I am stringing together quite a few posts on baseball right now. Mainly because the season is getting closer. So close you can almost smell the fresh cut grass...once you get all the snow off the baseball field. So close you can hear the crack of the bat just as well as you can hear the ice scrapers on the windshields of all the cars. So close you can hear the beer and hot dog vendors just as well as you can hear all the cars running for ten minutes before leaving. Okay. So we aren't very close to Opening Day. But we can all dream.
Since the mid-90s, the Kansas City Royals have not been a good team. One or two seasons aside, they have floundered for close to two decades. One side note: they have won a World Series more recently than the Detroit Tigers, so good for them (sad panda moment for Tigers fans). Being a smaller market team, they are not ever really in the picture when it comes to big name free agents because they don't have the money to lure these players to America's heartland.
They have the bats to keep them in games. One of the benefits of being so bad for so long is you get early draft picks. Draft picks do not always pan out, but when they do, and when the players have time to develop, look out. The Royals have a corp group of young players that, if they can keep them all together, could be tearing up the American League for the better part of the next decade. They have the corner infielders in Hosmer and Moustakas that can anchor them for a long time. Up the middle they have solid defenders. Their outfield is young and full of speed. And the designated hitter is a true pure hitter. They are young and full of potential. And as a fan of a divisional rival, this scares me.
They have some pitching, but their starting rotation is not near the top of the league. Two veterans and three youngsters make up their starting rotation. As an organization, they seemed to have spent a lot of time developing their offense. Their bullpen on the other hand, puts shit on lockdown. Everyone raves about Atlanta and Boston, but Kansas City flies under the radar when it comes to the seventh inning onward. While not a pitching staff that will wow everyone, it is serviceable. And serviceability can get the job done.
Their roster is ready to go for the next few years, so why are more people afraid of this team? It has to do with money. All these former high draft picks are high draft picks for a reason. They have talent. And talent doesn't stay in Kansas City these days. They want to get paid. Once their contracts run out, unless they fall in love with the city of Kansas City, they are most likely going to be leaving. So the Royals spend all this time and effort developing these players and before they can get into their prime, they are gone.
I don't know how the season will shake out in the AL Central. I would like to think that the Tigers will sit on top once again this year, but Kansas City is slowly closing the gap on them. And if the Tigers want to stay on top, they need to keep developing their talent. And draft for the future, which is coming quickly.
7/120
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