It's June 1st. Here the Royals are at 23-27. They've managed just 2 wins in their last 10. With their heavy inter-division slate through the end of May this was a date I thought we be a revealing one as far as where they are as a team. It is. They're nowhere, and headed in the wrong direction.

Their best hitter has been Billy Butler. Alberto Callaspo is the only guy over .300.  Jose Guillen has been atrocious. I'm not even sure that word covers it. Mike Jacobs has been himself. On pace for around 30 homers and 150 strikeouts. Coco Crisp does lead the team in walks, which on this team means nothing, but is hitting only .233. Nobody is going to score 100, or drive in 100.

We all know about Zack Greinke. He has been phenomenal. Gil Meche has been a bit of a disappointment. Sidney Ponson and Luke Hochevar have been terrible. Brian Bannister has pitched well, but it's been 8 starts. Joakim Soria is hurt. Kyle Farnsworth is pitching great now that his innings are meaningless. Kyle Davies had unrealistic expectations set on him from some late starts last year. Their overall pitching numbers don't look bad, but they're giving up more runs now, and this is with fielding that has been a pleasant surprise.

Mark Teahen only played 4 games at 2nd before being needed as Alex Gordon's replacement at 3rd. Wherever he has played it has been well. The shortstops and 2nd basemen are under the league average for errors. Coco Crisp has made some blunders but his range is a huge help to the pitching staff. Mike Jacobs is not a great fielder, but he wasn't brought here to do that. The overall performance of the team defense is more than acceptable.

It's the same theme every day. Every week. All year, from the pre-season til it's over. We now know that those spring training numbers were inflated. They meant nothing, and their performance is the proof.

Is there time to turn this thing around?

What hope could fans have? This lifeless offense shows no signs of anything. The division has been weak. It's not out of the question that they bounce back, but I just find it hard to believe that they will. Getting swept at home by the Sox may have been a good indication of where this team is headed. 

What a great way to start the series. I thought KC was dead. No way they do this off Kerry Wood, no matter how badly he has struggled. No way they were gonna put up 3 runs in the bottom of the 9th. And they didn't. They scored 4.

Jacobs and Teahen go yard, and all of a sudden it was 5-4. David Dejesus' RBI triple tied the game, and he scored easily on Willie Bloomquist's Sac fly to end it.

They couldn't figure out Cliff Lee, but it didn't matter. Horacio Ramirez and Kyle Farnsworth pitched 3 scoreless in relief of Brian Bannister. They got hits when they needed them, and a nice size crowd was there at the end to see it all unfold.

A great night for Royals fans. 

They just keep limping along. The opportunity to beat up on bad pitching. The opportunity to play a last place team, for 4 games, at home. The opportunity to retake sole position of 1st place.

Oh, the opportunities…

Gil Meche actually had a lead, 2-0 after 3, and couldn't hold it. Thursday's game was their 6th loss in a row. They managed 5 runs, which is a nice total for this team, but that is against a team that allows a staggering 8 runs a game! The Royals totaled 4 runs in the entire 3-game series against the Angels.

Friday saw Zack Greinke continue to dominate, and after the offense let him down with 0 runs of support his previous outing, they came alive and gave him 8. How good has this guy been? He's thrown 4 complete games this year, more than the rest of his career combined. He's on pace to strikeout over 200 batters, and he hasn't given up a homerun yet in 09'. You know how good a pitcher is when it doesn't matter who he is facing. Greinke is making everybody look silly.

Saturday saw Kyle Davies pitch a nice game, only to be outdone by Rich Hill. The Baltimore bullpen was flawless, and the O's 3 runs held up. Mike Jacobs struck out 3 more times. ESPN has his projected K total at just under 170.

Sunday saw the Royals decked out in their powder blues. I think they're sweet. (I don't ever really get why they switched to road grays anyway.) Luke Hochevar wasn't sweet, however, and got bounced early. A nice comeback win, capped off by John Buck's triple, and they get a series split.

That's a split, and they didn't lose the series, but that is just not going to get it done if their run at the division is for real.

9 of their next 12 are in the division. Aside from the inter league opener against the Cardinals at new Busch, they welcome the Indians, Tigers and White Sox to town for 3 games apiece.

Last place team, giving up an average of almost 8 runs a game, in KC for 3. Cleveland has lost 7 of 10.

Opportunity comes knocking again.   

