Here are my hunches for the 2013 Royals season:

Mike Moustakas will become a star as he improves both his defense and his hitting. He will be praised as "one of the solid pieces of the future." I can't really say why, he just has that swagger and that want-to-winnitude. Honestly, he just looks like he should be a superstar. It's just the way he looks. Hey, it's a hunch.

Alex Gordon and Billy Butler will have career years. Gordon's kind of been pussyfooting around the "huge" season, and Butler has likewise followed in that "having-great-season-but-no-monster-season-yet" pattern (this is the language of hunches). They will both hit 30+ home runs. One of them will break the Royals record. Don't ask me to put it into a nice graph or grid--I just kind of have this giant, pulsating and luminous hunch about it.

Wade Davis will underperform at starter but will shine as our closer... this after Greg Holland goes down with a season-ending injury in May. Sure this is an unfortunate turn of events, but it happens all the time in baseball, and you rarely see it coming. Well, *I* have, in the form of a massive, glittery, throbbing hunch that came to me in a vision while lying in bed and thinking back on my summer camp days. Such is the nature of hunches in all their forms.

James Shields will disappoint and barely be league average. This isn't so much of a "hunch" as it is an arithmetic certainty. Past Royals moves (amid comparable pomp) have seldom met the lofty expectations erected around them. Still, though we all know that this is pretty much a given, I suppose I have to couch it as a hunch.

Eric Hosmer will continue to flounder and be sent down to AAA for the 2nd half of the season. Hey, what can I say? It's a hunch, deal with it.

2nd base will be a train wreck all season long. How can anything but this happen? The aggregate result: .220/.309/.356 with below-average defense to boot! (no pun intended)

The Royals miss the playoffs by 5 games. Hunch.

merry xmas losers