JT and ChiTown on the Beauty of May 6

Editor's Note: We're sorry for the lack of posts, but this team is both bad and uninteresting, a blogger's conundrum.

ChiTown: May 6th was an amazing day. The Kansas City Royals were 18-11! They were looking like actual playoff contenders. Zack Greinke was looking like a Cy Young lock (he still does in every category but wins, and it’s all about the W, so tough luck for him).

This team was succeeding despite Alex Gordon being out. The starting pitching looked promising except for Ponson, but fine. You can deal with that.

And then everything just started into a downward spiral. The team has been horrible. Bad baseball. We as fans, got to see 39 games of good baseball. Followed by a lot more games of really bad baseball. We get decent starts from Greinke, Meche (before injury), Bannister, and yay! Now Hochevar too! But they can’t actually win unless they pitch a complete game.

Part of that is because the bullpen can’t seem to hold a lead. Unless the guy in the bullpen is named Soria. But shouldn’t the bullpen be holding more leads with closer scores? You’d think. But this offense is so inept, that they can’t put up enough runs to give any pitcher a chance. That’s just wrong.

This offense was supposed to be better starting the year. The team had an improving Alex Gordon, who got hurt. A sensational jtandchitownontheroyals official man crush Mike Aviles who was going to play good defense, and regress to still better than normal numbers at short. Guillen was going to be healthy-ish and improve. Jacobs was going to be impatient but put up a great SLG. Crisp started out the year doing what he was brought in to do.

None of it worked. Nothing went as it should have. It is unlucky. But it’s par for the course with the Royals. At least for a long time. Dayton, I get that injuries hurt this team, but that’s not the only reason why this team is bad. Give me and other Royals fans some actual answers. We deserve them.

JoakimTough: I remember looking at coolstandings.com and seeing that the Royals chances of making the playoffs were greater than 50%. I don't know if you saw that at any point or if you don't really look at that stuff as early as May, but I was so happy that I didn't have any clue what to do with myself. I figured if they could keep it up for just another month that Dayton would make a move to supplement the team and they would be on their way to a summer and fall of contention. Then boom. 6 game losing streak. Greinke became human. The bullpen started giving up runs in bunches. Players dropped like flies. Hillman got defensive. Moore got defensive. Hillman got very defensive.

It all happened so quickly and it ruined what had the promise to be the best season the Royals have had since the early '90s. I was so sure that, if nothing else, we'd get to experience a pennant race and some exciting baseball in August and September. If things fell right, we'd get to enjoy October as well. Now, we're subjected to the worst Royals baseball I've personally ever seen. I am convinced that on the days that somebody other than Zack or Luke pitches (wow, what a story he's starting to become), the 2005 Royals could destroy this team.

You're right, there's some bad luck involved. It might even be more bad luck than the usual team experiences over the course of the season, but the fact of the matter is that the moves made in the offseason have backfired fantastically. Not a single one has worked out as planned with the exception of Greinke's contract extension. What makes me angrier than anything about it is that we're being told not to question the process. You know what? The process apparently isn't working. The farm system is improving vastly, but the Major League team resembles a 7th grade little league team who can put it together from time to time, but more often than not struggles to remain competitive. We've waited a long time and the Royals to me are like the girl who invites you into the empty bedroom at the party and then climbs out the window. So close yet so far.

ChiTown: I love coolstandings.com. It's a fun site. It just lead to me thinking that the Royals had a decent chance. The Sox big hitters were going to decline (don't mention Dye to me or i'll go into an irrational blind rage). But I stopped with cool standings awhile ago.

As for the great start, I was estatic as you were, and figured they could go .500 and make the playoffs! This team doesn't score runs. So good starts are wasted. The bullpen which is horrible can't preserve a lead gives them up.

It's amazing that this team is so bad though. You say bad unless Zack or Hochevar pitches, I'll add Meche and Bannister who i was completely annoyed with all last season (he always had an excuse). Those four pitch a good game and lose the game. If this team had the Nationals offense the team would be around .500 with that starting pitching. But KC has worse.

Dayton Moore is trying to build from within. Which I agree with. And his high draft picks have been the ones that anyone with a brain would take. Seriously, at the time Mousetakas was a better choice than Vitters.

But if Vitters pans out and Mousetakas doesn't? The big deal isn't that our first round pick didn't pan out, that happens all the time, the point will be whether or not our later picks pan out. You can't get lucky with a 2008 Aviles every year.

JoakimTough: You're probably right about adding Meche and Bannister to the list. Banny annoyed the snot out of me last year with his ridiculous excuses after every start, but that interview on 810 was a thing of absolute beauty. I could listen to that every day and not be bored with it...ok, maybe a little bit.

Back to the point... If you look at this team coming into the season, you would probably say they're about a 74-78 win team. They have four starting pitchers who, at the least, keep you in games, and at the best dominate games. They were around league average or better at all three outfield positions, third base, shortstop, second base and first base, had Joakim Soria set up by Juan Cruz who was a stud for the last three years, Ron Mahay, who had an ERA under 2 until he hurt himself last year, Kyle Farnsworth, who was never good, but could be a decent middle reliever (money not withstanding), Doug Waechter and Robinson Tejeda. The team looked pretty solid all around. Then it just fell apart.

You could run that 2007 draft 100 times and there are only two players who you would even consider over Moustakas and they were Weiters and Porcello, both of whom I would have taken before Moustakas, but I think he was a top 5 talent in that draft. For the record, I think he will come around -- lots of hitters have struggled mightily at Wilmington. Your point is right, though, it isn't the first round draft picks that really make the huge difference (although they are, in theory, the future stars). It is the 2nd-50th round draft picks.

Take a look at the AL All-Star team in 2009. It is a huge mix of 1st round picks, undrafted players, players from other countries and later round draft picks. And yes, I'm too lazy to break it down.

That's where the optimism has to come from. Yeah, the Hosmers and the Moustakas's are the keys to the success, but its the Giovatella's, Loughs, Bianchis, Montgomerys and the Disco Hayes' of the world that will be what takes this team to success.

ChiTown: I predicted at the beginning of the season that this team would win 75 games, and if a few things broke right, possibly break even, for pretty much everything you just said. But it's the Royals, so of course, they break your heart. It's even worse because of the first forty games!

As for the draft, I think it would have been cool to have Matt Weiters, and wish KC would have drafted him, but I'm fine with Moustakas over Porcello. Just hoping that Moustakas does end up being the impact bat we were sold on. I think he'll do a lot better in AA, but I still have images of Dermal swimming in my head, so I won't be completely reassured until he's mashing in KC. At this point is that really unreasonable?

You're right though, the Hosmer's and the Moustakas's are the keys to the success, but its the Giovatella's, Loughs, Bianchis, Montgomerys and the Disco Hayes' of the world that will be what takes this team to success. If they do turn into productive players, great, if not, Dayton and the other members of the front office have a lot of explaining to do.

JoakimTough: Not only would they have a lot of explaining to do, but they'll probably need to spruce up their resumes for job interviews. If some of those guys don't produce, the team is in worse trouble than it is right now. At the point when they should be coming to the majors as inexpensive stars, Billy Butler will be making serious money, Alex Gordon will be making serious money, Yuniesky Betancourt will be in the first year of his 5 year/$45 million extension (I really, really, really hope I'm kidding), Hochevar will probably be making some money, Greinke will still be making serious money, etc. They need the cheap talent or else they're going to be supplemented with guys with Willie Bloomquist, Ryan Freel, Miguel Olivo, Kyle Farnsworth, Juan Cruz and Jamey Wright.