The last place Orioles are coming to town for 4. The Royals find themselves tied for 1st. They have their top 3 starters going, and the O's staff has given up the most runs in baseball. What could possibly go wrong?

For starters, KC has lost 5 in a row. They couldn't even manage a run the last time Zack Greinke pitched. They just don't score runs. And the O's do. More important is the fact that a last place team is coming to town when the Royals desperately need a win. Desperately. This isn't a situation where a series split can be considered a victory. They should win 3 of 4, and could really use a s sweep. The Orioles have the worst run differential in the AL. The pitching is the subplot for this whole series. Fans have been making excuses all year for the anemic offense. Now they're without their closer, and are becoming dependant on solid starting performances day in and day out.

Now we'll get a sneak peak into the world of KC's bullpen with Soria out. Scary. This weekend we get to see the Royals hit against the weakest pitching staff in baseball. Worrisome.

All we learned in April is that the division will be close and that Greinke is good. May is shaping up to produce the same results.

Come Monday we will know how the Royals matched up with the 2nd worst team in the league. How favorably is yet to be seen.

Zack Greinke was drafted by the Royals with the 6th pick in the 2002 Amateur Draft. This was the draft covered in such high detail in Michael Lewis' book, Moneyball. You remember, the one where Billy Beane “figured out” a new way to build baseball teams. Stay away from high schoolers, love sabremetrics, the whole thing. After Zack's start last night I took a look at that draft, and the 1st round was loaded with some serious talent. Jeremy Brown excluded.

As far as busts go, Bryan Bullington, selected #1 by the Pirates, is up there. The MLB draft is always skewed by the signability of each player, and while the Pirates aren't really to blame for not being able to afford some players this was a deep 1st round and they missed out.

BJ Upton went 2nd to the Rays. He had a world of talent back then, and he still does today. The slow start to 09' will be forgotten. He proved his mettle last postseason, and his defense is great. Freakish arm.

After Greinke at 6 came Prince Fielder. Youngest player to ever hit 50, and in his 3 full seasons he has 112 HR's.

At 9 the Rockies grabbed Jeff Francis. 2 years ago he appeared headed for routine trips to the all-star game. The ace on the NL champion Rockies is hurt now, but hopefully capable of bouncing back.

The Marlins picked Jeremy Hermida at 11, and he has proved to be a serviceable outfielder. He's also only 24 years old.

Right after Hermida went Joe Saunders to the Angels. He won 17 last year and is off to a great start this season for a struggling team.

Khalil Greene went 13 to the Padres. In 07' he hit .254/27/97 playing home games in a pitcher's park. Huge setback last year, but maybe the change of scenery will do him some good.

The Mets took Scott Kazmir at 15 and then moved him to Tampa in a trade that still makes the Queens faithful sick. Arm troubles aside, when he's healthy he can be unhittable.

Right after the A's took Nick Swisher. A sabremetric golden boy, Swisher was very productive for Oakland until a trade sent him to Chicago. His 09' start with the Yankees is impressive, and makes you wonder why the White Sox ran him out of town.

The Phillies might have gotten the steal of the draft at 17 in Cole Hamels. People are up in arms about his early 09' results, but we need to permit an early season hangover after a World Series victory. He's got nasty stuff. He's a lefty. He's 25.

The Dodgers grabbed James Loney at 19. You'd like to see more in the power department, but he's still young and a great contact hitter.

Jeff Francoeur went to Atlanta at 23. Back to back 100 RBI seasons in which he played every game. A bit of a free swinger, but a dangerous man at the plate. Durable too.

24 was Joe Blanton to Oakland. Very hittable, but has great control. If Sidney Ponson can find a job there will always be a place for Joe Blanton.

Matt Cain went next to San Francisco. His poor W/L record can be blamed on an anemic offense in San Fran. From Cain you can expect a lot of Innings and strikeouts.

The last of Oakland's compensatory picks was Mark Teahen at 39. Traded to KC in the Carlos Beltran 3-way deal, Teahen is a starter, although at which position varies by the week.

In all, a pretty successful draft… as MLB drafts go. Hamels, Kazmir, Upton and the rest of this group make for 14 viable major leaguers in the 1st 39 picks. Greinke is right at the top of this list, just like he's at the top of every major pitching category in the majors.  

He's leading all of baseball with a .50 ERA, and tied for the lead with 44 K's. He's the 1st to 5 wins. He's 3rd in overall WHIP, and 2nd in IP. He's held opposing hitters to a .188 batting average against. But of all the numbers there are 2 that are most important. The number 4, and the number 1.

