And Betancourt says hi right back, with Frenchy waving in the background.

Made the mistake of reading a bleacher report article about 2013 predictions and they think the royals will have the worst starting rotation ERA in the AL. I didn't even realize it was bleacher report until it was to late.

If it isn't playoffs, the trade was an absolute failure.

I agree with this under one condition: we don't make it during the two years we have Shields.

Nope. Cannot bring "real" expectations into a Royals thread.

81 wins = success! What, you think they can really make a 20-game jump?!!!? Forget that DM is essentially betting the same thing.

i think you're supporting my point; prospects should always be viewed with skepticism, especially when comparing them with legitimate major-league talent (shields).

I'd be somewhat disappointed if we don't get a wild card spot, but I'll be very, very disappointed if we don't have a winning record.

Kind of. I thought you were ripping on Rany for "missing" on Kila. However, one cannot compare those two prospects (Kila and Myers) in any way, shape, or form.

Kila was far older, to the point that he was running out of "prospect" designation. Furthermore, we had jack and shit at the ML level. Myers, on the other hand, is a legit prospect by anyone's standards. Far easier to project, and in a completely different stratosphere than Kila.

DM, however, has proven himself to be incredibly flawed in his ability to assess ML talent, as the names in my last post note.

Brandon Wood more like it

Get back to me 10 months from now

I agree 100000%

esp when you have the WORST PLAYER IN MLB starting in RF

We are a shoe in for the Cactus League Championship!!!!!!!!!111111111111111111!!!!!!!!!!!

Dayton = Geeeneeus

Myers I get - and agree with.

But it became clear in the past year or so that Odorizzi was never going to be a stud unless one of his secondary pitches jumped up to be a true out pitch, or unless his fastball velocity took a big jump.

Davis is, at worst, going to be as good as Odorizzi. Even if he doesn't bring back any of the lessons he picked up in the bullpen. Even if he's just a nice, solid No. 4 pitcher who eats innings.

Davis has already answered some of the questions -workload, can he maintain his stuff from the 75-100 pitch level, which Odo has struggled with - that will make or break Odo as even a MLB-contributor.

I guess I missed this last year, but while looking up our draft position, I found out that we won the new "competitive balance" draft lottery for 2013. One of our ping-pong balls was drawn first, so we were awarded the first of the 6 bonus 1st-round picks out of 13 teams who were in the drawing.

So, in the draft this year, we'll have 3 of the first 46 picks. (#8, #33, #46)

Oddly, the Yankees will have 3 of the first 32 picks, they got 2 comp picks for losing Soriano and Swisher.

As for the Royals... a 20-game jump would be a large surprise. I think my expectations as of Day 1 break in around 84-85 wins. Which is probably enough to keep them in the wild card race all season.

If they don't make the playoffs in 2013 or 2014, the trade is a failure.

Reasons for optimism:

1) Better than their record a year ago. The Royals were unlucky, winning about 4-5 games fewer than their pythag suggested was normal.

2) Salvador Perez for 120 games as C and likely 15-20 as DH, rather than 75.

3) Eric Hosmer and Mike Moustakas improvement/rebound potential. The huge upside is still there for both. Early reports are good, and they're focused on things they should be - what pitches they're taking, what pitches they're driving, etc.

4) Stronger overall pitching staff. It's not likely to all work out as sunshine and roses. If it does, the Royals will challenge the Tigers legitimately. But it's still going to be a massive improvement, even if Davis is just league average, Santana is only OK, and Guthrie and Shields take small steps back from their performances last year.

(Of course, it could go south. Guthrie could pitch an entire season like he did in Colorado, Santana could be just as bad, Davis could get hurt, and Shields could do what he did in 2010)

5) Strengths are still strengths. The bullpen is still young, strong, and stacked with hard-throwing, strikeout artists. The defense is still young, and good (And could be much improved with Perez and Cain healthy).