KC Royals News: Danger lurks, some grumblings, and hot prospects

The KC Royals played their 25th game of the new season Wednesday and, to no one's real surprise, lost. After its 2-0 defeat at Arizona's hands, the floundering club is 6-19 and will almost certainly suffer a 20th defeat sometime during its four-game road series with Minnesota that starts tonight.

Count on that 20th loss, in fact. The Twins, who sit alone atop the American League Central, two games ahead of Cleveland and eight ahead of last-place Kansas City, are currently too good not to beat the Royals at least once, if not more. After all, they swept the teams' season-opening series at Kauffman Stadium and, at 14-11, are eight games better than KC in the win column.

It stands to reason, then, that the Royals will head home after Sunday's game even deeper in the cellar than they are now.

Unfortunately, danger awaits at The K.

The KC Royals are beginning a dangerous 14-game part of their schedule

While having to play the Twins four times in their house is bad enough, what faces the Royals when they return to Kansas City isn't, at least for the first three games of the long 10-game homestand they begin Tuesday night, much better. First into town will be the Orioles, winners of twice as many games as they've lost (16-8) and who trail first-place and still-hot Tampa Bay by only 3.5 games in the AL East. Baltimore improved immensely last year and looks even better this season. Bad showings against the Twins and Orioles could put Kansas City in an almost hopeless hole.

Fortunately, two bad teams, one worse than the Royals and the other almost as bad, follow the O's. Oakland, in for three after Baltimore leaves town, has one loss more and one win less than the Royals through Wednesday; the White Sox, struggling under new manager and former Royals bench coach Pedro Grifol, are a game ahead of KC.

As poorly as they're playing, however, the A's and White Sox won't be pushovers for a Kansas City club hamstrung by a consistently weak offense and inconsistent pitching. Taking both series will add some luster to the Royals, but losing both will only aggravate the pain of their early season.

Moving on, there are some negative vibes concerning a familiar ex-Royal...