30 Clubs in 30 Days: No. 26 Kansas City Royals

It’s going to be a weird summer in Kansas City after shipping the face of the franchise, Zack Greinke to Milwaukee, but the Royals do have enough on the team to do one better than the division rival Indians and won’t finish last in the AL Central. The achievements stop there and the Royals are the next team on our countdown.

No. 26 Kansas City Royals

Projected Rotation

1. Luke Hochevar-RHP
2. Jeff Francis-LHP
3. Kyle Davies-RHP
4. Bruce Chen-LHP
5. Vin Mazzaro-RHP

Projected Bullpen

1. Joakim Soria-RHP
2. Robinson Tejeda-RHP
3. Blake Wood-RHP
4. Jeremy Jeffress-RHP
5. Nathan Adcock-RHP
6. Jesse Chavez-RHP
7. Tim Collins-LHP

Projected Lineup

1. 2B Chris Getz
2. 3B Mike Aviles
3. DH Billy Butler
4. RF Jeff Francouer
5. CF Melky Cabrera
6. LF Alex Gordan
7. 1B Kila Ka’aihue
8. C Brayan Pena
9. SS Alcides Escobar

Analysis

The Royals made headlines in the offseason for moving former Cy Young winner Zack Greinke to the Milwaukee Brewers for a crowd of prospects. In the first season of the post-Greinke era the Royals will be one of baseball’s youngest teams and will have a chance to showcase their prestigious farm system.

Lost in the madness of all the Greinke related news was signing Billy Butler to a multi-year deal. The former first round pick has steadily been getting better and had his best season in 2010, hitting .318 with 15 dingers. Butler will easily be the best player in the young and unproven group of Royal hitters.

Joining Butler as one of the few experienced hitters is infielder Mike Aviles who had solid seasons in 2008 and 2010. Heading into his fourth year in the majors Aviles is on the cusp of breaking out and reaching his full potential. He’ll benefit from the protection Butler will provide him in the order and could be a .320 hitter.

After that the Royals have a lot of quality role players but no one that will be able to bring this lineup to the next step. The team brought in Melky Cabrera who will get the center field job, but Cabrera only managed to hit .255 and four homers with Atlanta in 2010. Alex Gordan has a lot of talent but he still hasn’t panned out the way the Royals hoped he would so betting on him to put it all together in 2011 is a dangerous game.

So set aside Butler and Aviles and the Royals have no hitters who had an average that reached .270 last season. That won’t cut it in the bigs, but the good news for the Royals is that they will still dominate in the minors, so take that for what it’s worth.

Where things do get a little bit better for the Royals is in the bullpen. Despite his limited saves opportunities Joakim Soria was one of the best closers in the game last year on his way to a 43 save season. Soria will continue to dominate behind Robinson Tejeda who overcame an awful start to enjoy a solid 2010 campaign, and Blake Wood showed a lot of promise during his rookie year in the Royals’ pen.

The concern in the bullpen is the lack of left-handers where Tim Collins is currently the lone southpaw. Things could change drastically before the end of spring training so nothing’s set in stone, but as of right now that lefty situation needs to be addressed.

Now on to the starting rotation, where to begin? Greinke’s gone but the Royals move on by handing the reins to Luke Hochevar. Hochevar has been solid at best, and his ERA spent too much time in the five range to convince me he’s worthy of being an ace on any team. It doesn’t get much more encouraging after that, Francis is two years removed from shoulder surgery, Davies has had major consistency problems and Bruce Chen led the team in wins last year with an overwhelming total of 12. Greinke’s gone but the losing goes on and not much will change in year one of the post-Greinke era in KC, MO.