Craig Glazer Considers KC Royals 2013!!!

TKC NOTE: Take a look at this thoughtful analysis of the Kansas City Royals and their chances this year from Craig Glazer. Check it:

Is it time to trust the Royals?

‘Well, I spent some time in the Mudville Nine, watchin' it from the bench;
You know I took some lumps when the Mighty Casey struck out.
So Say Hey Willie, tell Ty Cobb and Joe DiMaggio;
Don't say "it ain't so", you know the time is now.’ Centerfield – John Fogarty

Should the impossible happen and the 2013 Royals win their division you can look back at last night’s 2 victories over the Boston Red Sox as the turning point. How big a deal was winning that double header at Boston on the road? Well, sports fans, it’s been over forty years, all the way back to 1971. In fact, you can count on both hands how many double headers the Royals have won over the past ten years. Yes, I am well aware that we won the late game due to the fact that Boston walked in what became the winning run. However, our lowly Royals have been in first place nearly the entire first month of the season. For this troubled franchise that in and of itself is almost a big deal.

The Royals spent all their money on pitching. The starters have been very good so far. Big money guy Jamie Shields is looking like a major league ace starter. The other guys; Santana, Guthrie, Mendoza and Davis have all looked solid. What is becoming more and more clear is that this team has little power in the line-up. Billy Butler ain’t scaring anybody. The other glaring weakness to this point is overall offense. More and more it’s looking like Eric Hosmer and Mike Moustakas are far from being American League hitting stars. So far, Alex Gordon, once dubbed ‘The Next George Brett’, is the best overall player on the team outside of the starting pitchers. Lorenzo Cain could be that young phenom hitter this team has dreamed of for decades. ‘Salvador’ Perez is still a player we are all hopeful will show some true power at some point.

Just calling it the way it is, it’s still a group of minor league players brought up by the big league franchise at a price. Let’s face it, as of today, neither the Royals or Kansas City Chiefs have one superstar player. Yes that includes Charles, Bowe and Hosmer. For the most part, they are unheard of outside of Kansas City. Okay, to be fair, if Dwayne Bowe was at P&L or Westport people would certainly notice him. Maybe Charles and Hosmer to a lesser extent. In L.A. or New York, sorry, no dice. Why, you say? Both franchises have stunk for decades. The last and only superstar this city has had is Tony Gonzalez. You’d have to go back to Marcus Allen, Neil Smith and Derek Thomas for the Kansas City Chiefs. As for the Royals, you have to go all the way back to George Brett. Johnny Damon and Carlos Beltran became national stars only after they left Kansas City. That’s the way it goes. You have to win to be noticed.

So as one who has been so down on the Royals, I am going to be open minded and say this: based on what I’ve seen this team can compete for a wild card this year. Their hitting must improve dramatically for this to take place. The lack of home run power is a major concern. Remember, the ‘Brett Era’ Kansas City Royals never had a true monster power hitter. What that team had was two, three or sometimes four players that could break twenty together as well as timely home runs and even base hits to win games. That group consisted mostly of Brett himself, McCrae and Amos Otis. Later Al Cowens and the occasional John Mayberry or Steve Balboni. The current team has not shown they have this capability as of yet. It will be difficult if not impossible to compete for the post-season the way this team is hitting as of now. The Royals are going to need career years from Gordon, Butler and a couple other young guys like Cain or Perez to make this season memorable. There is always a chance that we can purchase or trade for a power bat late in the season. If things stay the way they are, look for this team to possibly play five hundred or a little better. Yes, that’s a major improvement but there are no parades for teams that finish five-hundred and don’t end up in post-season. Until that happens, enjoy all the new bars, t-shirt day, family day, bobble-head day, George Brett day and any other day they can think of to bring fans out to the stadium.
############