2009 Record: 65-97
4th Place (tie) in the AL Central

Like the question of whether a Cubs’ curse really exists, and everything that comes out of Manny Ramirez’s mouth, the Royals are one of the most confounding mysteries of baseball. Simply put, the team that exists on paper in Kansas City in spring training (and in recent years even into mid-April), is never the team that shows up to play the bulk of the baseball season.

Essentially, the Royals are either far better than they look on the field, or far worse than they look on paper, depending on how you prefer to finish the “glass is half…” theory.

Kansas City is a team that has more talent than their record ever suggests, but less talent than they appear to be paying for. The bottom line? There is a lot of good stuff here, but it doesn’t seem to be translating into much success for the perpetually flailing Royals.

The team seems to have enough in its arsenal to get something going, but as yet has been unable to figure out how to put the pieces together to turn it into a squad that can really go somewhere, or at least, for you “glass is half empty” folks, post perhaps a respectable third place finish in the division.

Following are three key points for the Royals going forward that, if achieved, should translate into a marked improvement for the franchise and create a formula for greater success a little farther down the road.

1. Spend Smarter

The Royals are one of those franchises that is perpetually viewed as a low budget, small market operation, but in fact the Royals payroll is quite average. More specifically, it is exactly average, ranking 15th out of the 30 teams in MLB in 2009.

So while this franchise is by no means in a position to pay to make all their problems go away, they do have enough funds to put a competitive squad on the field, or at least one that is more competitive than in recent years.

I really hate to take shots at Dayton Moore, because he’s one of the best GMs in baseball among the guys who have inherited a team that was a complete mess and been charged with the task of turning it into something that resembles a real baseball team.

However, while Moore should receive an immense amount of credit for what he has been able to do with the Kansas City farm system, he needs to do a better job of getting the most out of the budget he has to work with.

Look at the top four players in terms of salary on the Royals’ roster in 2009: Jose Guillen, Gil Meche, Coco Crisp, and Kyle Farnsworth. For the most part, these are hardly the team’s top contributors. While I am by no means suggesting that the Royals, say, start overpaying talented young players who are still under team control at a modest price for several years to come, it seems clear that the Royals are not spending as wisely as they could be when Guillen is commanding the largest salary on the team.

Moore has already begun to use the team’s funds more wisely (for example, locking up Joakim Soria with a three-year extension in 2008 with club options that extend through 2014).

Moore is doing a great job of keeping his young players in place. What he needs to do next is spend more wisely to bring in veterans to round out the team and plug holes.

2. Find Some Power

In looking for where to spend his money, a big power bat is perhaps the first thing Moore should be looking for.

Interesting fact about the Royals: through September, the occupants of the Royals’ cleanup spot in the batting order had the same OPS as the Rockies’ number 9 hitters. You know, the pitchers.

So obviously, Kansas City is in desperate, desperate need of some guys who can mash.

The emergence of Billy Butler might give Moore a way to fix this problem internally without having to go out and spend on an expensive free agent slugger this winter.

The problem will be, who protects Butler in the lineup? For better or for worse, Mark Teahen was traded to the White Sox today. As of right now, that leaves little more than Mike Jacobs, who hit .228 in 2009. That combined with just 19 home runs and 61 RBIs scares, well, no one.

So unless Jose Guillen can stay healthy, stay off PEDs, and still somehow start producing runs again, it looks like Moore may need to go shopping for a big stick this winter.

3. Find a way to get talent on paper to translate into wins on the field

This is of course the over-arching problem for the Royals and essentially sums up what this team really needs to do to turn it around.

The talent is there, to be sure. The Royals have arguably the best starter in all of baseball in Zack Greinke, top-tier emerging talent at closer in Joakim Soria, and a solid core of young, talented position players with tremendous potential in Billy Butler, Alex Gordon, and Alberto Callaspo.

Alas, so far the team has yet to find a way to build around these players in order to put a competitive franchise on the field for longer than just the first three weeks of the season.

Dayton Moore’s thus-far tremendous job overhauling the farm system should help with this going forward. The Royals appear to have the talent in the system to build a promising future. As for right now, however, they appear to be a formidable squad in name only.

The team needs to make better use of the talent it has, and do more to bring in outside talent that fits within the budget but is effective at turning a team with potential into a group that can really start winning.

