By Mike Engel| @michaelengel | Kings of KauffmanÂ
Eric Hosmer (Keith Allison/Flickr)
Despite their best hopes, the 2012 season didn’t pan out for the Kansas City Royals. Loaded with young talent plucked from their deep farm system, many wondered if the Royals could make some noise in the AL Central after first baseman Eric Hosmer finished third in Rookie of the Year voting and Mike Moustakas finished August and September strong. Things were looking up.
And they won one game more than the 2011 team. Not what they were expecting. The primary culprit was a terrible starting rotation that suffered from injuries and ineffectiveness. Salvador Perez tore his meniscus in spring training and didn’t return until June. Eric Hosmer struggled all season. Jeff Francoeur’s redeeming 2011 turned out to be a mirage.
To remedy that pitching problem, the Royals have gone out and revamped their starting rotation, with the big move coming on Dec. 9 when the Royals traded for James Shields and Wade Davis. The move was met with mixed reactions since the price was top prospect Wil Myers, but the two improve the starting rotation immediately. Previously in the offseason, the Royals had also acquired Ervin Santana from the Angels and re-signed Jeremy Guthrie, who’d had a strong half-season after being acquired in a trade with the Rockies. The goal now is to have the first winning season in Kansas City since 2003 with the playoffs next on the checklist.
ROTATION – Shields will be the anchor of the Royals rotation. After six straight seasons of 200 innings or more, he’s the key to the Royals season. After a rough 2010, he came back to put up a 3.15 ERA in the two following seasons. Starting in 2010, his strikeout rate jumped and stayed there, while his walk rate remained in the same area. Since entering the league in 2006, only Roy Halladay, CC Sabathia, Cliff Lee, Felix Hernandez and Justin Verlander have more complete games (and over that stretch, Shields has more complete games alone than the Royals as a franchise have had since 2006). That’s the workhorse the Royals have been looking for since trading Zack Greinke after the 2010 season.
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