2009 AL Preview: Kansas City Royals

Team Name: Kansas City Royals

2008 W-L Record: 75-87

Place in division: 4th

2009 Outlook: The Royals offseason has been marred by head scratching moves. They preached on-base percentage, yet they traded for Mike Jacobs and his career OBP of .318 and was under .300 in 2008. They gave a 2 year, $3 million dollar deal to Willie Bloomquist, who has been worth 0.8 wins total in his career, while Craig Counsell was just picked up by the Brewers for $1 million dollars. They added Coco Crisp, which is an upgrade over Joey Gathright, but traded away a solid reliever in Ramon Ramirez in the process. Then they went out and replaced Ramirez with Kyle Farnsworth, a -0.5 wins reliever in 2008. To make matters worse, they gave Farnsworth $9 million dollars over two years. In the latest questionable move, it was announced that they will try Mark Teahen at 2B, a position he has no experience at. Offensively, they are a mix of good players like DeJesus, Aviles, Gordon and Butler and not so good players like Guillen, Buck and Jacobs. The rotation is pretty much the same story. Gil Meche and Zack Grienke were worth about four wins a piece, but Davies, Hochevar and Bannister were sub 2 WAR pitchers. In the bullpen there is Joakim Soria, but the bridge from Starter to Farnworth to Soria is basically a bridge to nowhere. The Royals may be an 80+ win team in 2009, but the "New Rays"? I don't think so.