There has been a lot of talk about what the Royals 2012 rotation might look like. A conventional wisdom (which has come at least partially from the Royals front office) has emerged that there are three pitchers who, barring injury, will definitely be in the rotation: Bruce Chen, Luke Hochevar and Jonathan Sanchez. Then, there is a larger group of pitchers who are competing for the last two spots.

Given his 2011 performance, career MLB stats and his scouting reports, I have been both bewildered and frustrated that Felipe Paulino hasn't been considered a lock for the rotation. There's a lot to like there, and it seems to me that his only serious competition is prospects who may or may not be Major League ready. Anyway, I thought it would be useful to see what the projection systems say about the Royals rotation candidates. For 10 pitchers, I compiled the ERA and FIP projections from CAIRO, ZiPS and PECOTA. Then I averaged the ERA and FIP projections and finally did a weighted average of those averages (CAIRO = 1, ZiPS = 2, PECOTA = 2). The results are after the jump.

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In my many adventures trying to find cheap stuff, I bought this box of SI's for $10.

Here are some of the highlights that I read on the Royals

Fred Pateck Quotes

Pateck's answer on how it feels to be the shortest player in the majors, "A heckuva lot better than being the shortest player in the minors."

When asked, "What's your home run pitch?", he stated, " I don't know. I don't hit enough of them."

Sounds like Pateck could give Getz some advice

Cheerleaders

The new girl cheerleaders were cheerless --- "People got mad when we stood up to cheer," said one. "They said they could not see the game"

Royals cheerleaders. Really. I searched for 15 minutes for some images online with no success. Help me here. I have to see these an image of these cheerleaders.

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I've already done a team win projection for the 2012 Royals based on the individual player projections from the CAIRO and ZiPS systems. I have now done it with the recently released PECOTA projections. You can look at the ZiPS version for details on my methodology. I also put together the projections from the three systems for a mega-projection. All results after the jump.

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Late last week the Royals and Alex Gordon agreed to a one-year $4.775 million dollar contract, essentially splitting the difference between what both sides had wanted this winter. Although discussions of a long-term contract with Gordon came to a head this month, there is not immediate urgency here: Gordon is still under team control through the 2013 season.

Gordon's at an interesting point in his career. He's not quite the second coming of Jose Bautista, but he fact remains he hit .244/.328/.405 in his first 1641 PAs, then hit .303/.376/.502 in 688 last season. He has the pedigree and a number of plausible explanations for his previous struggles, but you have to look at all the data.

Alex Gordon

#4 / Left Field / Kansas City Royals

Height: 6-2

Weight: 220

Bats: L

Throws: R

Born: Feb 10, 1984

I'm a Gordon believer and a Gordon defender, and it's a rare opportunity for me to feel right about something. Nevertheless, no matte what you think the ultimate cause was, Gordon has had an up-and-down career, with some definite downs. Heading into his age 28 season, Gordon could take another step forward and develop into a real offensive force. He might also see his batting average drop down closer to his career levels, which might offset continued gains in other areas.

Just under $5 million is still a very good price for Gordon. Jeff Francoeur, mind you, is getting paid $6 million for 2012 and $7.5 M for 2013. If Gordon reproduces his 2011 in 2012, the Royals will have one of those good problems teams face, with a valuable player heading towards a nice 3-arb payday. Having good players is a good thing. Of course, they also risk Gordon deciding he'll want to hit the free agent market.

On the other hand, the Royals hold some flexibility at the moment, which is apparently what they value more. If Gordon struggles again, they might be able to secure him for a lower price.

With pitchers and catchers only 9 days away from reporting for the beginning of a highly anticipated season, I'm finding it harder and harder to wait to fill the void that's been missing since September. One way to do that of course is through shameless consumerism, so today I perused the official Royals shop online, which you can find here.

In the interest of helping dedicated diehards like myself (and potential bandwagoners jumping on to watch the fruits of the BFSE develop here) decide how to show off their bursting Mission: 2012 pride, I've compiled a list of 6 items available online that definitely won't do that.

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We really don't talk about George Brett enough around here.

The following are interesting, purely random splits from Brett's career:

• Was terrible leading off a game. Hit .232/.273/.392 starting the game, which he did 132 times. To start an inning, he was better, hitting .302/.346/.492.
• OPS by outs. 0- .869, 1-.864, 2-.839. I guess he just wasn't clutch.
• Scratch that, his best inning offensively was extra innings, where he had a 1.019 OPS. Second best inning? The third - .887. Worst inning? The 9th - .774 OPS.
• Brett hit really well against the Blue Jays (didn't they have good pitching in the 1980s?) posting a .953 OPS against those Canadians. His worst opponent was, weirdly, the Indians (.753)

Scott Pose turns 45 today.

Pose was a Royal great in 1999-00, was the first Marlin to step to the plate in 1993 and, uhh, was also named Pose.

He slugged .288 in the 1990s, which was tough to do.

Five Fun Facts About Scott Pose