On January 26th of this year the Kansas City Royals took a very important step in stabilizing the franchise. They re-signed Zack Greinke to a 4 year, 38 million dollar deal. In doing so they avoided arbitration, but also made a statement. There were cases for and against the deal, the most glaring of which was a lack of long term success. The number 4. 

Extending 4 years instead of going through arbitration on a yearly basis sends a message not only to Greinke, but also to everyone else on the roster and around the league. Kansas City may no longer be a place to grow up and move on, the Major League High School.

What is more important is how Greinke has responded to the new deal. He has come out and pitched as well as anyone could have hoped. And he has looked overpowering at times. His start is not the result of taking advantage of poor competition.

And that gets us to the number 1. Zack Greinke is the undisputed number 1 starter on the Royals. He is their ace. He's started 5, and won 5. He gives his team a chance to win the game every time he pitches. He followed up 2 complete games by shutting down a hot Blue Jays offense. If the rotation stays true to form his next 2 starts are against the White Sox and the Angels. 

The Royals are tied for 1st in a division that has absolutely no clarity, and due in no small part to Zack Greinke's strong start. Greinke and Meche seemed like a nice idea on paper before the season started, but now it has materialized.

The last 20 game winner in KC was Bret Saberhagen, with 23 in 1989. 20 years ago. They've only had 3 200+ strikeout seasons in their history. Zack Greinke aims to change that, and with the way he has started off the season it is entirely possible he eclipses both marks. 

With Joakim Soria down for the next week, someone else is going to have to take over the closer's role. According to the Royal's website, “With closer Joakim Soria out, Trey Hillman has Juan Cruz, Kyle Farnsworth and Ron Mahay at his disposal as KC tries to win its series with Detroit…” there are 3 viable candidates.

This is simply not so. Cruz, Mahay and Farnsworth each have qualities that make for the worst closers.

Cruz is a strikeout pitcher. His K's per innings pitched always looks great. Now for the reality. He is a flyball pitcher, often giving up homeruns. (54 in 300 career games.) That's when he gets it over the plate. Cruz, over his career, has averaged a little over a walk every 2 innings. He puts guys on, and gives up the big fly. He also rarely forces the double play grounder. Cruz eats up free swingers, but patient hitters give him trouble.

Ron Mahay brings something a little different. He's a lefty who boasts good strikeout totals and he rarely gives up homeruns. His control is similar to Cruz's, walking 1 every 2 IP. He does do a great job of holding runners on which is a great attribute for a late game reliever, but here are the 2 holes using Mahay as your closer leaves. First, he is the only lefty the Royals have coming out of the pen, so he leaves the team in a bind creating matchups earlier in the game. More importantly he is historically bad against right handers. Mahay would be much better used as the lefty setup.

Kyle Farnsworth should not even be considered for the closer's role. Aside from his horrible start, Farnsworth is historically a bad end game pitcher. He strikes out a lot of batters, but is very hittable. He gives up too many homeruns, and even the outs he records are hit hard. He has given up plenty of late game homeruns in his career, and doesn't seem mentally tough enough to handle the high pressure situations.

Cruz seems like the best option, but is by no means a great solution if this injury is worse than feared. KC cannot afford a major injury of any kind in the rotation, and certainly Soria going down would leave a gaping hole in the 9th. 

And keep in mind the Royals have 9 more games before a day off and Soria is not being placed on the DL, so the bullpen is down a man. And with Sidney Ponson going today there's a chance that they'll need every arm they've got. 

It's really amazing to get my much needed sports information from a program on CNN International entitled World Sport. Their aim is to encapsulate all the news in the world of sport. The entire world. In a 30 minute show. And after covering all the happenings in professional soccer and F1 racing, they've used up 17 of their 22 minutes. But each day I was guaranteed to get 1 baseball highlight. Not the complete highlight package from the game, mind you, just a single highlight. Needless to say my life has been devoid of all things MLB, and I'm very happy to be back.

And sure enough KC is a game over .500, and Zack Greinke has been bananas. Mike Jacobs leads the team in homers and OPS., which makes perfect sense because before I left the country I don't think he had made contact on the season. It also proves the old adage, “If Mike Jacobs homers in the city of Cleveland, and you're busy at a trade show in Munich, did it make a sound?”

