So let's talk AL Central...
 

sounds like we're going to be competitive this year:

roto times does a decent job at projecting starting rotations and lineups...



1. Royals
2. Tigers
3. Chi Sox
4. Twinkies
5. Indians


:shrug:


it kinda sucks and its kinda cool our teams plays in the most competitive divisions in their respective sports :(

i don't trust anything Glass says.

Right after I drive a rusty nail up my nostril and into my frontal lobe...

this isn't that bad of a lineup, fellas:

CF DeJesus
2B Grudzielanek
OF Teahen
DH Sweeney
OF Brown
3B Gordon
1B Shealy
SS Berroa
C Larue/ Buck


we need Meche to start 32 games like he did last year, win us 12 games and silence some of those critics.

Duckworth had a nice k/bb ratio, to be competitive we would really need him to double his production froma year ago (course of the season, 12-14 wins), and then a couple other guys step up as well.

It's all going to boil down to pitching, and with all the new guys on the block we just have to hope our new player and personnell know what the hell they are doing :shrug:

hey Carl is positive about next year aswell!!


KC 2007/8 WS/SB champions!!!!!11

I won't invest my fandom with them again unless they are in the hunt after the all-star break. That ownership has done nothing to make me want to watch them at this point.

I got to tell you Chad,you're the eternal optimist when it comes to KC sports,maybe you should see if Carl is hiring.

I think the Dayton Moore hiring and letting him make all the moves without intereference has given me a shot atleast giving glass a chance. I understand in the past, but I think this team has real promise in the near future. The offense should be pretty damn good with the young hitters coming up. Hopefully the pitching can hold up and we can continue to stockpile good young pitchers.

they say hochevar is very very close.

It'd be nice if Hochevar and Lummsden both pan out, and Dayton's staff can work a miracle with greinke. Then it would only be a couple years before others might start paying attention...

Moore has me excited again. I think it's going to be a fun year.

I love the Royals regardless. Hopefully, they finish close to .500 this year. However, my biggest wish is that Sanders and Sweeney get dealt.

Mine is two chicks at once, dude...two chicks at one time...

http://blog.craplife.com/wp-content/...5/lawrence.jpg

"George Brett is NOT walking thru those doors Royals fans"

whats sad is we have an owner that was a top guy for the 5th largest economy(something like that) in the world (Walmart) and we can't get a payroll. I guess since the Royals are Walmart employees we should only expect they be paid like chit like the rest are! I just can't wait till our uniforms feature a happy face on the back and we have smocks instead of jerseys!

Jesus tits that guy looks like the effects dummy from scanners! :spock:

Not a Rick Pitino fan eh?

Royals will finish last and lose at least 90 games. Ok I am done.

I have faith in the Royals, get some solid pitching out of our staff and we have a pretty decent team.

You make it sound like all that revenue that your 5th largest economy (something like that) is lining the pockets of the Glass family. I have no doubt that Wal-Mart has made David Glass a very wealthy man but even he doesn't have bottomless pockets.

For the record just who would you like the Royals to spend some of this payroll on? Hell people all around baseball are pitching a bitch that the Royals signed Meche to such a high dollar contract. Right now besides the FAs they signed this winter (Meche, Dotel, Riske, and possibly Bale), Sweeney, Sanders, Grudz, Brown, Perez and LaRue the majority of the players are young guys. It's entirely possible that next season the team will have an even lower payroll yet may actually be thought to have a brighter future. When this years contracts for Sweeney, Sanders, LaRue, Brown, Elarton, Dotel, and possibly Grudz if the option isn't picked up come off the books, the payroll could be effectively cut in half. In fact if any of the aforementioned veterans are traded before the end of the season then the payroll could actuall go down during the season. If Dayton Moore is unable to lure any other FAs to come to KC, then we could be looking at plugging guys like Billy Butler, Mitch Maier, Luke Hochevar, and a few others making the ML minimum. What will you be saying then?

When Butler and Gordon get at least 2 years playing with the rest of the guys --- I'll be saying,


"PRINT EM'" !!!!!!!!

On a serious sidenote.... Some of you might want to thing about getting one of the season packages.... Hell; even if it's just the 21 game package.... Cause in maybe 2 years, they might be asking you if you want that same seat for the playoffs....

Moore IS GOING to build a winner here... Might be 2 more years --- but it's going to happen...

Royals are closer to a World Series than their neighbors are winning a Super Bowl...

sad but true

I saw Gordon play alot of ball up at Nebraska... He's going to be one hell of a player... Butler will be damn good also...

This team is going to win 75 games. Yeah, that's right. You heard me. They won 60 last year despite blowing 31 saves.

Hello, Octavio Dotel. Even if he only converts half of those games, that's still 75 wins. And the starting pitching will be improved (even if Meche is overpaid, he's still better than any starter the team had last year), too.

With good health from key players (Teahen, DeJesus) and a nice debut from Gordon and Butler (who will come up when Sweeney goes down), this is not a bad team. People forget that this team was right around .500 in the second half until Teahen went down... and would have avoided 100 losses had he not gotten hurt.

And the people saying they're about two years away from competing in the division are right... as long as 2 of 3 from the group of Hochevar, Lumsden and Greinke become quality starters.

The difference? This time, thanks to revenue sharing, Glass should be able to retain 2-3 key pieces of the lineup (Gordon, Butler, Shealey?) and a couple of key starters.

If they keep building the farm system -- and Moore will -- that will be enough to remain a solid, competitive team.

:cuss: :mad: :cuss: :mad: :cuss:

No more doughnuts

The Kansas City Star
The Royals’ Krispy Kreme doughnut promotion will not continue in 2007, team president Dan Glass said Friday at the Baseball Forecast Luncheon.

For the last four years, fans holding a ticket stub for a home game in which the Royals pounded out 12 or more hits could redeem it for a dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts.

While the team works on a replacement promotion, here are the doughnut games for the last four years:

2003: 27

2004: 14

2005: 19

2006: 20

The one thing that you can bank on in the AL Central, is that you can't bank on anything. The least predictable division, IMO.

I agree. There are three teams that have a chance to win it. IMO The other two I think will be good enough to be a pain in the ass for some.

My Royals I hope will be a pain to some. :)

I agree. We finally have a real baseball guy in the front office. The moves he's made actually seem to make baseball sence. What a concept.

I'm cautiously optimistic.

Sorry, but Meche won't get it done. Our big bats wont produce for another 2 seasons. I dont see us being very competitive at all IMO. We play in the toughest division in baseball.

This team was very competitive in the second half last season and made a lot of improvements. Shealy and Teahen proved they can be solid run producers.

This team WILL be competitive -- around .500. No way this year's team loses 100 games again.

how is teahan transitioning to the OF. Good I hope.

Is Gordon going to be in the Big Leagues on opening day? We better not waste in him AA ball any longer. He's ready to do some damage. It's time to unleash the fury

I don't know if he is or not. I would rather start his clock once we are ready to make a serious run on the whole thing. I guess we will see when spring ball openes up. Hopefully he can be a force.

that's the plan.



And as for starting him too soon, I would rather get him some experience so that when the team is finally ready to compete, he will already have some MLB action under his belt.

Since football is done, and draft is a ways off... some baseball, revisited.



Last I could find of David Glass' worth was from 1999, est. at 326 million. Its clearly gone much higher both if he has apparently made a profit off the Royals and any other $$$ he has seen over the past 7-8 years. Hell, the franchise is expected to be double its worth after the renovations alone. That means even a modest number off the Royals, would be $96 mil for the team's worth, but lets say its not $20 mill every year, and just give an even number of $100 mil. THAT'S 196 million he has gained just off the team that he got at a ridiculous price to begin with.
The guy can more than afford to put a team out there with a payroll in the middle of the pack- which would be fair given the rest of the talent in our division. If he's really committed to fielding a winner, then he should know that taking a loss for a year or two is simply an investment that will see a return.

If KC had a team in contention and an honest shot at being a competitive team, KC's commitment to a winning team speaks for itself and he would in turn make his money back. Not to mention, additional success would add value to the franchise and additional revenue in media contract, merchandising and exposure.

Let's not forget he got the Royals at a rock bottom sale price.

Sure, this looks fine until Sweeney hurts his back reaching for a cup of Grape Gatorade, which suggests a much better topic of discussion:

What's the over/under on the first Sweeney injury of the year?

IMO, no way he gets through May.

Would be nice if the Royals have a decent SS and a C.

That 8-9 on the lineup is like an automatic 2 outs.

Spinoff: Who plays more games Sweeney or Meche?(or any other pitcher)

Sweeney. I'm guessing he logs around 60. In and out, in and out, in and out, all year, like what goes down at Redrum's mom's house.

You do realize, per the terms of him buying the team, that he can't make a penny off of the sale of the franchise? Every dollar off excess profit goes to the Kauffman Foundation. I'd also like to see some numbers that say he's made a profit off the Royals as far as revenue since he's owned them. The best case scenarios I've seen have him breaking even.

So let's just say he does have $326 million in the bank, for sake of argument. You expect him to lose from 10-20% of his net worth every year, to compete for free agents? That sounds like a brilliant plan to me.

I fault Glass for the way he's run the organization, but not for being smart with what money the franchise does bring in.

Your optimistic.

About Sweeney, I mean.

ROFL
Sad when predicting less than half is optimistic.

Justin Huber is still in the plans too. Shealy and Huber will probably split at DH/1B if Sweeney goes down.

Other than that, PinkFloyd hit it on the head. I'd invest in season tickets now, even if it is a smaller game package. The future is bright.

Meche might not be the long-term answer as the No. 1 guy, but some of you fail to realize the impact of the Royals hitting the free agent market, locking onto a guy they wanted and beating other teams --bigger market teams-- out for him, convincing him that Kansas City is a place to be and, finally, signing him. Did they overpay? Maybe. Did it take money out of YOUR pocket? No.

Though the make-up and star potential is similar to the late 90s (Damon, Dye, Beltran), I beleive the Royals are through losing future all-stars to other teams. Teahen, DeJesus and Gordon will be the cornerstones of a contending team in no less than three seasons.

This season they may very well be out of contention by the All-Star break, but just remember, the Royals are headed in very much the right direction.

The saddest thing is, in three years everyone talking shit on this thread will be on the bandwagon.

I disagree with Huber he won't be involved in future plans even if Sweeney goes down IMO it would be either German or Gload at the DH.

I follow the Royals, not as closely as the Chiefs, but more than the average bear, and I have no fricking idea who Gload is. That can't be good. Major League is suddenly coming to mind: Who the F are those guys?

Gload is a journeyman minor league type who had a breakout year last year for the Sox.

Thanks. Strange the name doesn't ring a bell given how much time ESPN devotes to Sox/Yanks every year.

Sorry, I meant White Sox.

See!?! I've been effectively brainwashed by those beastards at dah, dah, dah...dah, dah, dah. :banghead:

Breakout is a pretty strong word. He only had 156 AB's last season, though he did a decent job with the limited opportunity. Also, he'll turn 31 this season, probably a little late for any real blossoming. Having said that, Gload should be a real help to the Royals filling in at all the corner positions and DH. If he can produce 250 AB's and 10 HR's the Royals made a great trade.

Go Sox!

You can put it on the booooooooooooooooard, yesssssssssssss!!!!

I hope Mark Buehrle can get back to his usual form after his poor 2nd half last year. Come on boys, another World Series please...yes, thats asking much, especially since dumbass Ken Williams traded away Garcia and McCarthy.

I agree, SP is where its at, but people forget that even though Zack has some ML experience, he and Hochevar are the same age, and they both will be balllers

Who the hell is "KCOC TAE SFEIHC"

The douche is leaving me private feedback such as:

"You don't know shit about baseball so stop trying to talk about it."

I can't even find 1 post by the polesmoker