The Royals

I have a theory when it comes to sports that each league will thrive when its key franchises are rolling along with great success. So then, the question becomes, who are the MLB’s key franchises?
In my humble opinion they’re franchises that have had a degree of success and have been associated with a high level of talent and skill for longer than a couple of years. That’s right, Arizona Diamondbacks…you’re not there…yet.

My humble opinion on this, by division:

AL East
Yankees
Red Sox
Orioles

AL Central
Tigers
Twins
Royals

AL West
Angels

NL East
Phillies
Braves
Mets

NL Central
Cardinals
Reds
Cubs

NL West
Giants
Dodgers

All of this is a long precursor to my thoughts on the Kansas City Royals. This morning I read Joe Posnanski’s blog about his last Royals game for awhile, and he successfully tugged on my heart strings enough to inspire some thought.

I lived with two guys from Kansas City when I was in grad school and their persistence to watch the Royals led me to watching quite a bit more Royals baseball then I ever would before. From an anecdotal perspective, and to quote Posnanski “this town deserves a baseball winner. Well, every town deserves one now and again”.

As a Blue Jays fan I’ve been tormented by the fact that we play in the most ridiculous division in professional sports. The Yankees and Red Sox will out-spend the league, and as I mentioned last night, Tampa is working harder than any team in the league to find undervalued talent or to sign their young stars. But in that same torment is quickly relatable to a Royals fan. Constant talk about the young talent in the minors, several re-building efforts and a long playoff drought led to many nights sitting around a fire pit drinking bad American beer and commiserating about our favourite teams.

Watching the Royals last night, when they beat the Jays in 11 innings, I was very impressed by Eric Hosmer. This should come as no surprise to anyone. He’s the real deal. Hosmer has compiled an .834 OPS with 5 HR and 20 RBI in one month. That’s enough to push Billy Butler (another great player) out of the 1B spot and into daily DH duties. Hosmer going 2-5 with the game winning RBI single seemed only appropriate as Jays fans salivate over *The Legend of Brett Lawrie*.

To close, I’d like to quote Posnanski again. He’s been a favourite of mine ever since I was a young kid with a Sports Illustrated subscription. Tonight the Jays face Vin Mazzaro, who gave up 11 hits, 14 runs and sports an ERA of 22.74 coming into action tonight. This has to bode well for the Jays, no?

“This town has endured all those things. More, though, it has endured a decade and a half of being all but irrelevant across the country. This was once one of baseball's model franchises. This was once one of America's best baseball towns. For many years, though, Kansas City baseball has been choked by money constraints and missed opportunities and awful decisions and bad luck -- not necessarily in that order. And that made the Royals all but invisible across America. Anyway, it usually felt that way”

“And here in the bottom of the 11th inning, the Royals load the bases. There are two outs. Eric Hosmer comes up. He's 21 years old. He's the most exciting young player in Kansas City since Carlos Beltran. I am no scout, but when I saw Hosmer swing the bat during spring training I thought: "This guy is going to be a star." The fans, the ones who remain, are standing and cheering, and it's not an overwhelming sound, but it's a good sound”

“And Eric Hosmer drills a no-doubt, line-drive single to center. The Royals win”

2011 Pitching Rankings

In the coming days I'll be taking a look at each of the teams in baseball and their current (as of the day of the post) pitching rotations. Why? Because I found myself wondering "if I was a Pirates fan, should I be excited"? Since you have to be an ESPN Insider to see Keith Law's rankings of MiLB systems, I've decided to use AOL's Frankie Piliere's rankings.

I will tackle one division at a time over the next week or so.

Today we look at the American League East.

Baltimore Orioles (Currently 8-12, 5th in AL East)

1. Jeremy Guthrie

2. Chris Tillman

3. Zach Britton

4. Jake Arrieta

5. Brad Bergesen

(Currently on the disabled list - Brian Matusz)

The Orioles sport the second youngest starting 5 (25.6) in the division and a collective ERA of 4.56 and a WHIP of 1.27. With a minor league system ranked 25th overall it would appear that these pitchers are the foundation of their rotation for quite awhile. Barring major injury or blockbuster trades we can expect to see these guys for awhile at Camden Yards. Jeremy Guthrie is the elder statesman of the bunch at the ripe old age of 32. In 2010 the Orioles farm system was ranked 6th in baseball, so this year's ranking may be indicative that the kids have moved from the farm system to the big show.

