A Look at the Competition – The Kansas City Royals

It’s become a bit of a trend around the media covering Major League Baseball to predict a productive year from the Kansas City Royals. Don’t fret, White Sox fans, I’m here as the Royals pessimist, prepared to tell you why I think the Royals will have yet another year toward the bottom of the AL Central standings.
The pitching staff in KC really has not taken many strides forward. Outside of acquiring Jonathan Sanchez, the rotation has pretty much stood pat. Bruce Chen has impressed us all, but the fact of the matter is that he is a nice rotation piece at most, not a club’s ace. While their bullpen has impressive youngsters such as Aaron Crow and Greg Holland, you have to wonder how Jonathan Broxton will perform as he replaces the injured Joakim Soria. And for Broxton, like Sanchez, you have to assume there will be an adjustment process for them moving from the National League to the more difficult American League. To me, the Royals’ pitchers are nothing more than a bunch of question marks with a mediocre ceiling as a unit.

The Royals offense is a bit tougher to dissect. In 2011, the Royals had one of the best hitting squads in the AL. All throughout the year, they hit for a very impressive average. I see them taking a couple of steps back this year in that regard. Not because some of their guys aren’t capable, but because it’s awfully difficult to stay on top of the AL in batting average for 2 years. If I left it at that, however, it would be a pretty empty statement, so let’s delve into their lineup, starting with the other end of the battery.
Catcher Brayan Pena very consistent throughout his career. He’s consistently been a very good hitter in the minor leagues, but struggled in the big leagues, carrying a mediocre batting average and supplying next-to-no production. First Baseman Eric Hosmer is the real deal. In just 128 games last year, he had 49 XBH, including 19 home runs. He plays good defense and is poised to be one of the best hitters in the AL for years to come. No complaints here. Second baseman Chris Getz is the type of player you have on your squad to get a lot of pesky base hits and play sound baseball. In his 2 years in KC since coming over from the White Sox, he has hit .237 and .255, respectively. Every team around the big leagues has players in their farm system that could get the call up and hit around the .240’s. He is, to put it simply, nothing to worry about. Third baseman Mike Moustakas is a young talent that has high expectations. He plays stellar defense, and is expected to be a good offensive player throughout his career. Last season, he hit .258 and really didn’t help out the Royals’ offense too often. I’m not doubting that he can improve his offensive skills in the near future, but we’ll believe it when we see it. Rounding out the infield, we have shortstop Alcides Escobar, who too has some good tools and plays good defense, but has not proven he is anything better than a .250 hitter in the big leagues.

Now onto the Royals’ outfield, where we’ll start off with left fielder Alex Gordon. After being named the number 1 prospect in baseball, Gordon struggled to live up to the hype for a while. Finally last season, he hit .303 with 23 HR and 87 RBI. To be honest, I think he’s figured it out for good. He may not be so good year in and year out, but I definitely do think that he will be a good, solid, productive hitter for years to come in the AL Central. Center fielder Lorenzo Cain was very solid for the Brewers in limited play in 2010, but has yet to prove that he can do it consistently, let alone over a full major league campaign. Finally, right fielder Jeff Francoeur has been a productive veteran for KC in years past. I expect most of the same from him in 2012.
As you can tell, they do indeed have a very capable offense. And while this will help them go on some hot streaks from time to time, we all know a team’s success boils down to their pitching staff. Unfortunately for KC fans, their staff just isn’t quite up to par. You cannot expect Bruce Chen to consistently matchup with AL aces like Verlander, Sabathia, Weaver, Lester, and so forth. Especially because he has the pressure of handing it over to all the youngsters that they have rounding out the rotation behind him. I expect the 2012 Royals to be an exciting team, but one that will not be able to contend in the long run. They’re not far away, though. If they can begin to breed pitchers like they have hitters, they may be in business in the very near future.