Five players to keep an eye on from the Royals.

This is a team that I have always had a soft spot for, and unlike my article on the Astros, I could have picked ten players for this one. In my early days of fantasy success I had a championship team built with Bud Black, Mark Gubicza and Danny Jackson, and I had 8×10 pictures of each in my dorm room. Sad, I know. There have always been a number of Royals to pique my interest. I had held on to Justin Huber for three years before finally cutting him loose this year (and he would look great in a Yankees’ uniform). I have had a man-crush on Zack Greinke as mentioned on the Sunday radio show. Now I have a new potential favorite Royal in our first player:

Billy Butler He can flat out rake and is as good a bet to win a future batting title as any other player in his class. I even thought about mentioning him in the Generals’ discussion of possible 3,000 hit players. If I had to pick one rookie to make the Hall he would be my pick (usually most rookie classes have one or two). Keep in mind that I made the exact same statement about Ryan Klesko at one point… He could very well hit .300 at age 21. He was on my “go get him” list for my big money auction league which meant I would go after him regardless of projected dollar values.

Zack Greinke How could I not mention him? His 7.8 K rate and 2.7 BB rate are good enough but it was his second half surge that put him back on the map as a potential top pitcher. The only cause for concern is his flyball rate of 46% last year, but it looks like all systems are go for 2008.

John Buck He will struggle with his batting average, but is as good a bet for 20 HR among the bottom tier of catchers this side of Mike Napoli. He had a solid flyball rate of 40% in 2008 and any improvement here will get him to that magic 20 plateau. I am going to buck conventional wisdom (forgive the pun) on rookies and ignore his second half, as the Royals apparently were fooling around with his approach rather than leaving well enough alone. Good thing Buddy Bell is gone. Buck could surprise his year, and since he will be going late you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Gil Meche I will go against the conventional wisdom again here and not predict a regression for Meche. Baseball HQ was leading the pro-Meche bandwagon last year, against the Baseball Prospectuses of the world, and HQ is still bullish. Good enough for me. There is a saying that there are many pitchers who could be successful if only they could cut off one walk per 9 IP. Meche did that and more, dropping from 4.1 BB/9 IP to 2.5. His hit rate was 30% and his strand rate was 74%, both normal. So his improvement looks real, and that ridiculed contract could be a bargain. Baseball HQ 1, Baseball Prospectus 0.

Tony Pena You have to be REALLY desperate to have to take him on, and it is too bad the Royals can’t find a better solution at SS. Pena simply cannot hit in the bigs, and though you may be tempted to think of him as a cheap everyday player at the end of your AL only league auction, don’t do it. Having better offense up the middle is perhaps the only thing separating the Royals from .500. He, along with Luis Hernandez in Baltimore, make excellent razzball picks.