberto Callaspo, the newly positioned 2nd hitter, has dropped off quite a bit from his hot start the season making many fans think that he is finally coming down to earth.

David Dejesus has heated up of late, but is still only hitting .244. Billy Butler has arguably been the most consistent hitter in the Royals lineup this year, but his HR and power numbers are not anywhere near what the team thought they would get for him when they first drafted him.

Mark Teahen, Jose Guillen and Mike Jacobs have all shown flashes of power and patience at the plate, but at the same time have struck out many times and killed many rallies when the team needed them the most.  Mike Aviles, well we all know now that Aviles has not been the same hitter this year, and that is something else that has bitten this team in the early going.

As far as the rest of the lineup goes, Catchers John Buck and Miguel Olivo have been about average offensively so far, while utilitymen Willie Bloomquist, Mitch Maier, and Luis Hernandez are all solid defensively, they have shown to be liabilities at the dish this year.

Possibly one of the causes of this lack of offense was when future third-baseman of the future Alex Gordon went down with a hip injury that he went down with in mid April. No one really knows at this point. Maybe the answer is to pursue another bat for this lineup, maybe the answer is leave the lineup alone and let the season play its way out. Only time will tell.