MLB Team by Team: 2008 Kansas City Royals

The Kansas City Royals have been in the doldrums for so long (one winning season since 1993) that it's hard to remember that this franchise, in the late 1970's and early 80's, was a perennial playoff contender, were 1980 American League and 1985 World champions, even.

But the light on the horizon has begun to poke through the clouds as up-and-comers like third baseman Alex Gordon, shortstop Tony Pena, Jr., pitcher Zach Grienke, and left fielder Mike Teahen continue their path to stardom. The question is, how far away from the future there is here in 2008?

OFFENSE: C-

Gordon had a rough first half, but came around respectably to finish up at .247, with 15 homers and 60 RBI's, a far cry from the projected Rookie of the Year season most saw for him, but enough to give hope for future success. The lineup needed serious pop (John Buck had the most homers, 18, in the projected lineup), and the Royals took a nice step in that direction by signing Jose Guillen from the Seattle Mariners, but this team will still have to scrape and scrap along to score their runs.

PROJECTED LINEUP: 1 DeJesus CF 2 Grudzielanek 2B 3 Gordon 3B 4 Guillen RF 5 Teahen LF 6 Buck C 7 Gload 1B 8 Butler/German DH 9 Pena SS

STARTING PITCHING: C+

The starting pitching had much improved last year, record be darned. Gil Meche justified his much-maligned signing despite going 9-13, with his ERA only 3.67, and only walking 62 while eating up 216 innings. The real revelation, though, was Brian Bannister, the second-year starter. He went 12-9, posted a 3.87 ERA, and now joins Meche and Grienke (7-7, 3.69) to give the Royals a very good 1-2-3. Four and five are a bit shaky, but young Luke Hochevar and veteran Brett Tomko are waiting in the wings should injury or numbers take their toll. All in all, probably the best rotation in years for the Royals.

PROJECTED LINEUP: Meche, Bannister, Grienke, Davies, De La Rosa

BULLPEN: C-

Joakim Soria stepped forward in his rookie season to anchor the bullpen solidly last season (17 saves in 21 chances), and gave the Royals a forceful presence in the ninth (75 strikeouts in 69 innings). Add to him former starter, much better set-up man Jimmy Gobble, Brandon Duckworth, and former Chiba Lotte Marine Yasuhiko Yabuda, a change-up pitcher who compiled a 2.80 ERA in 222 career appearances, and you've got the makings of a dependable unit.

CONCLUSION

If improvement continues for all the young talent in blue this year, the Royals will be making people talk and opening eyes all year. The day has now passed that you could count Kansas City as an easy "W" on your schedule. But, as far as the Central goes, there's just too many super teams ahead of them for this to be a playoff year, or even a .500 season. But it's not hard to envision it in the very near future.

PREDICTION: 73-89, fifth in American League Central