Kansas City Royals Information
During the offseason, it seemed that Kansas City was the big spender, outbidding the Cubs and Blue Jays for righty Gil Meche. They signed several other prospects, like Alex Gordon and Billy Butler. Under GM Dayton More, the Royals have added a bit of aggresiveness to the bullpen, embracing new slogan “True.Blue.Tradition.” This throwback to the past, including the classic team jersey, is meant to restore the Royals to their previous glory. And rightly so, as they are looking to come back from four out of five season ending with at least 100 Losses. The new ownership seems unwilling to compete with larger market teams, which resulted in loss of major players like Carlos Beltran and Jermaine Dye. Hopefully the new changes the team is implementing will restore it to what it was – a team that knew how to win ballgames.
If your team is unsuccessful as a whole, but you possess the best player in the league, what do you do? Do you keep him and hope that his presence helps others around him, or do you trade him and hope the pieces you bring in take your team to a higher level? This is the situation the Kansas City Royals are facing now. Their ultimate goal is to replicate their championship season of 1985, but decisions must be made, and soon at that.
The Royals play their home games at Kauffman Stadium in front
of a capacity crowd of just over 40,000 people. The stadium’s
biggest feature is the waterfall in left center field, just past
the warning track and wall. Tony Pena enters his third season
as skipper, and many experts felt he deserved to win AL Manager
of the Year last season due to his winning ways with a team somewhat
deprived of talent. 2004 will definitely be his biggest challenge
thus far.
The biggest “problem” the Royals will face this season is the dilemma
involving star center fielder Carlos Beltran. Beltran, only 27, is in the last
year of his contract, and is widely regarded as the best position player in
the game. He’s made it known that he will do whatever is best for the
team, but that might mean playing elsewhere after the July 31st trading deadline.
If the Royals fall out of contention early, the Yankees and Dodgers, among
others, will start to inquire about Beltran’s services. Until then, Beltran
is teamed with sluggers first baseman Mike Sweeney and outfielder Juan Gonzalez.
Sweeney is looking to bounce back from neck and back injuries that slowed him
down in 2003, and Gonzalez, who played last season with the Texas Rangers,
also looks to rebound from injuries near the end of last season.
On the defensive side of the ball, the Royals are hoping their young rotation
will round into form in 2004. Jimmy Gobble and Darrell May will lead the staff,
and Brian Anderson and Jeremy Affeldt should provide a solid 3-4 punch. Mike
MacDougal assumed the role of closer last season, and was part of the reason
the Royals stayed in playoff contention as long as they did, but if he gets
off to a bad start, Pena has come out and said he’s not afraid to try
a closer-by-committee, as some other major league teams have experimented with
in recent history.
The Beltran situation will likely determine the direction of the Royals for years to come. It’s quite rare that a player of his caliber comes along, and management must decide in the coming months if they feel this team can win with that they have right now. It’s not out of the question to assume that they can get great value in a trade, but the thought of resigning Beltran in a small market such as Kansas City seems downright impossible.