...as opposed to the 2003 pitching which was a house of cards that came crashing down after the ASB.

The competition level of the division was much lower, but I think this team has more talent.

It was 12th in the league in runs allowed. It was pretty putrid, put together by smoke and mirrors. Only one guy qualified for the ERA title. Only two guys even threw 100 innings. Chris George had a 7.11 ERA and he was second on the team in victories.

The difference in pitching between 2003 and 2008 is night and day. This year's offense is nowhere near as good as 2003 however.

I went to the most Royals games I'd ever been to. One in particular I remember was a game against the Yankees.

The place was packed and the atmosphere was amazing.
I think we ended up winning like 13-11 or something like that. Some highlights I remember were an

-Aaron Guiel, bases clearing double down the line to take the lead after the Royals had given it up.
-Angel Berroa inside the park homerun.
-An amazing play by Berroa when he snagged a grounder up the middle and then fired it to 3rd to get a tag on a Yankee. ( What the hell happened to him)
- Best of all, after a rally by the Royals, my best friend running down the aisle and flipping off a Yankees fan out of nowhere (mildly innapropriate but, c'mon, it's the Evil Empire)

I expect our pitching to be strong but will likely, as it always seems to do, drop off somewhat the last couple months.

We don't have any pushovers in our division to sandbag wins, but if everyone beats each other up all year long, I think we could manage 83-85 wins and take third. If Guillen has a career year, and Gord-But-Tea catch lightning in a bottle...third place if definately attainable...I just don't see any way of getting another big bat till next year, so the rest of the lineup also needs to step it up from last season. I think we need Grudz, so I would not like to see him go until a late season deal is made. True-Grit is contagious.

The bullpen still needs to prove itself. And the biggest problem I think we have is getting quality starts from our 4th and 5th starters....but if the stars allign this year, I think we will be better than the 2003 team.

Any shot at a wild card could only come if the Tigers and/or Tribe suffer massive injuries this year.

Hey weirder things have happened in baseball....and until all hope looks lost, I'm going to enjoy dreaming of the chance to make the post-season. How often do you get to feel this good about the Royals after the first two games of the season.

Here we are looking down on the division, with a 2-0 record against the "best in the central"....and instead of feeling pessimistic about the next game, I feel extremely optimistic knowing we have Greinke going against their third starter.

Perhaps best of all, how good does it feel knowing Larue isn't playing tomorrow!!!!!!!

into a combo with this year's pitching?

Is that even though we had no business winning even 83 games, I can still recall a number of close games we let slip away. Had we been able to hang onto a few of those games, who knows?