A successfull Royals season will be ?

[kev921]

Without Grienke and so many new faces, can the Royals even hope for 70 wins this season? I'm saying success is 70 wins

[fast dogs]

no 1 suffers a career ending injury and the young guys take steps toward that 2013 division championship. 70 wins seems unlikely to me.

[Tavish]

70 wins is fairly unlikely. I think success will be determined more on an individual level. Give me a 2 or 3 of the following and I will be extremely happy with this season.

1. A breakout for at least one of Gordon, Hochevar, Escobar, Mazzaro or Kila.
2. Hot first half for Melky and move him by the trade deadline ala Pods last season.
3. Moose holds his own.
4. At least one of the stud starting pitching prospects makes the jump and performs well.
5. The farm has a season as good as last year.

#3 and #5 are probably the most important. No matter what it should be a fun year to finally see what we have all known was coming at some point with the real youth movement.

[Bandwagon Jumpers]

I think anything less than 100 losses should be considered a good season. This team is going to have trouble scoring runs and trouble keeping the other team from scoring...a bad combination.

On the bright side, I'm moving back to KC this summer! I should be able to take in some Royals' games.

[Tavish]

I think anything less than 100 losses should be considered a good season. This team is going to have trouble scoring runs and trouble keeping the other team from scoring...a bad combination.

On the bright side, I'm moving back to KC this summer! I should be able to take in some Royals' games.

I actually think the team is better offensively, defensively, and in the bullpen (assuming the bullpen is something like Soria, Tejada, Collins, Jeffress, SOS, and Adcock with some potential mop-up guys like Fish / Hardy).

The offensive could go downhill fairly quickly though if Getz starts more than 30 games and Kendall gets healthy enough to play 100 games.

[Bandwagon Jumpers]

I just read today where Getz is the frontrunner. How many times do fans actually root for a starter to get hurt?

I don't know the answer, but I know KC fans are rooting for Kendall to tear something.

[Tavish]

1. A breakout for at least one of Gordon, Hochevar, Escobar, Mazzaro or Kila.

Check. Hard to grade this any lower than an A with Gordon becoming the player we need him to be. Hochevar and Escobar didn't quite break out but did enough to prove they belong.

2. Hot first half for Melky and move him by the trade deadline ala Pods last season.

I'll give them a B on this with the potential to become an A depending on how Moore handles the outfield that is suddenly becoming more crowded with players who deserve the opportunity.

3. Moose holds his own.

As bad as Moose was to start, he has turned it up a notch lately. Defensively there are still some big concerns but I think he will be fine at the plate. C-

4. At least one of the stud starting pitching prospects makes the jump and performs well.

Duffy was the only one really to make the jump that got enough playing time to judge assuming they don't move Crow to the rotation. Just basing on Duffy's performance I will have to go with a D here. The Paulino pickup and performance helps heal some of the pain here.

5. The farm has a season as good as last year.

Hard to give this anything higher than a D-. The expectation of repeating the same type of season as 2010 was unrealistic to begin with, but it would have been nice to see at least one player become the next stud in waiting. Ordozzi had a nice year, but the fallback of Myers, Dwyer and Montgomery, the injury to Lamb really hurt bad.


Overall the season went ok, not sure I would consider it a major success but the Process is starting to take shape with on-the-field results. Assuming Moore is active the offseason in trying to legitimize the rotation with at least one top-shelf starter, then there is a glimmer of hope that competing in the Central next season isnt out of the question.