Good news, bad news, thoughts and future

The 2010 season is 15 games old for the Kansas City Royals.  Thanks to a game winning 10th inning tater off the bat of Alex Gordon, the boys in blue are now 6-9.

Greinke turned in an excellent performance in his fourth start of the season giving him two good starts and two not so good starts on the season.  Hopefully his start today will silence the national media’s questions about what is wrong with Zack.  It’s a little early for that nonsense.  For the record, while he has some work ahead of him, he is still very much in the AL Cy Young Award race.  […]

The Royals 6-9 record isn’t too terrible considering the complete ineptitude of the bullpen, still poor baserunning, and still lackluster defense.  The bad news is that the Minnesota Twins are 11-4, happen to be one of only 3 teams in MLB with 10 or more wins*, and are already 5 games up on the Royals in the standings.

*In case you are wondering, the other two are the 11-4 Tampa Bay Rays and the 10-3 New York Yankees.

Despite the overachieving offensive antics of Guillen, Podsednik, and Kendall, the Kansas City bullpen has fired several torpedoes into the hopes of the most optimistic fans.  If the team stays on its current pace, they will finish the year with a record of 65-97.  I probably don’t need to point this out but that just happens to be the record they finished with in 2009.  Unlike last year however, it’s looking like we’re not even going to get to May 1st with hopes of being a competitive player in the AL Central.

If misery loves company than the Royals can welcome some large payroll teams to the party.  The New York Mets, Chicago Cubs, and Boston Red Sox are also 6-9.  The current records of the Mets and the Cubs aren’t shocking, but the Red Sox have been a bit of a mess.  I picked Boston to finish third in the East, but I anticipated they would push the Rays and Yanks all season.  Again it’s early but the signs have not been positive thus far.

Speaking of looking like a mess, remember when the Astros were 0-8 and some fans in our ranks were proud to proclaim that the Royals were a better team than Houston?  In Lee Corso not-so-fast-my-friend style, the ‘Stros have won 5 of their last 6 to improve their record to 5-9 on the year.  Looking at the major league rosters of both teams, you can make a pretty good argument that Houston is in better shape for the rest of the 2010 season.  Thankfully the Royals have more young talent in the majors, and their farm system blows the Astros system out of the water*.

*Though in fairness, you can say that about pretty much every team’s farm system in baseball right now.

I picked the Royals to finish the year at 68-94 and they haven’t shown me anything to make me change that assessment in either direction thus far.  They are about what I thought they were going to be, though they are getting to that point in a different manner than I expected.  This bullpen is amazing, and not in a good way.

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In other news …

You have probably noticed that my posts have been shorter and less involved lately.  That is due in part to my work on Call to the Pen but it is also because I’ve been trying to get some non-writing stuff done around the house.  Further, it is a result of trying to assess where I am at with my writing and how I have been utilizing my free time as a whole.  It is painfully obvious that I need to scale back my involvement in something, but I haven’t figured out what that something will be.  I do know that I want to find more time to read the pile of baseball books I have on my nightstand, spend more time playing baseball with my sons, and have more downtime in general for my wife and friends.

Bottom line is that right now I am pretty burnt out.  I have been trying to recharge my batteries on the fly but have only found modest success in doing so the last couple week.  I’m not stepping away from Kings of Kauffman or anything like that at this point, but there is a possibility that I will be adjusting my role here in the “relatively” near future.  It is also entirely possible that I will wake up in the tomorrow morning revitalized and ready to continue on full steam ahead.

(Wally Fish is the lead writer for Kings of Kauffman, Call to the Pen and is also FanSided’s MLB Director.  You can keep up to date with all of his work by following him on Facebook, Twitter or by way of the Kings of Kauffman RSS feed.)