Only a sick bastard would start his Kansas City Royals blog today, but here I am. What am I supposed to
do, just suddenly stop thinking about baseball after enjoying four hours' worth
of baseball and baseball-related entertainment nearly every day for six months?
After the ridiculous stretch this Royals organization just experienced - or
rather, is still experiencing - any healthy transition away from constantly
thinking about KC baseball is impossible.
It's gonna be a rough offseason, but I'm focusing on the
positive in an attempt to avoid my typical end-of-the-season sadness-slump.
Without further unnecessary info about my psychological problems, here are 10
good reasons to be optimistic about the Royals in 2017:
1. Ian Kennedy
gave up more homers than any other Royal this season, but he also pitched the
most innings and recorded the second-most strikeouts. If Kennedy keeps pitching
like the guy who recorded a 3.38 ERA since the All Star break, Royals fans will
quickly grow to adore him.
2. Paulo Orlando
stepped up and proved to be a legit big-leaguer, and he's earned the lion's
share of the starts next year as he presumably continues to split time with Jarrod Dyson. Kendrys Morales, Eric Hosmer
and Lorenzo Cain are the only Royals
with a better 2016 OPS than Orlando. That's two pillars of a
championship-winning roster and a full-time veteran DH.
3. Despite Cheslor
Cuthbert playing remarkably well as a replacement, KC suffered from the
lack of left-handed power in the lineup after Mike Moustakas went down in May with a knee injury. Before that
fateful moment, Moose looked like he was on pace to repeat his solid
performance from 2015, when he finished with a .284/.348/.470 batting line, 22
homers and 82 runs batted in. Adding that production to next year's lineup will
clearly change things for the better.
4. Jason Vargas
was not expected to take the mound again in 2016, so any contribution from him
before the 2016 season ended was an unexpected luxury. That's not to mention
that Vargas quickly went back to being his old self, and should slate right
into the rotation next year.
5. The next step for Danny
Duffy after this successful season is to become a bona fide ace. Many
experts within the organization believe that if all goes well, we could witness
the best starting season for a Royal since a guy named Zack Greinke played here.
6. A bunch of the young talent we saw, namely Cuthbert, Raul Mondesi, Whit Merrifield and Matt
Strahm, look like they'll be legit contributors in 2017 and beyond. Well,
maybe they'll be trade pieces instead, but that's a different story.
7. I know it's too early to project an entire starting
lineup, but just imagine this defense taking the field- Salvador Perez, Hosmer, Mondesi, Alcides Escobar, Moustakas/Cuthbert, Orlando/Dyson, Cain and
Platinum Glove Award winner Alex Gordon.
Go ahead and find me a position where the Royals don't have a chance to win a
Gold Glove next season.
8. The Royals ranked 12th at the All Star break with just 50
stolen bases, but they swiped 71 bags in the second half, which was 4th in
baseball and bumped them up to the 6th-highest total for the season. It seems
like the club returned to embracing that style of play, and that should
continue into next year.
9. The old Detroit
Tigers roster gets one year older next year, the Minnesota Twins don't look like they're ready to contend yet, the Chicago White Sox somewhat-predictably
faded into obscurity and the Cleveland
Indians can't stay healthy. It's not as if KC needs to win the AL East next
season.
10. There just aren't too many question marks surrounding
next year's roster, and most of the questions we do have are actually fun to
ask. How will KC deal with Moose's return and Cuthbert's success? Which one of
the aforementioned young infielders will earn the majority of starts at second
base? Frankly, we won't be asking if the Royals can be good next year, but
instead we'll want to know just how good KC can be.
The Royals face off against the Twins at Target Stadium at
3:10 PM on April 3rd, 2017. We're less than 182 days away, Royals fans. Thanks
for reading.
Doug LaCerte also runs
The Red and Gold Report and tries not to neglect his minuscule fanbase on
Twitter @DLaC67.
