Thursday, March 20, 2008

Are the Royals a .500 team?

Optimism abounds this time of year and everyone is excited about this teams future but in 2008 I say they come a few wins short of .500. The AL Central boasts two of the best teams in all of baseball in the Tigers and the Indians whom the Royals will play 18 times each and I don't expect the Twins and White Sox to roll over either.

Looking back at last years squad and the Royals had some ugly numbers, especially on the offensive side of the ball. Here is a look at a few of them:

Runs 706 (27 /30)
Batting Average .261 (22/30)
Home Runs 102 (30/30)

Those are some ugly numbers. The Royals brought in Jose Guillen (.290/23/99) and Miguel Olivo (.237/16/60) to help lift this offense. In addition most expect Alex Gordon and Billy Butler to have better numbers in their sophomore season, and Dayton Moore is on record as saying David DeJesus is capable of reaching 200 hits. The Royals also seem high on Alberto Callaspo who they got from Arizona in an off season trade and his numbers thus far in spring are positive (.356/.408/.556).

On the pitching side the Rotation seems to be fairly strong one through three with Meche, Bannister and Greinke; as for the fourth and fifth spot I think you'll see Bale and Tomko. The bullpen which was so successful last year has been revamped, gone are Riske, Dotel, and Greinke, in are Mahey, Yabuta, and a handful yet to be named. Peralta, Gobble and Soria all locks while Nunez and De La Rosa seem likely.

Put this all together and the Royals for the first time in a decade have a core of young players on both sides of the ball who have big league talent. Royals fans have a legitimate reason to be excited about this year and the future.

My prediction is 78-84, a nine game improvement and good for 3rd in the division.

No comments: