***OFFICIAL*** Royals Doubleheader Thread (4/14/07)***

[keg in kc]

Originally Posted by Sure-Oz

Not playing well at all right now and we've had our good pitching and no O. It will come around, i expect better baseball out of this bunch, this team is still on the right track.

That's pretty much the way it is. They're only one game better in the win-loss column right now, but the fact is they've only allowed 57 runs in a dozen games. That comes out to less than 5 runs allowed per 9 innings. To put that in some perspective, last year at this time, the Royals had allowed 89 runs, nearly 7.5 per nine innings.

In '06, in the first dozen games, they allowed 9 or more runs 6 times, held teams to 3 just twice, never giving up less than 3 in any game. This year they've allowed 9 just once, and have yet to give up double-digit runs in any game. They've held teams to 3 or fewer runs 5 times, holding teams below 3 runs 3 times (1, 1 and 2).

If that kind of pitching continues, this will be a vastly improved team by year's end, in terms of wins and losses. The bats will not stay cold forever.

And there's guys in the minors who'll be coming up either later in the year or in 2008, both bats and arms...