Skip to main content

Royals Talk

While the Chicago White Sox tied the small-market Minnesota Twins this evening for the AL Central lead at the end of regulation play in 2008, there was one bright ray of sunshine for me as an Ozzie Guillen team took another breath for this season. The 2008 Kansas City Royals finished with a 75-87 record, beating the Detroit Tigers by one game for fourth place in the division. While playing their best baseball in September the Royals finished ahead of pre-season World Series favorite Detroit. This is a small victory that will most likely go unnoticed outside of the Kansas City clubhouse and this blog, but I think that is quite an amazing feat. Let's compare the lineups towards the end of the season:

Kansas City:
C - J. Buck; 1B - R. Shealy; 2B - A. Callaspo; 3B - A. Gordon; SS - M. Aviles; LF - M. Teahen; CF - D. DeJesus; RF - J. Guillen; DH - B. Butler

Detroit:
C - D. Ryan; 1B - M. Cabrera; 2B - P. Polanco; 3B - C. Guillen; SS - E. Renteria; LF - M. Thames; CF - C. Granderson; RF - M. Ordonez; DH - G. Sheffield

It is unreal that the Royals put together a team to beat that offense, however it may be because the Royals offense is improving steadily. With a strong September from Alex Gordon, Ryan Shealy and Mark Teahen, the nucleus to the offense may finally be growing together. While it is someone in their lineup steps up and becomes their big bat, the Royals will be serious contenders in 2009. Alex Gordon has been tabbed as having five tool potential and Billy Butler has put up some amazing numbers in the minors. Each player has a great chance to become offensive stars next season. With the average age of 27.11 years old, the Royals are a young team that obviously took large strides from 2007 (.261) to 2008 (.269) offensively. While more work is necessary, this team has the look of the 2008 Rays with a great closer in Joakim Soria and 3-4 quality starters. An early warning -- watch out for the 2009 Royals.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Florida Marlins Analysis

After watching the Florida Marlins in living color over the past four days, I feel fairly confident when I say that they are in for some rough days over the next couple of months. There is absolutely talent on this team. Note that Dan Uggla and Hanley Ramirez are all-stars and they have a top end of the rotation starter in Scott Olsen. From my viewpoint, this team has been kept afloat from the unlikely success of many players. Jorge Cantu, Luis Gonzalez and just about every single pitcher on their staff. The Marlins are a group of recycled veteran castoffs that have gelled incredibly well for the first two months of the 2008 season. The reason why I feel that this team is about to nose dive to fourth place is simply that they cannot expect all of these players to continue their unusual success all at the same time. Also, when you look at what internal support they have coming to them there are a couple of talented young pitchers returning from serious arm problems (Josh Johnson and A
Post a Comment
Read more

Getting a Job in Baseball

I figure that it is time to write an update with respect to my professional development as this blog is intended to shine some light as to how young professionals can get into Major League Baseball using my anecdotal stories as an example. The Waiting Game I recently went on a two week vacation to Egypt and the Dominican Republic. When I left, I had no job offers, few leads and no reason to feel hopeful that anything was coming. Yet I still had the feeling that when I checked my phone each night for messages that I would have good news. Before going to sleep in a timezone that was 7 hours ahead of the east coast, I would turn my cellphone on for five minutes to try and catch a signal to see if I had voice messages. The nerves making my stomach turn over each day that I either did not receive a message or there was no signal for the phone to pick up as we sailed along the Nile. After returning to Cairo, where cellphones work with ease, the message finally came through to me on January 7
5 comments
Read more

2009 MLB Free Agents

Potential Free Agents for 2009-2010: Catchers: Josh Bard BOS Michael Barrett TOR Henry Blanco SD Ramon Castro CWS Jason Kendall MIL Jason LaRue STL Chad Moeller BAL Bengie Molina SF Jose Molina NYY x-Miguel Olivo KC Mike Redmond MIN Brian Schneider NYM x-Gregg Zaun TB First-Basemen: Hank Blalock TEX Russell Branyan SEA Carlos Delgado NYM Nomar Garciaparra OAK Jason Giambi COL Aubrey Huff DET Nick Johnson WAS Adam LaRoche ATL Kevin Millar TOR Greg Norton ATL Robb Quinlan LAA Matt Stairs PHI Mike Sweeney SEA Jim Thome LAD Chad Tracy ARZ Second Basemen: Marlon Anderson NYM Ron Belliard LAD Jamey Carroll CLE David Eckstein SD Orlando Hudson LAD Felipe Lopez MIL Mark Loretta LAD Third Basemen: Adrian Beltre SEA Geoff Blum HOU Joe Crede MIN Mark DeRosa STL Pedro Feliz PHI Chone Figgins LAA Troy Glaus STL Jerry Hairston NYY Mike Lamb MIL Melvin Mora BAL Juan Uribe SF Shortstops: Orlando Cabrera MIN Juan Castro LAD Alex Cora NYM Khalil Greene STL Ramon Martinez LAD Miguel Tejada HOU Corner Out
Post a Comment
Read more