After 47 Royals games this year, Billy Butler has three homers and 18 RBI.  Considering that he’s batted cleanup most of the year and is coming off of a long-term extension signed in the offseason, the Royals and fans expected a lot more.

This was expected to be a breakout season where Butler, now 25 years old, would start turning homers into doubles and jump towards All-Star levels among AL first basemen.

Now, for anyone who’s are starting to warm up the Clint Robinson bandwagon and question Butler’s value, let’s look at everything (and not just batting average).

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He doesn’t, really.  He’s been a fine performer since making it up full time with the Royals.  Among players under age 26, he ranks fifth in the majors in OPS (behind Carlos Gonzalez, Troy Tulowitzki, Evan Longoria and Colby Rasmus).  He was tied for third in the AL in base hits last year and among esteemed company like Ichiro Suzuki, Robinson Cano and Carl Crawford.

It’s not that anyone’s dissatisfied with Butler’s production thus far in his young career.  Far from it.  The Royals were convinced and gave him an extension that will keep him in Kansas City for a long time.

It comes down to expectations about a player like Billy.  He’s a big kid and a first baseman.  People expect him to club 30 homers with ease and yet, that’s not who he is.  He hits a lot of balls on the ground, notably turning many of them into double play balls.  The idea has been that if he can get a bit more loft in his swing, he can be more of the prolific power hitter you’d expect from a first baseman.  More loft means more line drives and fly balls, and more chances to get the ball out.

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Jose Guillen leads the team with 11 homers, but when he’s slumping, like he has been over his last nine games (5-32), the homers become scarce. Alberto Callaspo has been a welcome surprised in the power department, as he’s hit 7 homeruns, but he hasn’t hit a homerun since May 20. A surprising third on the team in homers is Billy Butler, who has only 5 on the year. It’s surprising because he’s hitting .342 on the season, so he’s obviously seeing the ball well. Beyond those three, where will the power come from? Whenever Rick Ankiel comes back, he’ll be a source of power, but he’s been out for more than a month and was slumping before that. Mike Aviles and David DeJesus have some pop, but nobody would expect them to contribute more than 10-15 dingers in a season. The rest of the team has no track record or scouting expectation of power.

It comes down to Butler. The hitting is great, but when’s the power going to come around?
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So what happened next? Is the honeymoon over?  Would the Royals remember that they are, in fact, still the Royals?  Well read on, as we recap the week’s happenings and trends:
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