Boston Red Sox (currently 10-11, 3rd in the AL East)

1. Jon Lester

2. John Lackey

3. Clay Buchholz

4. Josh Beckett

5. Daisuke Matsuzaka

The Red Sox have the second oldest rotation (29) within the division and a collective ERA of 4.05 and a 1.26 WHIP. Not unlike the O's, the Sox have recently cleaned out the high end prospects in their system (Lester, Buchholz) and have most of their players in their most productive years (in terms of age). Seeing a modest fall from 11 to 14 in the AOL Rankings shows the impact of the Adrian Gonzalez deal. Anthony Ranaudo is their next "ace in the making", albeit at least 2 seasons away, the 21 year old has averaged 10.22 K/9 at LSU. He's currently playing for the A level Greenville Drive.

New York Yankees (currently 12-7, 1st in the AL East)

1. C.C. Sabathia

2. A.J. Burnett

3. Bartolo Colon

4. Ivan Nova

5. Freddie Garcia

(currently on the DL - Phil Hughes)

New York was hit hard in the past couple years with prospect problems. Joba Chamberlain was supposed to become Roger Clemens lite - he didn't. Phil Hughes was an 18 game winner in 2010 - and now has a dead arm. The Yankees currently sport the oldest starting 5 in the division (31.8) with a collective ERA of 3.78 (but if you include Hughes starts that goes to 5.47) and a WHIP of 1.27 (going to 1.44 with Hughes). What you've got here is a fragile rotation that has been moderately effective in so far. Sabathia is a work horse, but to expect consistency from Burnett, or Freddie Garcia to continue to post a 0.69 ERA/0.69 WHIP is simply asinine. What they do have is a system that sports a fine collection of young arms and made a jump from 15th to 4th in the offseason. Names to watch out for: Manny Banuelos, Dellin Betances and Andrew Brackman.

Tampa Bay Rays (currently 11-11, 2nd in the AL East)

1. David Price

2. James Shields

3. Wade Davis

4. Jeff Neimann

5. Jeremy Hellickson

By now everyone knows that Tampa is insanely talented. They're young, fearless and potentially androids from another planet. With the third youngest rotation in the division (26.2) they're posting absolutely obscene numbers. Collectively an ERA of 3.93 and a WHIP of 1.24, both of which were escalated by a poor first week. This rotation is good...really good. They're also really young. Stud in the making, Jeremy Hellickson, has 4 pitches that he can use to get batters out and pinpoint control. The scary thing about this team is that they're only going to get better. They dropped from the #1 system to #3 in 2011, but have a new influx of impact arms that they gathered in the Matt Garza trade. Names to look out for: Chris Archer, Matt Moore and Alex Colome.

Toronto Blue Jays (Currently 9-12, 4th in the AL East)

1. Ricky Romero

2. Kyle Drabek

3. Brandon Morrow

4. Jo-Jo Reyes

5. Jesse Listch

(recently demoted - Brett Cecil)

The Blue Jays currently sport the youngest rotation in the division (25.4) with a collective ERA of 4.31 and a WHIP of 1.32. Those first three names will be the top of this list for quite some time. This rotation is another product of the highly ranked minor league system. Romero and Listch are both draft picks, and Drabek came to Toronto in the Roy Halladay trade with Philadelphia. Morrow, a reclamation project from Seattle, has turned into what A.J. Burnett would have been if he had control (also, without the history of injury). In 2010, AOL ranked the Jays system 26th, where in 2011 they jump all the way up to 5th. The 2010 draft class was particularly strong for the Jays (no longer adhering to the slotting system) and it's a matter of when not if, that Zach Stewart will be called up for his shot.

Top 5 Pitchers NOW

1. C.C. Sabathia

2. Jon Lester

3. David Price

4. Brandon Morrow

4. Ricky Romero

Top 5 Pitchers FUTURE

1. Jeremy Hellickson

2. Kyle Drabek

3. Brian Matusz

4. Wade Davis

5. Jake Arrieta