KANSAS CITY ROYALS

The Royals are another dreary American League Central team that is surprisingly decent as hitting goes. Finishing 71-91 24 games back, they could very well be a better team except for pitching.

Finishing 10^th in runs scored, an impressive 4^th in batting average with an on base percentage of 8^th overall, and 7^th in slugging percentage, the team can hit. Probably what keeps fans in the stands.

In the free agent marketplace, the Royals stayed right where they were and resigned Alex Gordon with his .303 BA, 23 HR’s and 87 RBI’s for $4,775,000 contract for 2012, thus closing any issues in left field.

Bruce Chen

Along with Gordon came Bruce Chen and his 12 victories for 2 more years for $9 million. Meanwhile Jonathan Broxton signed up with Kansas City from the Dodgers and becomes a setup man for Soria. Maybe not the greatest stats for a setup man but adequate. Another late game option for manager Ned Yost is the signing of right-hander Jose Mijares from Minnesota. That would wrap up the free agent signings for now.

Making up the 24 game difference between the Royals and division winning Tigers with this team is an issue, and can best be summed up in three words: pitching, pitching, pitching.

Let’s look at the team leaders in pitching.

ERA: L. Hochevar 4.68

W: B. Chen 12

K’s: L. Hochevar  128

Those numbers don’t exactly inspire confidence that any games will be made up between the Royals and Tigers. Overall, they ranked 27^th in ERA, 27^th in quality starts and 27^th in BAA! There are 30 teams, and they need pitching.

Finish will be where they finished last season.