The 133rd season of Major League Baseball is upon us. Over the next month and half, we will be taking a look at each ball club, leading up to the Expert Predictions of the esteemed staff at Sparty & Friends. We will be previewing each team, from worst to first. It is time we head out to the Show Me State and visit the eastern-most western city, Kansas City.

It has been a very very very looooooooooooooooong, loooooooooooooooong, loooooooooong time since the Royals mattered in the Majors. In fact, one could call them the official minor league team of Major League Baseball. Their last winning season took place in 2003, when they won 83 games. Of course that season they had Mike Sweeney, Raul Ibanez and Carlos Beltran. Those three alone could hit more home runs than this entire team. That was also the first and only winning season for the Royals since the strike-shortened 1994 season…don’t look for winning season #2 to happen anytime soon.

Last Season: 75-87 (4th place in the Al Central)

Who’s Gone: Joey Gathright CF (via FA)

Who’s New: Kyle Farnsworth RP (via FA) Mike Jacobs (via Trade) Coco Crisp CF (via Trade)

Anyone wanna bet that he could still be their best hitter?

Projected Lineup:
1. Coco Crisp CF
2. Mike Aviles SS
3. Alex Gordon 3B
4. Jose Guillen LF
5. Mike Jacobs 1B
6. Mark Teahan RF
7. Billy Butler DH
8. Miguel Olivio C
9. Alberto Callaspo 2B

SP Gil Meche
SP Zack Greinke
SP Brian Bannister
SP Kyle Davies
SP Luke Hovechar

CL Joakin Soria

Key Bench Players:

Kyle Farnsworth RP
David DeJesus OF
Willie Bloomquist INF
Ryan Shealy 1B

Manager: Trey Hillman

Lineup Outlook - It is not hard to figure out which is the biggest weakness for the Royals – their lineup.  They finished 12th in AL in runs scored and next-to-last in home runs.  When Jose Guillen is your clean-up hitter, you definitely need to have concerns.  Mike Jacobs and Coco Crisp are not the answers that they were looking for.

Crisp has yet to play an entire season roaming the outfield in his 7 year career, topping out at 145 games twice.   One thought he was going to flourish in the Boston Red Sox lineup when he came over from the Indians, but his production was minimal. Ultimately though, he did help and contribute to their 2007 World Series, even though Jacoby Ellsbury became the starter in CF.  He is another example of someone who has good speed, but doesn’t get on base enough to really use it.

Batting 2nd is Mike Aviles, who did show some promise in his rookie season in the bigs.  In 102 games, he batted .325 with 10 HRs, 51 RBIs, 8 SBs, and a .354 OBP.  If he is able to replicate or improve on that, the Royals should improve on their run scoring.

The 2nd coming of George Brett remains to be seen.  Alex Gordon has shown flashes of future stardom, but isn’t there yet. He will turn 25 when the season begins, and this is the year the Royals need him to be the star player they expected him to be when they drafted him #2 overall from the University of Nebraska in the 2005 draft.  Right now, his statistics suggest he is more like his teammate Mark Teahan, rather than the former Hall of Famer (Brett) he has been compared to since he donned a Royals uniform.

Jose Guillen is nuts.  He can hit homers; but he is nuts.

Mike Jacobs burst on the scene in his first 30 games with the New York Mets, hitting 11 HRs in his first 100 Major League at bats.  He has continued to showcase that power, but lacks plate discipline, as evidenced by his extremely low OBP for a power hitter and his high strikeout rate.  However, considering that the Royals haven’t been very good at hitting the longball, they welcome the pop to the lineup that Jacobs can provide.

The one player that the Royals can pencil in at almost any position is Mark Teahan. Since his rookie year in 2005, Teahan has played 3B, 1B, RF, LF, and CF.  Being flexible enough and able to change positions has allowed Kansas City to bring up Gordon, and eventually minor league sensation Kila Ka’aihue (37 HRs in the minors last season).  Teahan does have the capability of a little pop, but don’t count on it too often.

Playing DH for the Royals is Billy Butler.  He will be entering his 3rd year in the league, and will be called upon to be the everyday DH this season. We know that the 23-year-old  Butler absolutely crushes left-handed pitching, but this year he needs to take the next step and hit better against righties as well.  If he can accomplish this, it will help to bring balance to the Royals already weak offense.

Similar to other teams we’ve looked at so far, the guys rounding out the lineup, Miguel Olivio and Alberto Callaspo, don’t bring a lot of talent to the plate.

All in all, don’t expect much from the bats on KC.

Starting Rotation - I still cannot figure out how Gil Meche is the ace of any staff.  He doesn’t have electric stuff.  But, ever since coming over to KC a couple years ago, he has earned every cent of the $11 million per year.  Meche is very dependable, starting 32 or more games each of his last 3 years in the league.  There is no reason to think that Meche would take step back at age 30, usually arounf the age when most pitchers are in the middle of their prime.

Zack Greinke has overcome emotional issues and might be the real #1 of KC.  Greinke K/9 rate was an outstanding 9.3 last season while finishing 13-10 in his first year back to rotation.  He is the perfect compliment to Meche at the top of the Royals’ starting 5.

Brian Bannister, needless to say, needs to cut down on the amount of HRs he allows.  He was tagged for 29 gopher balls last season, and had an absoutely terrible second half of the season.  Bannister is not being looked upon to carry a heavy load for this team, but needs to be better than he was last year if the Royals have any hope of continuing to climb in the AL Central.

The Atlanta Braves originally drafted Kyle Davies and had extremely high hopes for him.  They may have rushed his progress down in Georgia, due to the many injuries they had down there. So, partially due to that situation, Davies development was hampered by the pressures of pitching in the very competitive NL East.  They did not have the patience to groom him, and therefore let him go to the cellar-dwellar Royals.  Davies responded then with a very solid 21 starts in 2008.  For this season, the Royals would like to see his walkrate decrease, as he allowed 3.1BB/9 innings over last season.

Hopefully the Royals didn’t make the same mistake with Hovechar that the Braves did with Davies.  He is a former #1 pick and suffered through a difficult rookie season, allowing opponents to hit .275 against him with a .409 slugging pct.  In only 22 starts, he allowed 12 HRs and had an extremely low strikeout rate.  Maybe a year under his belt will settle some nerves and maybe he’s learned something from it.  Then again, maybe he is just another pitcher who’s going to burnout too quickly.

Bullpen – Joakin Soria was an All-Star last season while closing for the Royals.  He finished the season with 42 saves and an outstanding 1.60 era.  He was probably the most effective closer in the AL last year, even moreso than Francisco Rodriguez.  He had better all around stats, just few save opportunities.  It may not even be a stretch to say that Soria is a top 3 closer in all of baseball.

Setting him up will be Kyle Farnsworth; I’m personally sorry that KC fans will have to deal with that.  However, if there is any team you don’t want to brawl with this season, it may be the Royals.  Guillen and Farnsworth will be the best tag team in all of the Major Leagues.

Prediction – 69-74 wins.  I just cannot justify seeing the Royals finishing ahead of anyone in the AL Central.  Everyone else in that division has better hitting and pitching (on paper, of course).  I know they finished ahead of the Tigers last year, but that had more to do with the Tigers injuries than the “stellar” play of good ol’ KC.  Expect the Royals to return to the bottom feeder status of the AL Central as they are accustomed to unless Alex Gordon finally starts hitting like George Brett and Luke  Hovechar starts throwing the ball like Brett Saberhagen.

There are not many highlights out there on the Royals over the last several years; so, let’s take a look at one of the more memorable flip-outs in sports history:

Popularity: 5% [?]