BaseBallGuy

Out until June? I live in KC and it isn't that serious. He had the flu again and lost around 15 pounds which kills a guy his size. It's the same thing that happened to him last year when he started to suck for a few months. He'll start the year on the DL but should be back within a month or so. He's already started throwing again.

He's fine. http://www.foxsports.com/content/view?contentId=2203756

Greinke is pretty damn good. He'll likely head to AAA to start off the year but he'll be up before long.

I think Mauer is going to do better than a lot of people think. I can see him putting up a good AVG and OBP with a bad SLG. He'll also play great defense and call a quality game. Santiago's age also might catch up with him for the Royals. Who knows what our catchers will do.. And I agree with you on Crede. He should be a lot better next year. I also like Beltran more than Hunter. Beltran's the better hitter and his defensive stats were actually better than Hunter in '03. Hernandez will be out all year with TJ surgery. Affeldt will start for the Royals until he gets a blister and then he will go to the bullpen. Appier, Asencio, Gobble, Snyder, and Greinke will all compete for the rest of the spots. May and Anderson will both likely take a step back to being just mediocre so the Royals will need their young guys to step up.

Sure there is, you just don't see it. In the series that the Sox swept, they faced the following pitchers: Affeldt(reliever) - Just had a bad outing Carrasco(reliever) - Rookie. Was just bad but also had some tired arm trouble Field(reliever) - Average. Might not even make next years club Grimsley(reliever) - Was fairly effective but was overused last year Hernandez(starter) - Injured Leskanic(reliever) - Was effective Lloyd(releiver) - Horrible. Won't be back Lowe(reliever) - Horrible. Released MacDougal(reliever) - Was effective May(starter) - Bad start Snyder(starter) - Was Injured Now that is being pretty generous to the Royals pitchers but I'm trying to make a point. Affeldt gave up two or more runs in only 2 of 18 games he pitched in relief. Carrasco got a tired arm and won't be used as often next year. Field most likely won't even make next years club. Grimsley will be back in a reduced role. Hernandez will be out the entire year. Leskanic will be back and will be fully recovered from his surgery. Lloyd and Lowe are long gone and they were KC's two worst pitchers. MacDougal was effective in the series and should improve upon his rookie season. May will most likely take a bit of a step back next year. Snyder was injured and it was discovered soon after that. He'll be healthy for next year. The Royals staff will get better just because there is no way they can get worse. We are losing important pitchers. We needed to go out and patch a couple holes in order to have a good shot at the division and instead just hoped that everyone else wouldn't improve.

True, but they'll also have a healthy Snyder, a healthy Asencio, and the potential for a healthy Affeldt. They also have (arguably) the best pitching prospect in the minors in Zack Greinke. Appier, May, and Anderson should all do an average job of eating up innings in the back of the rotation. I think we all have to remember that while the Royals were very lucky at times last year they were also very unlucky. Injuries basicly killed their pitching staff and they had a couple of guys pitching hurt for a good part of the year. We also don't exactly have a solid back of the rotation. I think we will have the better rotation but I don't think the whole offseason philosophy should be to just hope the Royals staff doesn't improve. It would be nice to actually see us patching some of our holes.