| Shane Cobb. 22nd April, 2006 - 4:39 pm
 The Kansas City Royals are off to another horrific start. It appears as if the Royals are trying to break a record, a record that they set last season. The Royals 19-game losing streak is in jeopardy as this year?s team has lost 11 straight.
In the past 16 seasons the Royals have had eight different managers and only three winnings seasons. During this stretch the Royals have posted a record consisting of 1,126 wins and 1,396 losses. The last time Royals fans saw their team win the division was when the Royals were apart of the AL West. It goes all they back to 1985, the year they won the division and even the World Series.
After losing 106 games in 2005 and 104 games the year before, desperate changes were needed. The front office decided to go down the veteran path. The Royals were busy in the off-season signing veterans like OF Reggie Sanders, SP Joe Mays, 2B Mark Grudzielanek, and 1B Doug Mientkiewicz. These veterans accompany Mike Sweeney, Paul Bako, and Mark Redman.
Despite all of these seasoned veterans, the Royals still can?t get things together. Now fifteen games into the 2006 MLB Season, the Royals have only managed to win two of them. They?re only going down hill from there losing their last 11 games.
The Royals have the worst pitching staff and the second worst offense in all of baseball, a recipe for disaster. With all of these losing seasons and high draft choices, one would think the Royals farm system would be noteworthy. Well, that?s not the case here. The Royals aren?t in the Top-10, or even Top-20 for farm system rankings. Baseball America has ranked them 23, just below the Philadelphia Phillies.
Even though they?re ranked 23, they have two exceptional prospects named Alex Gordon and Billy Butler. Both are very talented minor leaguers who are performing well in Wichita, the Double-A affiliate of the Kansas City Royals. Gordon, 22, is an astonishing third base prospect who was select 2nd overall in the 2005 major-league draft by the Royals.
Billy Butler, 20, is a very good hitting corner outfielder for Royals. Last season Butler hit 30 homeruns between 92 games at A+ and 29 games at AA, at the tender age of 19-years-old.
Royalty is in Wichita, not Kansas City. Fans can?t wait to see their prospects since their major league team can?t get it done. The 19-game losing streak record looks like it?s about to be broken with the Royals difficult upcoming schedule. The Royals still have to face the Cleveland Indians two more times. After the Indians series, the Royals will take on the Minnesota Twins and Oakland Athletics, both very dreaded teams.
Good luck to manager Buddy Bell and all of those poor Royals fans that haven?t witnessed playoff baseball since 1985. |
