Well it's off season time, and the royals have a lot of unanswered questions. Do I believe the royals can compete in 2010? Wow, i think it would be a long-shot, but because of how weak the division is going to be, i think we have a chance. The Indians are going through re building and are a ways away, the White Sox are aging quickly and have too many big contracts to be brought all back, the tigers have a descent rotation, but i believe they are on the downslope. The twins, on the other hand, should be a solid team. Their offense should be pretty legit, but they have a ton of needs in their starting rotation. Nick Blackburn as teams number 1 starter is screaming terrible starting pitching staff! With all that said, I'm still not completely convinced the Royals can compete. If they want to compete, they are going to have to do a few things.

1.      Starting pitching. Greinke needs help. I'm wasn't pleased with Gil's pitching last season, but i hoping he gets back to old self. But after that, the pitching staff is open. I loved how Tejeda pitched at the end of the season, but that really does not mean a whole lot. He is going to compete for a spot, but I'm not sure he is going to get it. Banny, Davies, and Hoch are also question marks. Hoch showed some signs he could be a descent 3rd starter in this league, so i want to keep him. Banny and Davies need to be shopped around. I don't know what we could get for them, but they need to go. A guy i would love to see us go after is a guy like Brad Penny. He really struggled in Boston, but he looked really good in San Fran. Hopefully, we could sign him for a low year amount, but i wouldn't give him any more than a 3 year deal. Another guy that would be solid would be Kelvim Escobar. Not a Number 1 guy, but a solid pitcher.

2.      Offense. We need bats!! I'm getting tired of Dayton getting all of these athletic outfielders with .230 batting averages. Their are guys out there we could get by trading Banny and/or Davies for. As much as i hate to say it, Teahan needs to be shopped around as well. He has good worth on the market because of how much he do. Before Coco was hurt, i liked what he was doing. By saying that, he needs to stay and remain the center fielder. Dejesus had a solid year once again, and he is a solid left fielder. The open need is right field. We need to get a big bat that can help Billy drive in runs. The other major question mark is second base. Callaspo is maybe the worst fielder of any of the starting second basemen in the majors. I liked what he did at the plate and he is a switch hitter, so he needs to stay and maybe be a DH if need be. Jose and Jacobs were terrible. i don't think they have much of any value, so if it were up to me, i would bite the bullet and release them. I would try to trade them though.

3.      Bullpen. The Royals don't have the money to go out and get a top guy in the bullpen, but there are plenty of solid players out there that won't make us go bankrupt. I would also even check in triple A to get a cheap, solid pitcher.

Projected Lineup(this is if we want to try and compete next year, which is not what Dayton is about. He is very future-oriented. So the chances of this happening are slim to none.)

1. Crisp CF                                                                  1. Greinke
2. Orlando Hudson 2B                                              2. Meche
3. Butler 1B                                                                  3. Kelvim Escobar
4. Josh Willingham RF                                              4. Hoch
5. Dejesus LF                                                              5. Tejeda
6. Gordon 3B
7. Callaspo DH
8. Pena C
9. Aviles SS