From the vast praise thrown towards the Kansas City minor league system to the poor Opening Day roster the Royals put on the diamond, everything about the 2011 season was about looking to the future.

And while the Royals’ record isn’t very good this season, and some of its prospects in the minor leagues have scuffled, there have been some nice development for the future. Eric Hosmer looks like a future star, Aaron Crow looks like a possible shutdown reliever (although he may move back to the rotation in the future), and Mike Moustakas and Danny Duffy have used this season to get their feet wet in the major leagues.

So with this season down the tubes, at least as far as competing for anything meaningful, it’s hard to figure exactly why Jeff Francoeur and Melky Cabrera are still employed by the Royals.

Granted, it’s tough to knock the Royals without knowing what teams were willing to offer for the players. But after Carlos Beltran and Hunter Pence were traded, it stood to reason that the Royals’ two outfielders were in the top group of remaining outfielders that were on the trade market.

Cabrera has already tied his career-high with 13 homers and is slugging .463, a good number for a center fielder. Francoeur’s .790 OPS in the best of his career, and at 14 homers and 18 stolen bases, the right fielder should go 20-20 this season.

Neither player, due to future arbitration and past performance, figures to be part of the team when the Royals hope to be competing for championships in the middle part of this decade. So it stands to reason that they should have been traded for pieces that either could help directly to that team or used as future trade bait to help those teams.

Yet, here we are on Aug. 1 and both will still be in the outfield. Now there is the possibility that Cabrera could fetch a draft pick for the Royals next year, as he is a Type B player and if the Royals offer arbitration and he declines, they would get a compensation pick in between the first and second rounds. But who knows if that system will even be in place as a new collective bargaining agreement that will be reached before then could do away with that system.

The other thing the Royals could do is sign the players to lengthy deals, although with Alex Gordon in left field, Lorenzo Cain and eventually (if he signs) Bubba Starling in center field and Wil Myers in right field, there won’t be much room for the two players.

In essence, the Royals failed to capitalize on career years from two players who aren’t a part of the future. A wasted opportunity for an organization that cannot afford it.

On Wednesday, the Kansas City Royals made the first of what figures to be a couple trades before the July 31 deadline, sending third baseman Wilson Betemit to the Tigers in exchange for two minor leaguers.

It had been rumored for weeks that Betemit was likely to leave, as his playing time had reduced mightily since top prospect Mike Moustakas was called up on June 9. Since that time, Betemit had only 23 at-bats, as opposed to 180 before the call-up.

Considering the lack of recent playing time, the return for Betemit, who is hitting .281 with three home runs and 27 RBI on the season, should not have been expected to be much, and it seems it wasn’t.

In return, the Royals received 21-year-old catcher Julio Rodriguez and 19-year-old left-handed pitcher Antonio Cruz. I’m not going to pretend I know anything about these players, so here is a breakdown of the two from someone more in the know, Baseball Prospectus’ Kevin Goldstein:

Julio Rodriguez is nothing more than an organizational catcher with the ability to make contact while offering no power, no approach, and sub-standard receiving skills, although his arm is plus. He’s the kind of player who might still be in the minors ten years from now, bouncing from organization to organization simply because he can play the position.

Antonio Cruz is the more interesting player, but only in comparison to Rodriguez. A short and skinny 19-year-old, Cruz offers above-average velocity from the left side and can flash a tight curveball at times, but he doesn’t have a truly dependable out pitch to profile as anything beyond a seventh-inning reliever or left-handed specialist, as Midwest League lefties are hitting just .200/.280/.295 against him.

So it looks as if at best the Royals may have gotten a situational lefty out of the pen. But that doesn’t mean this was a bad trade. Betemit wasn’t going to be part of the team’s plans going forward, so Kansas City needed to get as much as they could for him, which was never going to be much.

And you never know, prospects do sometimes surprise even the best experts. It’s not impossible to think one of the two players could exceed expectations and someday make an impact on a Royals’ team whose future surely looks brighter than its present.

In the meantime, don’t be surprised if a few more Royals — Melky Cabrera, Jeff Francoeur, Bruce Chen and  possibly even Joakim Soria, although I doubt it — are traded away to contenders in the next 10 days.

Kansas City Royals rookie reliever Aaron Crow will be the team’s lone representative, at least for now, at the 2011 MLB All-Star Game July 12 in Arizona.

Crow, a 6-foot-2 righthander, is 2-1 with a 1.36 ERA in 39.2 innings this season. He has 39 strikeouts on the season.

