There is Still Hope for the Royals

If you are a Kansas City Royals fan, you know that this year has quite a bit of hype around it.  Between the exciting young talent and hosting the All-Star weekend this July, KC has been surrounded by media attention.  Unfortunately, it seems that the boys in blue haven’t been able to to live up to that preseason hype.The Royals started off somewhat hot, going 3-3 in their first six games, before dropping 12 in clean sweeps to the Cleveland Indians, Detroit Tigers and Toronto Blue Jays…at home. Local sports anchor Mick Shaffer recently tweeted jokingly about the Royals saying, “ Ya know that old baseball adage: play .500 on the road, lost all of them at home. #royals.”  While this may sound like a joke, it was unfortunately true up to Wednesday.  Thankfully, the Royals picked up two road wins this week with one on Wednesday night by a score of 8-2, and another today beating the Indians 4-2.So, you’re probably wondering why you should keep your head up during these tough times?  There are a few reasons:We have youth-The Royals are notoriously known throughout baseball to have one of the top, if not the best farm systems.  Talented players like Mike Mustakas and Eric Hosmer have only been with the club for two years, but already have been deemed great players.  Just recently, Hosmer was compared to Hall of Famer George Brett.  Other notable Royals minor league stars include Johnny Damon and up and coming hometown high school star Bubba Starling.

We’ve been competitive-

Six of the last ten games have been decided by two or less runs.  We are competing in games, but we are struggling to find a good balance with our pitching.  Bruce Chen, this year’s designated ace has had quality outings, but is still struggling to find his rhythm.  Along with former Mizzou pitcher Aaron Crow, the two starters are the only pitchers with an ERA under 3.00.  But it’s the team that scores the most points that wins games, said best and correctly analyzed by John Madden.  If we could have scraped out a couple more runs a game, I firmly believe the Royals would bebe sitting at 9-7 as opposed to 3-13.

Time is on our side-

In the end, it is still April, and the Royals must remember that the most important game is the next one.  We have the right guys in place and if we can solidify our pitching and become more consistent at the plate, this year could still be big for the Royals.