There's been much debate lately about the Royal's future.  Is it bright?  Is "The Process" working or is this all just another tease?  I thought I'd put the question to some of the site's best contributors.

Site contributors who participated: jonfmorse, nyroyal, matt klaassen, jeff zimmerman, nwroyal

If you were left out and feel that you shouldn't have been I apologize for the slight.  I basically went through the most rec'd posts of all time and contacted the authors (if there was a public email address).  Not everyone had the time to reply.  Now let's get on with it...

Baseball Prospectus's Postseason Odds (on 5/28) report simulates the remainder of the season and currently  gives the Royals a 4.48% chance of making the playoffs this year.  Instead it predicts that they'll finish in 4th place and win 76 games.  Would you take the over or the under on the win total?

• Over
• Under - jonfmorse, nyroyal, matt klaassen, jeff zimmerman, nwroyal

Keith Law ranked the Royal's farm system #9 overall and prospects like Mike Moustakous, Mike Montgomery, Aaron Crow, Kila Ka'aihue and others could start arriving as soon as the 2011 season.  Dayton Moore recently opined that a prospect needs about 3 years of Major League experience to reach peak performance.  Which of the following do you think is the best finish in this time period (2011 - 2013)?

• Royals make the playoffs
• Royals eliminated from contention in September
• Royals finish above .500 - nyroyal, matt klaassen, nwroyal
• Royals win 70 - 80 games - jonfmorse, jeff zimmerman
• Royals win less than 70 games

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Coco has a .226/.385/.561 line through the first 9 games.  There was some concern about his plate discipline, but he's kept up his approach from spring training drawing 8 walks in the first 9 games.  The next closest Royal has only 3 walks.

I've also been very impressed with his defense in center and, as importantly, DeJesus's defense in left.

So what's not to love about Coco?  I know it's early and Jacobs has been impressive too, but I think his acquisition was DM best offseason acquisition.

ARMS RACE 
Zack Greinke mixed in some curveballs after sticking to a pretty strict diet of fastballs and change-ups in his two previous starts.

“Everybody was mad at me for only throwing fastballs and change-ups,” he said. “So I threw some first-pitch strikes with curveballs. It’s an easy way to get a strike.

“It’s not like it’s a real hard pitch to throw. You just throw it for a strike. I was working on other stuff, but it gets you ahead in the count. Then you can use anything you want. So the pitch worked. Smart coaches.”

Is there a better quote in baseball than Greinke?