While Crow is already on the roster, it is possible the Royals could get another selection on the team as outfielder Alex Gordon is one of the five players that fans can vote for on American League’s 34th man ballot. He’ll compete against Chicago White Sox first baseman Paul Konerko, Baltimore Orioles oufielder Adam Jones, Detroit Tigers catcher/designated hitter Victor Martinez and Tampa Bay Rays second baseman Ben Zobrist. Konerko should be the pick out of the group, but it’s a fan vote so it’s anybody’s guess.

Gordon is hitting .301 with 10 home runs, 46 RBI and 47 runs scored this season.

The Kansas City Royals added to one of the best farm systems in baseball Saturday, signing 16-year-old Elier Hernandez of the Dominican Republic for $3.05 million on the first day of the international signing period Saturday.

The dollar amount is the highest total the Royals have ever paid for an international player and is the third-highest ever for an amateur international player, being eclipsed only by Michael Ynoa ($4.25 million by A’s in 2008) and Miguel Sano ($3.15 by Twins in 2009).

Hernandez, a 6-foot-4, 200-pound outfielder, is generally viewed as one of the top two prospects in this international class. This is the scouting report from Baseball America’s Ben Badler:

Hernandez, a 16-year-old out of San Cristobal who plays in the International Prospect League and trains with Amaurys Nina, has some of the best bat speed in Latin America. He’s strong but not bulky. He has the potential to hit for above-average power, but for now he has a level, line-drive swing. Though he doesn’t do it in batting practice, Hernandez has a tendency to leak open with his front knee and open up his hips too early in games. He sets up with his hands high and far away from his body, which creates some length in his swing, but that should be correctable. Scouts are mixed on Hernandez’s pitch recognition. Though he’s a good athlete, Hernandez is an average runner and projects as a corner outfielder, with enough arm strength to play right field. Many scouts see him as a high-risk, high-reward player. “If the hitting comes,” said one international scouting director, “he’s a superstar.”

If the Royals can now sign their first-round pick in the MLB Draft this year, five-tool center fielder Bubba Starling, then Kansas City wll have two high-ceiling bats at the lower levels of the farm system. That is important for two reasons. First, it’s good to keep the system stocked as the older players, such as Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas and so on, graduate to the majors so that instead of the team having a short window for success, they can have a long string of success. For example, the Tampa Bay Rays’ deep minor-league system allows them to lose players such as Carl Crawford, Carlos Pena and Matt Garza and still be in contention for a playoff spot because they just bring up another wave of top prospects from the minor leagues.

The second reason it is important is to have trade chips if the time comes when the Royals feel they are one player away from being a championship-level team. While Hosmer and Moustakas are playing at a high-level on the major-league team, players like Hernandez and Starling could be used in a few years to bring a big-time trade piece that could get the Royals back to the playoffs and ultimately the World Series for the first time since 1985.

It’s been eight years since the Royals have had more than one representative in the Major League Baseball All-Star game, and the streak doesn’t figure to end this season.

In fact, were it not for Major League Baseball’s rule that one player from each team make the All-Star team, the Royals most likely would not have a player in the Midsummer Classic this season.

But since MLB wants everyone to feel good like Little League, a Royal will take the spot of a more deserving player. So, let’s take a look at who that Royal could be.

Eric Hosmer: The Royals’ first baseman is probably the team’s best player right now and will likely be in contention for an All-Star appearance for many years to come. But this season, a few things work against the rookie. The first is that he didn’t get called up until May 6, so he missed almost 30 games of possible production. So his five home runs and 22 RBI don’t come close to the production of other first baseman in the American League. And that’s Hosmer’s second problem — the AL is stacked at first base. It will be hard enough picking between Mark Teixeira, Miguel Cabrera, David Ortiz, Adrian Gonzalez and Paul Konerko. Hosmer has virtually no chance to sneak in.

Billy Butler: He’s a DH, but will be grouped in with the first baseman in the American League. Butler actually owns the third-best on-base percentage in the American League and second-best among first basemen. But he hasn’t hit for enough power (six home runs) and doesn’t actually play the field. Like Hosmer, the competition is probably too great for him to have a realistic shot at showing up in Arizona.

Jeff Francoeur: He has been one of the more streaky players in baseball during his career, but so far this season he has been pretty solid. He is fourth among AL outfielders in RBI, 10th in HR, 11th in stolen bases and 14th in OPS. Those numbers aren’t worthy of being one of the 6-8 outfielders that will be taken for the game, but again, someone on the Royals has to be picked. But is he the best outfield option on his team?