15 or so games in and fans of other teams are starting to sweat. The New York teams are struggling, as is Tampa. Maybe the Cubs don't win the Central in a walk this year. The other team from Missou looks strong, as do the Blue Jays. And here the Royals sit, tied for 1st. They've scored the 5th fewest runs in baseball, but have allowed the 2nd fewest. A nice series with Detroit comes this weekend. They're back home, and Zack Greinke is on the hill. The Sox have already seen him this year, and lost to him, so let's see if they learned anything. Toronto comes to town for 4 and then they head to Texas. Their next off day is not until May 11th. Let's see if Sidney Ponson is still in the rotation come next month. And a nice start from Brian Bannister in his 1st appearance. And here's a nice little treat:

SPLITSGGSCGIPHRERHRBBSOWLSVHLDBLSVWHIPERASeason6004.1777234030012.3114.54Career618261739.1711407372114331742305127110231.414.53Projected65004376767622324303200112.3114.54

That is what Specs Farnsworth's season looks like so far. That projected 0-32 seems inflated, but I think he can do it.

You may not believe this, but getting a Royals score (either at home or abroad) can be quite a difficult thing.  I had to leave for the airport sometime during the 2nd inning of Sunday's game with the Yanks. After Meche's wild pitch it wasn't hard to pull me away, especially with the prospects of looking at Joba Chamberlain for a couple of hours.

After receiving my big glass of Blue Moon from the waitress at the airport bar, I scanned the televisions for the boys in blue. It was golf as far as the eye could see. This was the last day of something called “Masters,” maybe you've heard of it, and people were reluctant to change any of the channels. My arrival cued Phil Mickelson's collapse, so that was a bonus.

I paged a stewardess during my flight to see if she could get the info from the captain. I didn't need any real specifics, just winning pitcher and homeruns or save if applicable. She came back and told me, “A. Cabrera won in a playoff.” The pilot was German I would later find out, and I assumed he didn't care much for baseball.

Upon landing in Amsterdam the info was even harder to find. The customs agents had no time for me, and I think I may have been put on some sort of watch list. Still no update, and now I had to catch my connection to Munich.

The short flight was uneventful, meaning I had no information on the previous days game. Now I was beginning to panic because soon enough I would be falling 2 games behind. I made a minor scene after landing, but nothing they could have held me on.

Now it's over to the convention center for a trade show. I asked the cab driver in my broken German, but he seemed really upset about the Bayern Munich FC loss the night before. at least I would be getting my USA Today at the convention center.

Sure enough, the results were through Saturday night. AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

But then I found a hotspot. Seems they beat the Yanks, and have taken the first 2 from the Tribe. Greinke pitches well again. Davies does as well. They've scored 14 runs over the last 3, which isn't great but better than what they had been putting up, and are now in 1st place. As soon as this post goes up I'm buying my playoff tickets.

It's nice to see (read about days after the fact) them win a few games. Maybe I should leave the country more often.

I'm heading to Rome in a couple of days, and I'm confident I'll be able to get the Royals score from the Pope.

I don't want to get too crazy, only 5 games deep, but when is this team gonna start to hit the ball? Andy Pettitte made them look silly a day before, and C.C. had his way this evening. It's just not going right now for anybody in the lineup. I have confidence that eventually they will hit, but the lack of offense will put too much pressure on the starters.

They squandered Gil Meche's gem on opening day by leaving way too many on base, and this just will not work moving forward. The veteran yankee lineup picked apart both Ponson and Horacio Ramirez, but only scored a combined 10 runs on Friday and Saturday's games. The Royals managed only 2. So far that's 8 runs in 5 games! I was talking about the potential of this team scoring 800 runs over the season. That'd be just uner 5 runs a game. Right now they're averaging 1 1/2.  You could count the number of hard hit balls on one hand.

One major positive is that they've looked really good in the field. Mark Teahen doesn't look lost out at 2nd base, and Mike Jacobs impressed me a with a few digs saving potentially wild throws.

And how about opening at home against the Yankees? This is a negative on many levels. As a fan you have to deal with so many of the opposing team's fans filling your stadium. The Yankees are a big draw everywhere, but their fans tend to be, well, how should I put this, “outspoken.” And wouldn't the Royals ownership rather face any other team. They're gonna sell out anyway for opening day and the Yankees fans pack Kauffman every time they come to town. And what business does Sidney Ponson have starting a home opener?

Hopefully the bats come alive a little and they take Sunday's game. Meche is on the hill, and I'd say the Royals are due for a high scoring game.