Even though I’m more football oriented, I thought I’d try to give my general baseball observation of my hometown Royals this year.
In the seventies and
eighties, the Royals were a model franchise. They represented how you build a
young team from the ground up. And then around 1994, we were cellar dwellers.
Ever since then, the Royals have been uneventful.
With all that being said, there are 162 games in a season for each team. That’s one every day starting usually the 1st Sunday in April, and going until the last day of September. Playoffs and the World Series are in October. There are 25 men on the roster. Whenever a game is rained out, or postponed due to lightning, they play what’s called a doubleheader to make up for the game that was lost the day before. So, for those days, teams are allotted a 26th man for the doubleheader. And the last month of September is when the roster is expanded to 40 for the month. The whole goal is to win a series at a time, against the team you play 3 or 4 times in a row until the end of the season. If you win more than 90 games total, you usually make the playoffs.
… Also, baseball is
divided into 2 leagues with 15 teams each. They’re differentiated by the
Designated Hitter in the American League (a position player only bats for the
pitcher and never plays defense), and in the National League, the pitcher bats
last in the batting order. Someday soon, I have a feeling both leagues will
have a universal DH because the pitchers don’t practice batting very often and
are always an easy out. I also believe, much like the DH, the 26th man will be
permanent years from now.
I really like our young
team this year. And even though we didn’t have a winning season in 2013, you
could see us start to win some games. So, I hope we are at least really
competitive this year.
LF: Alex Gordon *favorite current KC Royal position player
CF: Lorenzo Cain
RF: Norichika Aoki
3B: Mike Moustakas
SS: Alcides Escobar
2B: Omar Infante
1B/DH: Eric Hosmer
C: Salvador Perez
1. Norichika Aoki
Bench:
OF: Jarrod Dyson
OF: Justin Maxwell
1B/DH: Billy Butler
C: Erik Kratz
IF: Danny Valencia
Starting Pitching Rotation:
1. James Shields
2. Jason Vargas
3. Jeremy Guthrie
4. Bruce Chen
5. Yordano Ventura
Bullpen:
Tim Collins
Luke Hochevar
Louis Coleman
Aaron Crow
Kelvin Herrera
Wade Davis *Set up man
Greg Holland *Closer
