Tonight Odalis Perez will take the mound for the Royals.  Chances are, based off recent performances, he will eat three to six innings of baseball, give up about half a dozen hits and at least four or so runs.  Allowing this mockery of pitching to continue in to the month of August is ridiculous, paticularly for a team launching a youth movement and with playoff aspirations for the not too distant future.  

Odalis Perez has no future with the Kansas City Royals.  Why did we not dump him at the deadline for a low tier prospect?  Only Dayton Moore knows.  The fact of the matter is that the Royals, although not wealthy with minor league ptiching, have young players that deserve a shot in the major leagues.  It is baffling that Perez has had fourteen months to flounder with the big league club while up-and-coming players like Billy Buckner are stuck in Omaha.  Knowing that Perez is a Runelvys Hernandez-esque journeyman, what would it hurt to find out if someone like Buckner could pull a Bannister or Nunez and surprise some people. Let's hope that Perez's start tonight is his last in KC.

Since the All Star Break, the Royals have caught the White Sox, had a winning record on an extremely difficult roadtrip, dropped three straight to New York and swept Texas. As this shows, while promise abounds on the team's roster, so do question marks and inconsistencies seen in the Yankee's series.  For example, only Gil Meche and Brian Bannister have truly established themselves as locks for the starting rotation next year.  It doesn't matter if your starting lineup is like a page torn out of Baseball America's top prospect list. Butler and Gordon become virtually negligible with struggling starting pitching.  
However, if de la Rosa, Perez and Nunez are able to pitch as they have in the past week, the Royals rotation, and team as a whole, begins to look like a lot more of a legitamite contender in the Central next year.  With an acquisition or two thorugh trades or free agency and at least two of the aforementioned starters getting their act together, we should be in good shape in '08.

The re-emergence of Priest Holmes is just another step in what is proving to be a very intriguing offseason to the Chiefs backfield.  Although huge question marks exist at quarterback and halfback, there seems to be tremendous upside at both positions.  

While Brodie Croyle remains option number one at QB, the Chiefs can breathe easy knowing that their most succesful shotcaller from last season, Damon Huard, is back in case Croyle isn't panning out as hoped.  Also, while underwhelming last year in his NFL debut, Casey Printers may still have something to offer and, if not, rookie QB Jeff Terrell out of Princeton may be a good practice squad addition.  

At running back, the Chiefs seem to be accumulating a number of viable backups to Larry Johnson that may be able to be tested additionally if LJ's holdout continues into the preseason. Priest Holmes, remember, is only eighteen months removed from being one of the league's elite backs, it may be premature to count him out of being a productive third down back and, if nothing else, a commodity in the fact that,unlike his successor, is not afraid to block or catch.  Derrick Ross, Michael Bennett and Marcus O'Keith also look promising and both Ross and O'Keith seem to be impressing coaches while Bennent proved to be a decent backup last year and, remember, is still a former Pro Bowler.

Sorry LA, New York, Boston and Detroit.  The fact of the matter is that we don't have to get rid of Octavio Dotel, Reggie Sanders or Mark Grudzielanek.  This is not the same Royals team that had nothing to play for in the second half and was a consistent veteran dumper at the trade deadline in years past.  This year is different.  The Royals are an up-and-coming team and options on both Dotel and Grudzielanek's contracts could keep them in KC if a trade is not made for a potential pennant race next season.  Dotel is not a Johnny Damon, Jermaine Dye or Carlos Beltran that had to be loaned to another team at the deadline because there was no chance of their returning the following year.  Dotel is a closer on a team that, before the Yankees series, was one of the hottest in baseball and is showing flashes of the brilliance he once displayed when with Houston.  While Dayton Moore would be irresponsible to not listen intently to offers this season, he is in a position where he can wait for the right deal and, if it doesn't come, make a statement to the league that the Royals are no longer the 105 game loser that is attempting to find a rare gem in a haystack of prospects. Look around, the core of the team that can take the Royals to postseason glory has been assembled.  We're no longer looking for the framework, but instead for the finishing touches that can render the team a legit contender in 2008 and, more likely, 2009.

Coming off a winning record on a challenging roadtrip, the Royals once again prove that there greatest talent in personnel decisions is limited to that of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.  Once the ridiculous display of baseball was finally complete FOUR HOURS LATER, it was clear that the Royals had sabotaged themselves out of a win.  Elarton, who may in fact be the worst Royals starter in history (and that takes some serious sucking), allowed more runs in an inning and a half than he should have allowed in two complete games.  While the bats were hardly cranking for KC, four runs is not a putrid night at the plate.  Had Buddy Bell and Dayton Moore had the best interest of the team in mind, Leo Nunez would have started the game, the Yankees would have at least not slaughtered us and maybe, just maybe, the Royals could have at least played decent baseball in front of almost 40,000 skeptically hopeful fans.  Good job Royals management, you lost a game, lost a spot in the standings and disgusted thousands of young baseball fans getting their first taste of Royals baseball(fittingly against the Yankees).  This young crop of players has proven that they can produce, but not when washed up pitchers that get dominated in AAA take the mound.  Gotta go and get ready for watching Jorge de la Suck tonight, bye now.

Admittedly, 2007 is (another) rebuilding year for the Royals.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but the main purpose of a rebuilding year is to give experience to young players.  Dayton Moore can't say enough about how important it is to develop young players and evaluate talent of players who may have a future with the team.  That being said, it is flustering that Jason LaRue and, before going on the DL, Mike Sweeney were regulars in the starting lineup while promising young players such as John Buck and Billy Butler warmed the bench and, in Butler's case, posed as a farmhand.  In order for a rebuilding year to truly be effective, the team needs to honestly evaluate each players' future with the team, and if that future can be measured in weeks or months, give playing time accordingly.  No one is asking Buddy Bell to bench Sanders, Grudzielanek and LaRue indefinitely (except maybe benching LaRue wouldn't be a bad idea), a veteran presence is vital to a young player's development.  That being said, the team needs to have a good idea what they've got by the time spring training opens next year, and that's hard to accomplish when a third of the starting lineup will likely note be on the Royals' roster that day.  So, if you have a chance, do me a favor and vote on which players below that I list that YOU think should be part of the team's long term plans.  Feel free to mention others who there weren't room to list on the comment board.

The Royals take two out of three from the defending AL Champs.  The Royals have a winning record against three of the AL's best four teams ON A ROADTRIP.  And yet, here we are, excited about the team moving into a tie for fourth place with Chicago.  Instead of aspiring for bigger and better things (which obviously can be done with Greinke, Butler, Gordon and Bannister, among others, now producing) fans seem content with riding out the year in the chase for not being the Central's (biggest) laughingstock.  Rather than embracing the fact that, for the first time in nearly half a decade, the Royals are within two weeks of possibly surpassing Minnesota, fans seem content with second to last. Pulling even with the ChiSox is a step in the right directions, but if that is all Royals fans can think about, then KC's baseball culture needs to change.  We are in contention of passing a team that was picked by many as a playoff contender this spring and, if that happens, we can no longer be called baseball's laughinstock.