Kansas City Royals: On the Rise...

Insignificant, irrelevant, and hopeless.  Those words pretty much sum up how the Kansas City Royals have been since I began paying attention to baseball roughly 15 years ago.  With only one .500 season in the past 15 years its a tough point to argue.  As bad as things have been in the middle of the middle west the past decade and a half though, things are about to get a lot better, and not only because Kaufman Stadium is getting a hefty makeover.

Dayton Moore has done more for this team in his first year and a half as general manager than was done in the previous decade.  Moore has made the Royals at least an interest for many free agents to go.  It began last year with the signing of Gil Meche who chose KC over both the Chicago Cubs and Toronto Blue Jays.  He was also able to draw in Octavio Dotel before the 2007 season and this previous offseason he landed Jose Guillen after nearly bringing in the much desired Torii Hunter.

A general manager that has the desire to win is not the only thing going for the boys in blue but also a very strong pool of youth talent.  Alex Gordon entered '07 as one of the most hyped rookies in recent history, only to bat .173 in games through June 6th.  From there on out though, Gordon improved his batting average all the way to .256 in mid September before finishing at .247.  The second half of 2007 was much better for Gordon, who also hit 12 of his 16 homers from mid-June on.

In over a half season of Major League Baseball last summer Billy Butler also emerged as a threat in the years to come in Kansas City.  The former 14th overall draft pick didn't produce a huge power year in '07 but did bat a respectable .292 in his debut campaign.  In all likelyhood the years to come will show improvement in both average and power numbers for Butler, another reason for Royals fans to be excited for their team again.

Finally the pitching staff of Kansas City is only getting better.  Gil Meche was an improvement as an ace for the Royals staff last season but they enter 2008 with even more reason to have hope.  Zack Greinke was seemingly able to get his life back on track last year and with that came his control.  Greinke stumbled through much of '07 before having his ERA drop an entire point during the seasons last two months.  If Greinke is able to keep up on this pace the Royals could have a very good 1-2 punch in Meche and Greinke developing.

The Royals didn't do a ton on the free agent market this offseason but what they did do was respectable.  They went out and picked up a veteran slugger in Jose Guillen but time will tell whether or not it pays off.  Guillen was named in the Mitchell Report and will be suspended for the first fifteen games of the 2008 campaign.  Outside of Guillen, Yasuhiko Yabuta was probably the biggest addition to the Royals this year.  Yabuta comes over from Japan where he had a career strikeout to walk ratio of 553 to 303.  Although he is not Dice-K, Yabuta will bring help to a bullpen that needs it.

The Kansas City Royals are stuck in baseballs best division but will no longer be a slouch.  Although they will not contend for a division pennant this year, you will see the Royals be a much improved team that will no longer be one to laugh at.