SB Nation's 2010 MLB Previews: Kansas City Royals, Worse Than Most

By Will McDonald of Royals Review

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Introduction

It’s odd following the Royals. They aren’t just bad, they’re frequently strange. For example, earlier this off-season, it was reported that the Royals were interested in Rick Ankiel, Scott Podsednik, and Randy Winn, as options to "shore up" the outfield. So, the dwindling number of die-hard fans swallowed their pride and went forward with the requisite in-depth discussion of those three options. That’s just what you do, even if the guys you’re talking about are typical bad-GM-on-autopilot fodder such as these. Then, just before Christmas, the Royals signed Brian Anderson, the former Chicago outfielder, to a Major League contract. Anderson isn’t good either, but at least he’s still young and decent a glove. Moreover, having Anderson meant that the earlier Winn/Podsednik/Ankiel discussion from hell had turned out to be irrelevant, just another unfounded rumor.

Not quite. In early January, the Royals went ahead and signed Scott Podsednik anyway, a marriage of player and GM that had been predicted for years. Of course, neither Anderson nor Podsednik projects to be appreciably better than Mitch Maier, an obscure Royal outfielder, but when you have a chance to snag two guys whose reputation peaked in 2006 for eight times the price, you have to do it. However, the Royals weren’t done. Two weeks later, in late January, they signed Rick Ankiel as well. Um, what? We’d misread the rumor: Dayton Moore wasn’t considering one of the Winn/Podsednik/Ankiel trio, he was thinking about that being his starting outfield. The Royals tied a bow on the entire sequence by naming Ankiel, who as Kansas City Star columnist Sam Mellinger pointed out, almost no one wanted as a platoon guy at a corner, as the starting centerfielder.

Perhaps Royals fans need to forget about winning, which probably won’t happen ever anyway, and embrace the team as modernist performance art. Because the Dayton Moore transaction log hits you like T.S. Eliot hit you when you were sixteen, "wow, there’s something referring to the Grail Legend, right next to a line from an advertisement for gum, next to something in Greek I don’t know and won’t look up… my mind is blown!"

Position Players

C- Jason Kendall (yep, he’s still playing and the Royals LOVE him)
1B – Billy Butler
2B – Chris Getz
SS – Yuniesky Betancourt
3B – Alex Gordon
RF – David DeJesus
CF- Rick Ankiel
LF- Scott Podsednik
DH – Jose Guillen
Bench- Inf- Alberto Callaspo, Util- Willie Bloomquist, OF- Brian Anderson, OF- Josh Fields, C- Brayan Pena.

This is easily one of the worst lineups in the American League, with a defensive upside somewhere around mediocre. The off-season trade of Mark Teahen for Chris Getz and Josh Fields complicates the roster, and apparently moves Callaspo, one of the team’s better hitters, off second base. If Ankiel flames out and DeJesus and/or Callaspo is traded, the team might go weeks without scoring. In Butler and Gordon the Royals have some interesting pieces, but they’re weighed down by the sub-replacement level players around them.

Rotation

Zack Greinke
Gil Meche
Luke Hochevar
Some combination of Kyle Davies, Brian Bannister, and Robinson Tejeda

The starting rotation, anchored by the awesome Zack Greinke, is the strength of the team, and has been for the last few years. The quality of the team’s starting five has been obscured by poor defense and a lack of run support but make no mistake, this is not a bad group, especially if Gil Meche proves to be healthy. According to the CHONE projection system, the Royals have the sixth best rotation in baseball for 2010. In addition to the 2009 Cy Young Greinke, the Royals have more non-horrible back of the rotation options than most teams, including guys like Brian Bannister who we can now consider a legitimately good pitcher. Credit Dayton Moore for assembling a nice rotation around Greinke. Just also credit him for a terrible lineup, porous defense, and shaky bullpen.

Bullpen

Joakim Soria (closer), Juan Cruz (setup), Kyle Farnsworth, Roman Colon, Victor Marte, Dusty Hughes, Anthony Lerew, Carlos Rosa.

There’s a foundation here with Soria, one of the game’s better closers, and Juan Cruz as the setup guy. Cruz, expected to be the team’s second-best reliever, was shockingly terrible and then injured in 2009, which torpedoed the functionality of the bullpen. If Cruz can be effective, it means less Farnsworth, while allowing the Royals to find a combination of the other obscure guys to form a workable combination.

In the System

Kila Ka’aihue (1B/DH), Shane Costa (OF), A number of pitchers

Honestly, the Royals don’t really have any impact prospects that might contribute in 2010. The only real system guy of note is Ka’aihue, an internet hero that doesn’t have a great Major League profile. Costa is an organizational soldier who might play when Ankiel and Podsednik get injured. The Royals have a number of pitchers who might contribute as replacement starters and or relievers, but no one who is really worth knowing about. All the interesting Royals prospects are still very young.

Miscellaneous

Mike Aviles (SS) is attempting to recover from a serious 2009 injury and might be ready by the early months of the season. The Royals don’t really have a place for him, and don’t seem to have ever been too high on him, but Aviles was a borderline MVP candidate in 2008. (Seriously, he hit .325/.354/.480 in 441 PAs at SS, with good defense.)

Conclusion

This is a 75 win team that should be worse. The Royals need to trade Gil Meche and David DeJesus if they can. After generating unjustified off-season buzz for two years, nobody is too excited about the 2010 Royals. Has much changed? Not really, just a realization that the team is not and never was a young team on the rise. Instead, the 2010 Royals are still fueled by the dying embers products of the previous regime (Greinke, Butler, Gordon, DeJesus) and still waiting for the new GM to add more new coals to the fire. And no, in this metaphor, Jason Kendall is not a desirable lump of coal.