I'm Back!!!

Royals

Sorry for the giant delay of posts, I don't really have an excuse.  I've focused much of my sports attention over the past 2-3 months on soccer, and I know none of my readers give a damn about soccer.  I hope to start writing more frequently again once the Royals season starts.  Hopefully writing about every week like I did in the fall.  My view on the Royals is very uncertain.  Some days my expectations are high and sometimes they are low, here are my reasons for both.

Why I Think They Will Make the Playoffs

• The division is really bad
• They finished strong
• They are a young team that is only going to get better
• They acquired a starting pitcher
• The players seem really excited and motivated
• The offense is really good
• The starting pitching can't get worse
• I don't think the Tigers are that good, Verlander can't repeat last season, and their defense could be record setting bad.
• Bruce Chen is awesome

Why I Think They Will Miss the Playoffs

• They haven't made the playoffs since 1985
• The Tigers signed Prince Feilder
• The outfield can't be better than last year
• The starting pitching sucks
• They wont be able to avoid injuries like they did last season, and this point is already true with the loss of Soria for the year and Salvador Perez for about 2 months.
• They didn't spend much money in the offseason, and failed to sign a starting pitcher.
• They have a really cheap owner
• They only won 71 games last year
• Chris Getz is the starting second baseman.  I wanna see Chris Getz represent the Royals in the Home Run Derby ;)

To be honest the Royals don't have much of a shot.  If things go right they could compete for the division but realistically they are at least a year away.  I want to be excited about this year, but I also don't want to get disappointed.  I would put "again" at the end of the last sentence but I have never... NEVER had expectations for the Royals.  For a prediction on a win total... I would guess 78.  I hope fans don't expect a playoff run this season because 2013-2015 should be the Royals best years.  What I'm worried about is for years 2016+ because the Royals don't show any signs of spending money.  They MUST increase the budget to 70-80 million dollars a year to be consistently successful, the Royals are at about 40-45 million.  At the moment all of the Royals' young players are making very little in comparison to what the stars make.  But when their contracts run out the Royals have to be willing to resign at least some of them.  I've watched Beltran, Damon, Dye, and Grienkie all leave.  They had a chance to sign Gordon to a long term deal worth about 12-14 million dollars a year this offseason, they didn't.  If he repeats the success he had last year, he'll be asking upwards of 20 million a year and I know the Royals wont pay that.  I really wished the Royals signed another starting pitcher this offseason, they made two one year moves in trading for Sanchez, and signing Broxton, but then failed to make the move to put them over the top. 

Hope you guys enjoyed this and ignored the terrible organization, I will write again soon.