The 2009 Kansas City Royals season ended in a most appropriate way Sunday afternoon, with Luke Hochevar puking up seven runs in three innings to help the boys in blue get absolutely pounded, 13-4.

Final record is 65-97, just short of yet another 100-loss season. The so called “monsters of September” eked out one win in their last six games, and had to leave room in the cellar for their friends in Cleveland.

Forty years ago, a collection of expansion draft castoffs managed to win 69 games, so we’re behind where we were in 1969 (but to be fair, exactly even with our record from a year later).

Unlike last year, there is no “wait until next year” vibe around this club. The Royals are as far from contention in 2010 as I am from going up on the next NASA flight.

To contend in 2010 would require wholesale change, and you can only make that kind of wholesale change by either radically improving the quality of your players, or radically improving the performance of your existing players. The Royals are likely to do neither.

As Bob Dutton chronicled in the Kansas City Star a few days ago, the Royals are far too budget-locked to be able to take on additional payroll—and of course, much of our existing payroll is spent on stiffs like Jose Guillen and Yuniesky Betancourt.

Those who would clamor for David Glass to pump an additional $30 million or so into the payroll would be well advised to remember how GMDM has spent money when he’s had it.

Radical change in performance from existing players? I wouldn’t count on it. Although we have plenty of players with plenty of room for improvement, the likelihood of them actually doing so is slim.

In fact, the Royals’ best hope for improvement probably lies in players who have already made big steps forward, like Billy Butler and Alberto Callaspo. While that improvement is welcome, it won’t turn this team into a winner while we’re running Alex Gordon, Yuniesky Betancourt, and Mitch Maier out there every day.

In the past, Royals fans could always hang onto hope for what might happen when great prospects matured and made it to the major leagues.

Five years ago, we were talking about the team we’d field when Butler, Gordon, Maier, Shane Costa, Chris Lubanski, and others hit their stride. The bloom is certainly off that rose, isn’t it?

And beyond a few promising types like the fragile Jordan Parraz and Jeff Bianchi, what do we have to look forward to?

On March 25, I crea