Alex Gordon: The former third baseman turned left fielder has had a resurgent season this year, making the bust label some had put on the former No. 2 overall pick possibly premature. Gordon is second among AL outfielders in doubles, seventh in RBI and runs and eighth in OPS. If a Royals’ position player is picked for the All-Star game, something that hasn’t occurred since 2005 when Mike Sweeney was selected, it should be Gordon.

Aaron Crow: When Crow was named the closer for a struggling Joakim Soria, I predicted it wouldn’t last very long, and it didn’t as Soria is back in the role. However, Crow has still had a much better season than Soria and would deserve to go over the two-time All-Star. Crow currently sports a 1.34 ERA, has struck out more than one batter per inning and is holding opponents to a .188 batting average. Also working in his favor is the fact that when a team doesn’t have a true All-Star, a reliever is often the one chosen. Crow could be this year’s Evan Meek, a setup guy for the Pirates last season who compiled a 0.96 ERA and 42 strikeouts in 47 innings when he was selected to the 2010 All-Star game.

So who is the choice? I think it will ultimately come down to Gordon and Crow, with Crow the most likely to get the nod due to the field not being as strong in the reliever crop as it is in the outfield. Either way, it’s likely that whoever is chosen from the Royals, that player won’t see the field.

First it was Eric Hosmer. Then, Danny Duffy got the call. Now, it’s Mous’ turn.

Mike Moustakas, Kansas City’s No. 2 prospect entering the season and the No. 9 prospect overall according to Baseball America, will make his major league debut tonight when the Royals play in Los Angeles against the Angels.

To make room, the Royals optioned Mike Aviles to AAA Omaha.

Moustakas was the No. 2 overall pick in the 2007 MLB amateur draft, and despite showing power, the third baseman struggled in his first two minor league seasons, posting on-base percentages of .337 in low-A and .297 in high-A.

But last season Moustakas broke out , hitting .322 with 36 home runs and 124 RBI in his time between AA and AAA.

Still just 22, Moustakas got off to a slow start in AAA ball this season. But since May 1, Mous is hitting .321 with six home runs and 26 RBI. For the season, he is batting .287 with 10 homers and 44 RBI.

Moustakas will almost certainly be the every day third baseman, making Wilson Betemit a reserve. But what can we expect from Moustakas?

It’s doubtful that he’ll play as well early on as Hosmer, who is hitting .309 with five home runs and an .835 OPS since being called up on May 6. The reasons is Hosmer is more patient and has a more advanced approached.

Moustakas is a little bit of  hacker, having never walked more than 43 times in any minor league season and has more than twice the amount of strikeouts as walks in his minor league career. Hosmer, meanwhile, had a 134/174 BB:K ratio.

Now, Moustakas’ power is unquestioned. He will likely hit for power right away. But asking for higher than a .260 average is pushing it. I believe his season will closely resemble the rookie season last year of Pittsburgh Pirates’ third baseman Pedro Alvarez. Alvarez struggled at first after getting called up last June, but finished last year with 16 home runs and a .256 average. That’s probably what the over/under for average and home runs with Moustakas should be set at.

After seeing four pitchers go with the first four picks, all of whom Kansas City was rumored to be interested in, the Royals took the highest upside player in this year’s draft, Kansas high school outfielder Bubba Starling.

If you read my story Sunday on the Royals possible selection, then you know I love this pick. I give GM Dayton Moore a lot of credit for being patient and taking the best available talent rather than the player that could help the Royals the quickest.

Starling is 6-foot-5 and a Nebraska football recruit as a dual-threat quarterback after running for more than 2,400 yards in his senior season. He is also a standout basketball player.

On the diamond, he already has plus speed and is projected to hit for plus power. His arm is so good that he likely would have still been a first-rounder as a pitcher and he profiles good enough defensively to stay in center field. The question is whether he can hit for a high enough average against big-league pitching, as the level of competition and number of at-bats he has had in high school are small.

But he has played in the summer showcase circuit and has performed well against the other top high schoolers in the country, so he’s likely not the next Chris Lubanski.

Looking forward, putting someone with Starling’s talent in a future lineup with Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas, Wil Myers and Billy Butler is scary for opposing AL pitchers. Now Starling is raw, so it will probably be until 2014 or 2015 until he sees the big leagues. But he’ll definitely be worth the wait.

