God, quit freaking out everybody. The Royals are in practically the same shape that they were in as soon as spring training started, but everyone is freaking out because of a couple roster moves and two major injuries at positions that can be filled by our team EASILY.

Here's my take: The Royals are still a young team that could contend this year with a little bit of luck, even with YuniGetzy patrolling second base and Salvador Perez down for the next couple-few months. We knew second base was an issue, and it's not like Getz and Betancourt are much worse than Giavotella was going to be. Giavotella looks like he could be simply okay at the major league level, and Getz and Betancourt aren't much better than okay now. Hell, if Giavotella is mashing at AAA and fielding well, and Getz sucks at the major league level within the first couple of months of the season, we could send Getz down and call Giavotella up.

Salvador Perez is injured. Humberto Quintero is better than Matt Treanor was. Chill out about him being down for almost half the season. He's going to be back, and hey! Maybe that will put us over the top this year.

I think that we're all just worrying and freaking out too much, and that everything will be just as we expected it to be.

That's pretty much all I have to say.

PS: Mendoza will be a decent starter, if anything, and he deserves just as much of a shot as Paulino does at this point.

Topics:

1: Where do you stand as of now on the major league player evaluation skills of Dayton Moore?

2: If Betancourt does reasonably well at second base early in the season, will you be pleasantly surprised, or will you expect him to regress on the spot?

3: If the Royals contend through the middle of August, will you expect them to continue contending through the rest of the season?

4: What is your favorite Royals player name anagram?