Every time I see it bumped I get pumped because for the first time in a long time and basically my whole life we can have legitimate optimism about the upcoming season. I don't really count 2004.

Endy Chavez has come home. Life is good.

welp. The Royals got better, but according to at least one of the computers, they did not improve enough. The ZiPS projection is not fully out yet, but since the Royals "went all in", they released a sneak preview of KC.

Our rotation was upgraded by about 2 wins. Hopefully some of our hitters will bounce back a lot more than expected, and Frenchy will have a WAR on the correct side of zero. Billy Butler is projected to be our most valuable hitter, and James Shields is projected to be our most valuable pitcher.

instant fun poll: the Royals went all-in.

What two cards are we holding? To make it simple, assume we went all-in pre-flop, we bet first, with 5 players at the table.

I'll say Queen-King suited.

Ace Jack. Seems fitting.

Pair of 7s.

Those ZIPS projections look interesting, especially with Shields, Santana and Guthrie.

I would be surprised if 2/3 don't OVERPERFORM those projections by a half run to a full run.

As for the hand... I like Ace/Jack. King/Ten might be better.

I don't get that projection at all - we had 80+ starts eaten up by complete crap, below replacement level guys. We had another 40 eaten up by replacement guys. Just by getting them out of there, we improve probably 5 wins or more.


Now does 72 to 77 wins sound like a lot? No. But it ain't 2 wins. GMAFB

I agree with this. I would think we would gain 5 wins alone by not being out of games in the first couple innings. There had to be at least five times alone last year where we were in a hole very early in the game. Now I know what was posted above is likely an objective prediction of what will happen, and my feeling doesn't really dispute that, but it's very hard for me to believe that improving our starting rotation to the extent that we have will not translate into immediate success.

Am I just being a complete homer in thinking that?

Ned Yost this morning said that 6 Royals have the potential to hit 25+ HRs this season. He had Cain and Gordon hitting 20-25. Moose and Hosmer hitting 25-30. Perez hitting 30-35 and Butler hitting 35-40.

And he also talked about being much more aggressive this season on offense and letting the hitters take big swings when they needed to.

I'll defecate in a cereal bowl and eat it in front of the entire chiefs planet if sal perez hits 35 homers.

This

Frank Yost what are you saying!

I would be shocked if anyone hit 35 HRs.

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