Royals Fans, Who Are We?

The recent comment by KC Royals General Manager Dayton Moore stating "We know who we are", left a lot of us Fans scratching our heads. What did he mean by that comment? Royals Fans may now be at the bottom of the mountain looking up, but we have every intention of looking down from the peak again. We understand that there is still much work to be done just to become competitive. All of the promise of the highly touted top minor league system is little consolation when we continue to toss in the towel before the All-Star Break every season. Even if the Royals spend big money to land a couple of high priced free agents (Ervin Santana: $13M for one), it will take much more improvement to contend for the Central Division Crown.

Is that what Dayton was really saying? We know who we are, and that is not a very good ball club (right now). We can give away a ton of Mr. Glass' money to sign these fine free agent pitchers while we remain fairly certain that by mid-season these rent-a-stars will become trade bait on a losing club- likely picked up cheap by a contending team to "get them over the hump". Maybe. Are the Royals really only a Triple A Plus team? Not quite a major league talent level team? At this point, maybe so. Are we developing young players like Moustakas and Hosmer just for them to leave for their big paydays as when Damon, Beltran, and Zack flew the coup? Again, maybe. But let's hope not this time.

What do Royals fans really want the most? Loyal players with a deep dedication to keep scrapping and giving 100% on every play of the game. Players who play the game the right way- gritty hardball- we got to watch Brett do that for 20 years, so we know what it looks like. We want players who say they want to stay with the Royals and really mean it. That is why Alex Gordon shot to the top of our popularity list by signing up to a deal that worked well for both sides. It is safe to say Royals Fans would like to see Alex a Royal for life. The same goes for Billy Butler, Alcides, and Salvy. It is also too well understood that hoping for the same in the cases of Moose and Hoz is probably wishful thinking. Their image is much more like that of other home grown talent that was seeking great riches. I mean, why does a guy need $100M? To start a small city? Whatever may be the case, it comes across to the average fan like me as pure greed- and a disloyalty to the Fan Base- ticket buying working folks who put them in that position- just to leave us at the alter.

Which brings us back to the question, as a Royals franchise, who are we? And what do we really want. A World Series win of course. There are many paths to reach that goal. The number one priority should be to sign and keep players who want to be a KC Royal- hopefully for life. This may mean they might not be ridiculously wealthy, but certainly very rich. Where do we find these types of players? In the draft. And fortunately, we have several in the "pipeline". Starling and Zimmer appearing to be two fine examples. Clearly, neither are ready to contribute at The K yet, but their presence in the system is encouraging nonetheless. They are key pieces to the big "puzzle". At this point, I'm not sure either Moose or Hoz can be counted on as long term key pieces. Until that changes they might be considered expendable- for the right price. As is Cain. For that reason many Fans are drudgingly mentally preparing for that eventuality.

We have Jake Odorizzi and other promising pitching talent on the horizon. The addition of Santana is very expensive but fits nicely with the overall program plan going forward. Since Ervin is in the final year of his contract, it is likely that he will be very focused on positioning himself for another big payday. One which is not likely to come from the Royals. A 17 to 18 win season by him seems quite reasonable. That would generate a lot of fan interest and fill a lot of seats on Sunday afternoons. Maybe after learning what a great baseball city KC is, he may want to sign a Gordon-like contract, along with Moose and Hoz- that would be nice. Yes, we know who we are- the best Fans in this great game.

It is going to be an interesting off-season and I am not quite ready to predict a .500 finish, yet. But there is still time to solidify the lineup into a quite competitive and steadily improving, fun to watch Hardball Club. Go Royals!