Hey guys Royals fan here. I'm usually stuck in the NFL threads talking about the Chiefs, but I just wanted to point out that while our record looks bad, you would not BELIEVE how optimistic the feel around town is here with our (forever) young ball club.
Some points that have me excited
1.
Gil Meche - First of all, he's had several excellent outings, but most importantly, he's the type of guy we can start building a team around. We had to over-pay to get him in this town, but so far he is definitely delivering. After 7 starts, he's currently in the top 5 for ERA, Wins, and Innings pitched in the AL. Might not seem like a big deal to you, but this is the freaking ROYALS we're talking about here.
2. Young phenoms - They're young and a little raw, but the Royals really do have some nice young talent in the batter's box. We haven't had this much hope since we had Dye, Beltran and Damon! While I won't say that any one of our new guys will eventually become any one of those greats, we do have some awesome potential: DeJesus, Butler, and Gordon could be something special.
3. Small ball - We're losing still, but now we're losing 2-1 and 3-2 games, rather than 10-7 or 8-5 games. It all comes down to starting pitching and getting on base at this point. We have two good starters in place with Meche and De La Rosa (and Greinke), but our bullpen is horrendous outside of our one bright spot, Soria. Right now, we just need to start getting on base, stop getting down early in the count, and getting some clutch 2-out hits. If we can raise our BA across the board by 20 points, we're a better than 500 team. Seriously.
4. Hope - Again, it's the Royals and I know it. We've been historically bad by anybody's comparison. But what we have now is hope where there hasn't been in years. We got Dayton Moore as a GM, and we all believe in him. We have some nice pieces falling into place, and others on their way up. But most of all, we finally have a commitment from our owner to winning. That started with a huge contract to Meche. We have to keep that up next year and get a couple above average bullpen guys. I know we can do it. I think the Royals can make the playoffs in 2 years. Seriously.
5. Now all we need to do is start winning.