For more on Starling, read the great piece Mitch Sherman did on ESPN.com

At about 6:30 p.m. central time Monday night, the Kansas City Royals will welcome the newest talent to their organization.

Will it be the UCLA pitcher who has pitched nine consecutive complete games and just broke the Pac-10 record for strikeouts in a season? Will it be a big right-hander from UConn that should make it quickly through the minors? How about the best high school pitcher to come along in years? Or will be it be the local toolshed who is considered by all to have the highest ceiling in the draft?

These are the decisions that likely face the Royals at No. 5. It’s been reported by many prognositicators that the Royals are looking for a college pitcher so that they can slot the pick in with the rest of their almost-MLB ready talent in their plan to be a contender in the next few years. If given the choice, the Royals would probably hope to get Gerrit Cole of UCLA or Danny Hultzen of Virginia. But the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported Saturday that the Pirates were leaning towards tabbing Cole with the No. 1 overall pick in the draft. Hultzen was also in the Pirates discussion at No. 1 and will almost certainly get taken at No. 3 by Arizona or No. 4 by Baltimore.

And at No. 2, the Mariners are projected to go with a bat, likely Rice third baseman Anthony Rendon. If not Rendon, then high school shortstop Francisco Lindor.

So who does that possibly leave for Kansas City? Lots of options, the first being Cole’s teammate, Trevor Bauer. The 6-foot-1 righty throws in the mid-90s, but doesn’t have the size or velocity of Cole, who is 6-foot-4 and throws 100 miles per hour. But what Bauer does have is better results. While Cole is just 6-8 with a 3.31 ERA, Bauer is 13-2 with a 1.23 ERA. In 136 innings, Bauer has struck out 203 batters, which breaks Mark Prior’s Pac-10 record for strikeouts in a season. One downside is his workload, as he has pitched nine straight complete games and consistently throws more than 130 pitches in each start. He also has a strict long-toss regimen that reportedly has turned some teams off, possibly even the Royals, although I think the concern is overstated.

If Bauer is gone, or the Royals eventually think Bauer is going to break down, Barnes could be the college pitcher Kansas City takes. Jim Callis of Baseball America had the Royals taking Barnes in one of his earlier mock drafts and Cole in the latest, although that came before the news of the Pirates likely taking Cole. Barnes is 11-4 on the season with a 1.62 ERA and 111 strikeouts in 116.2 innings. He throws in the low-to-mid 90s, but doesn’t have the numbers or upside of the other players on this list. He will likely move through the minors quickly, however.

If the first picks are Cole, Rendon, Hultzen and Bauer, and the Royals decided they’d rather go with upside than trying to get someone who will get to the majors quickly, then they could be looking at high schoolers Dylan Bundy and Bubba Startling.

Bundy, a right-hander from Oklahoma, is widely considered one of the best high-school pitchers to come around in the last decade. Jim Callis rated Bundy higher than last year’s No. 2 overall pick, high school pitcher Jameson Taillon. And Taillon was called the best high-schooler since Josh Beckett. Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus has Bundy has his top prospect in this draft.

Bundy is only 6-foot-1, but has a very strong build and can squat more than 500 pounds. His fastball sits in the 94-97 range and has hit 100 miles per hour. He has a plus breaking ball and a plus cutter. He also has great command, walking only five batters this season while striking out 158.  He reportedly asked for a $30 million deal, but it’s likely that was just a ploy and will sign for much, much less than that.

And then there’s Starling. His high school is less than an hour outside of Kansas City, so there is some pressure from the fan base to take the local kid. And it’s not like it would be a reach, as Callis and ESPN’s Keith Law have both said he may have the highest upside in this year’s draft.

Starling has plus-plus speed and could have plus power as well. If he was going in as a pitcher, he would probably also be a first-round pick as he has a great arm. He is also a pretty good center fielder. Athletically, there isn’t a better option. Starling is a Nebraska football recruit as a quarterback after he rushed for more than 2,400 yards last season. He also averaged 28 points per game on the basketball court.

The questions are is hit tool, as he is raw. Also, scouts didn’t much of a look at him this spring, as the Kansas high school baseball season starts later and Starling dealt with quad injury for the first part of the season. He only had 27 at-bats. He also is advised by super-agent Scott Boras, and with a football scholarship in hand, has a lot of leverage.

So who should the pick be? Of course it depends who is on the board, but assuming all four of the guys mentioned are, the pick has to be Bundy or Starling. Look, Bauer and Barnes have put up great numbers, but there is a reason these guys weren’t on a lot of radars out of high school. They don’t have the upside of Bundy or Starling.

