The Kansas City Royals ended another year without playoffs, but they should celebrate. 

Kansas City in my opinion has moved from being a horrible last place club in 2004 to a bad club as of last year, to now a mediocre club! Not much of an accomplishment to a New York Yankees or Boston Red Sox team, but the Royal's promotion is instilled optimism into a team that hasn't had much to be optimistic about. 

The pitching this year has proved it has potential to be good, if the caliber of the batting improves. Mike Avlies and Billy Butler are to of Kansas City's top power hitters and run producers, but they didn't come close to playing all season.

The one word that will sum up whether the Royals will keep improving or even get worse is consistency! We may be talking about the batting or the pitching, either way both are pretty good, but both are very inconstant.

The royals were streaky, full of both winning streaks and losing streaks. They would go on five or six game winning streaks, but than the next week would have a 10 game losing streak.

This year had a lot of positives with younger players like Mike Aviles stepping up, the pitching was decent with both Zack Greinke and Gil Meche getting  at least 13 wins, and closer Joakim Soria was one of the finest closers in the League gaining 42 saves.

We have improved over the past few seasons getting a few more wins each year, and next year I see more improvement. With a more consistent team, a manager who has some experience, and possible Free Agent signing, the Royals could even be in contention for an AL central title.  All together a very average year, but one we can celebrate our mediocrity, because that's a step up from awful, horrendous, and terrible.