Kuzul

Losers of two straight games, the Kansas City Royals turn to staff ace James Shields to get back on the winning track against his former team, the Tampa Bay Rays, Tuesday night at Kauffman Stadium. After taking the first two games this weekend against the Cleveland Indians during a wrap-around home series, the Royals dropped the final two games by a combined 19-3 score. Though still early in the season, these are the types of results that remind fans of just how downtrodden a baseball town Kansas City has been for the better part of two decades. Just last year, the Royals endured a twelve-game losing streak in the season’s opening month and did not record a home victory until May 3. Kansas City is 6-4 at home in 2013. Two-game losing streaks are commonplace throughout a 162-game marathon of a Major League Baseball season; even the best teams can’t ...

The competition to become the No. 5 starter for the Kansas City Royals in 2013 began with five names: Luke Hochevar, Bruce Chen, Luis Mendoza, Will Smith and Yordano Ventura. With less than a week before Opening Day, the team has announced a winner. Mendoza will pitch behind James Shields, Jeremy Guthrie, Ervin Santana and Wade Davis in the team’s starting rotation (via the Kansas City Star). After a strong spring in which he allowed just one run in 11 innings, Mendoza hopes to carry his success over to the regular season and help the Royals compete whenever his turn is up. That was my main goal. But it’s not just that, I want to do my best, pitch well, pitch to win and help my teammates to have the opportunity to win games. While the Royals made the correct decision here, the move places another expensive arm in the ...

Coming into spring training, the Kansas City Royals had very few position battles to work out as the 2013 season approached—which is remarkably odd for a team coming off a 72-win season. Other than the perennial lobbying for bullpen spots, the Royals were primarily focused on who would be the team’s No. 5 starting pitcher and who would emerge as their starting second baseman. With the Royals going with Luis Mendoza as the fifth starter (via kshb.com, per Mike Swanson), it was announced that Chris Getz would indeed begin the season as Alcides Escobar’s double-play mate (via the Wichita Eagle). The Royals were somewhat hamstrung by the fact that neither Getz nor Johnny Giavotella play anywhere other than second base. Keeping both around would severely limit roster flexibility, so Kansas City saw its best move as being to send the 25-year-old Giavotella down to Triple-A Omaha where he would receive more consistent playing ...

Coming off a season that yielded just 72 wins, it may surprise some that the Kansas City Royals entered spring training with very few positions up for grabs.Still, they need to decide who will be pegged to see the most time at second base, and who will emerge as the team’s fifth starter. While it is likely that some sort of platoon will take place at second base between Chris Getz and Johnny Giavotella, Kansas City really needs to find a consistent arm at the back of its rotation. After an aggressive offseason to upgrade their starting pitching (trading for James Shields, Wade Davis and Ervin Santana, and re-signing Jeremy Guthrie), the Royals were left with a handful of familiar faces to battle it out for the final spot.Luke Hochevar, Bruce Chen and Luis Mendoza were all leading candidates for the spot, while Will Smith and Yordano Ventura were long ...

The Kansas City Royals’ farm system has served as a pipeline to the major leagues in recent years, producing former top prospects such as Mike Moustakas, Eric Hosmer, Salvador Perez and Danny Duffy, as well as a slew of late-inning arms. It seemed as though the organization would once again boast a top-10 farm system headed into the 2013 season, but after trading three of its top-10 prospects—including its top offensive (Wil Myers) and pitching (Jake Odorizzi) prospects—to the Tampa Bay Rays in exchange for James Shields and Wade Davis, it’s a shell of what it was a few years ago. In the wake of their deal with the Rays, the Royals’ prospect pool is now highlighted by a host of young, inexperienced players who are still years away from reaching the major leagues. A majority of their top prospects will open the 2013 season at either High-A Wilmington or Double-A Northwest Arkansas, ...

The struggles are well-documented, and the forecast has been rather bleak for the Kansas City Royals recently. With only four winning seasons since 1990, this franchise has been mired in one of the longest funks in professional sports history. While the profuse stagnation has stained this city with a stout stench, the light at the end of the tunnel is starting to grow less dim as the Royals endured one of their most pointed, and talked about, offseasons in recent memory. Ownership and management made it a focal point to improve the team’s most glaring deficiency: starting pitching. Though some of the moves drew ire, no one can point to a lack of effort in the Royals’ attempt to field a more competitive ball club in 2013. Their offense is comprised largely of homegrown talent with much promise, but their starting rotation required a complete overhaul in order for the ...

Small-market baseball franchises are often pigeon-holed into a compulsory allegiance to mediocre (at best) talent when it comes to filling out rosters. Second-rate ballplayers are relied on to be the leaders of teams that annually inhabit the bottom portion of the standings.The Kansas City Royals are no strangers to doing business in this manner, ultimately leading to the poor quality of baseball that has haunted this organization and its fanbase for upwards of two decades.Though the Royals are finally starting to see the fruits of their minor league system blossom in Kansas City, guys like Luke Hochevar, Bruce Chen and Jeff Francoeur still play fundamental roles in the success of this team.For Kansas City to start to creeping up the MLB hierarchy—and to eventually become legitimate contenders—the franchise must jettison its imprudent attachment to certain players that have shown little to no value to the success of this ...

The Washington Nationals and first baseman Adam LaRoche have agreed on a two-year deal (via the Washington Post). The terms are not yet known, though the initial offer was believed to be roughly around $25 million. This signing should force the Nationals into making another move this offseason: the likely trade of Michael Morse, who suddenly is forced out of an everyday job with LaRoche manning first base and a probable outfield trio of Bryce Harper, Denard Span and Jayson Werth in Washington. Though the 30-year-old—who will turn 31 prior to the start of 2013 season—has a rather short MLB track record, Morse does provide the trade market with an affordable and viable power bat from the right side of the plate. Morse’s best season was in 2011, when he batted .303/.360/.550 with 31 home runs with 95 runs batted in. While there could be a throng of competition for ...

The Kansas City Royals are continuing their makeover for the 2013 season by signing 2002 AL MVP Miguel Tejada.According to the Associated Press (via ESPN.com), Tejada's contract is a one-year minor league deal that can be worth $1.1 million if he makes it to Kansas City. There are additional incentives that can make the contract worth $1.5 million in total.In 2012, he played 36 games in the Baltimore Orioles organization but requested and was granted his release at mid-season.With the Royals, he will probably be asked to play a utility role. He could back up Mike Moustakas at third base, Chris Getz and Johnny Giavotella at second base and play some at the designated hitter.When he played for the Oakland Athletics in the early 2000s, he was one of the elite players in the game. The power hitting shortstop won the MVP in the 2002 season made famous by the ...

The Kansas City Royals have made an unexpected commitment to win in 2013. And if they want to follow through on that commitment, they should take advantage of a weak market for reliever Rafael Soriano.Earlier this month, as reported in many sites including NBCSports.com, the Royals sent Baseball America's Minor League Player of the Year, Wil Myers, packing to the Tampa Bay Rays for pitchers James Shields and Wade Davis. There were other players involved, but the main pieces of the deal showed that Kansas City was not interested in waiting for more prospects. They needed major league pitching.The Royals were heavily criticized for the trade, including by Jay Jaffe of Sports Illustrated, who described the deal as a "misguided gamble."But there is no use in utilizing a strategy like this in a half-hearted manner. The Royals have already sacrificed Myers. They have added Shields and Davis to the rotation, ...