Sure, it would be nice to get a guy who can get to the majors quickly to get in the rotation with Mike Montgomery, Danny Duffy, Chris Dwyer and John Lamb once he comes back from Tommy John surgery. But what is more important is getting the best talent. Bundy and Starling are those guys. If I had the choice between the two, I’d take Starling because hitters are usually less risky due to injury concerns on pitchers. And it’s rare to get a five-tool player of Starling’s upside, especially without having the first overall pick.

Hopefully, Dayton Moore will feel the same way, although I have a feeling it will be Bauer’s name called on Monday night. That’s not a bad thing, but it isn’t the best thing.

The Royals have announced that one of their top pitching prospects, John Lamb, will be out for the remainder of this season and will likely miss some of next season as well after it was discovered he needs Tommy John surgery, the Kansas City Star is reporting.

The surgery usually carries a 12-month rehabilitation process.

The injury continues what seems to be a tough year for many of the best prospects in the Royals farm system.

In 2010, it seemed, that every Royals’ prospect had a monster season, which helped the system put a record nine players in Baseball America’s top 100 prospects.

This season has been a completely different story. While a few prospects, such as Eric Hosmer, Danny Duffy and Aaron Crow, have done well enough to get to the big leagues, many of the other top prospects have been injured or struggled.

Outfielder Will Myers, who was ranked the No. 3 prospect in the organization behind Hosmer and Mike Moustakas and the No. 10 prospect in all of baseball by BA, has dealt with a knee injury for most of the season and has just a .749 OPS in 20 games this season.

Pitcher Mike Montgomery, ranked as the No. 19 prospect in baseball, is sporting a 5.18 ERA in triple-A with a 48-34 K/BB ratio.

Middle infielder Christian Colon, BA’s No. 51 MLB prospect, is hitting just .233 with a .605 OPS in double-A.

And now there’s Lamb, the team’s minor league pitcher of the year in 2010, top pitching prospect and the BA’s No. 18 prospect in MLB. Lamb left his start on May 19 in the first inning with elbow discomfort and hasn’t pitched since. For the season, Lamb was 1-2 with a 3.09 ERA at Class AA Northwest Arkansas.

His surgery is scheduled to be performed in Los Angeles on Friday.

On Sunday, I looked at the struggles of Kansas City closer Joakim Soria after he blew his fourth save chance of the season.

On Monday, Soria blew up again, giving up three runs in the ninth inning as Anaheim came back to beat the Royals 9-8. And now, at least in the short-term, he will no longer be the man Kansas City calls upon to seal the deal in the ninth inning.

Following Monday’s loss, Royal manager Ned Yost said that he would give Soria a break while the two-time All-Star finds his groove, and in the interim rookie Aaron Crow would assume the closing duties.

After his junior season at the University of Missouri, Crow was selected by the Washington Nationals with the ninth overall pick in the 2008 amateur draft, but did not sign and instead signed with the Fort Worth Cats, an independent league team. Crow went back into the draft the next year, where he was taken in the first round again, this time with the 12th overall pick, by the Royals.

Crow was a starting pitcher in college and all 29 of his appearances last season were as a starter. He did not pitch well in his time split between the Royals High-A and Double-A affiliates, finishing with a 5.73 earned-run average in 163.1 innings of work.

That’s why it was so surprising when Crow made the Royals’ opening-day roster as a reliever. But so far it’s been a great move, as the 24-year-old right-hander has given up just four earned runs in 22 innings of work, good for a 1.33 ERA. He is also striking out nearly one batter per inning.

But the underlying statistics tell a different tale. Opponents only have a .246 batting average on balls in play (BABIP), whereas the average BABIP is usually between .290-.300. Now, BABIP can be a tricky statistic that fluctuates greatly from season to season, especially for pitchers since they have much less control over the statistic than hitters. But a regression to the mean is more likely than not for Crow.

Crow also is likely to see his strand rate decrease. Strand rate, also known as left on base percentage, is the percentage of batters that reach base against a pitcher who don’t score. The average strand rate is about 72 percent. Crow currently has a strand rate over 95 percent.

My guess of how this plays out: Crow gets a few opportunities in the closer role as Soria gets mop-up duty to get his stuff back. Crow struggles in the role and within two weeks Soria is closing again.

And truthfully I think that’s what the Royals want, since Soria at his best is a better pitcher than Crow. In fact, Soria at his best is a better pitcher than almost every closer in the game.