Kansas City Royals: When Will the Bubble Burst?

I like to root for underdogs, but you just have to figure that some of the teams not expected to contend that are thriving now, will probably fall down to earth at some point.

Take the Kansas City Royals, for example.

The Royals, who started the season 6-2, wanted the baseball world to know they were for real.

Except it was way early. Their young players, however, wanted us all to believe that they were having a winning attitude.

Their pitching was supposed to be great. Brian Bannister started the year 3-0 with a 0.86 ERA, but he's now gone 1-6 since. Zack Greinke, who was dominant with a 3-0 start and 0.75 ERA himself, has two wins in his last eight outings.

And the Royals have made headlines in the last couple weeks, several of them, actually.

Of course, Kansas City was no-hit last Monday by a cancer survivor, got swept in four games at Toronto's Rogers Centre last weekend while being outscored royally (23-4), and their star off-season acquisition lashed out at the team a few days earlier.

Whew. What a list.

And oh, the Royals blew a five-run lead against Minnesota three days earlier, and well, basically just suck.

When they score a lot of runs, their pitching gives up even more. When their pitching is decent, their offense goes to sleep. Or they get no-hit or shut out. Or both.

And oh, the Royals lost 12 straight along the way, a streak that ended on Saturday night.

Not exactly a great couple of weeks for the Royals.

Back to that off-season acquisition: $36-million man Jose Guillen's profanity-filled outburst--calling his teammates "babies" and the organization losers--surely made many in the media happy this week, as radio talk shows et al love to replay this sort of stuff over and over again.

How will Guillen, hitting just .246 with 6 HRs this season, be taken seriously again in the Royals clubhouse? The outfielder can't possibly be released, given his hefty three-year contract signed just last winter.

At 22-34, the Royals are last in the AL Central. If not for the pathetic Mariners and Rockies, Kansas City would be dead last in all of baseball.

In the meantime, there are other feel-good stories in baseball, teams that aren't expected to contend but are so far, heading into June.

The Rays, in first place.

The Twins, without Johan Santana, just 1 1/2 games out in the Central.

The A's, who are within striking distance in the West, but have lost four straight and Frank Thomas has been put on the DL.

The Marlins, who despite having the lowest payroll in the majors, are leading the NL East.

Somehow I don't think we'll see a Tampa-Florida World Series, but you never know.

Whose bubble will burst next?