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Overall, the Royals need to find a way to make better use of the assets they already have, find a way to insert more pop into their lineup, and find a way to truly maximize what they can get out of their budget in terms of contract extensions for young talent and bringing in free agents to fill in the holes.

If there is any GM out there who is up to the task, it is Dayton Moore. His work so far indicates he can mold this team into a winner, even if it takes a few more years to get the whole thing to truly gel. For now, Royals fans can hope to see an improved squad in 2010, and perhaps even get a glimpse of what looks like a much brighter future in years to come.

Please feel free to leave your thoughts on what YOU think is important for the Royals’ future in the comment section below.

2009 Record: 79-83
3rd Place in the AL Central

One thing the White Sox always get right: they continue to be in the mix and come close to the AL Central title nearly every year. Unfortunately for Chicago fans, baseball is neither horseshoes nor hand grenades, so close doesn’t count.

While Detroit held the division lead for the better part of the season, Chicago spent most of it right on their heels, looking like the team with the best shot to catch them. Alas, by the end of the regular season, it was Minnesota who managed to squeak past the Tigers, and the White Sox faded to an anti-climactic third place finish, 7.5 games out of first.

The White Sox are a team with powerhouse potential, stacked with talent but also fraught with problems. Sox’ brass began to address the issues plaguing the team during the 2009 season, attempting to phase out the old, slow, and power-reliant regime and begin trending toward youth and speed. The groundwork has been laid, but there is still a lot of work to be done if the White Sox are to claim the AL Central in 2010 and in years to come.

Following are three key points for the White Sox going forward that, if achieved, should translate into a marked improvement for the franchise and create a formula for greater success a little farther down the road.

1. Stop relying on the home run and out-slugging the opponent, and develop a more diverse roster which also uses pitching and speed to succeed.

For years, heavy hitters Paul Konerko and Jim Thome have anchored the White Sox lineup, delivering enough clutch home runs to make up for a relatively paltry team average, inconsistent pitching, and a streaky lineup that frequently failed to move base runners with singles and speed.

In the past, Jermaine Dye and Carlos Quentin bolstered the punch at the plate of Thome and Konerko, allowing the team to put a lineup on the field that always threatened to go deep. Decent and at times even excellent pitching kept the Sox in perpetually close games, holding the score down enough to often allow a dinger or two to bring home the win.

Unfortunately, 2009’s Sox pitchers couldn’t shut down opposing offenses the way past squads did, and their big, lumbering power hitters began to succumb to age and injury. Dye is slowly fading, Thome’s age really began to show in the form of his extremely low average, and Quentin, Chicago’s other serious power threat, spent most of the season on the DL. Konerko still managed to post a .277 average, but his power numbers have been declining in an alarming fashion over the last few seasons.

Newer Sox players like Gordon Beckham and Alexei Ramirez exemplify Chicago’s movement toward ability to adapt and indicate the Sox are already working to build a lineup focused on speed and average, but there is still work to do.

2. Take advantage of a relatively large payroll budget, but spend wisely.

Chicago has a generous budget to work with, especially by AL Central standards. Still, they’re not the Yankees, so their is a limit to how much money they can pour into the team’s payroll.

Unloading Thome freed up some money, as will allowing Dye to leave, but the Sox are still locked into a number of large contracts for Mark Buehrle ($14 million), Jake Peavy ($15 million), and Paul Konerko ($12 million), and a total of more than $70 million for just 11 players on the roster.

While they do still have some wiggle room to sign a few free agents in the winter, they also have a few key players eligible for arbitration this year who won’t come cheap in John Danks, Bobby Jenks, and Carlos Quentin.

Realistically, Danks, Jenks, and Quentin should and likely will all be offered arbitration. That leaves even less unallocated cash for free agents. Thus the White Sox will need to be careful and be sure to get the greatest possible potential return on any free agent signings above and beyond money already committed to existing contracts and arbitration judgments.

In looking at what truly doomed Chicago in 2009, most of that available money should go toward solidifying a shaky pitching staff. Sox starters did a respectable job of holding down the team’s total ERA, but the bullpen ranked in the bottom half of all MLB teams, and couldn’t hold onto a one-lead to save their lives.

Another potential wise use of the remaining available funds might perhaps be adding another speedster to the roster who will be younger and cheaper than pricey free agent Scott Podsednik.

3. Cut ties with aging veterans, and join the youth movement.

As discussed above, the White Sox lineup has started to look weighed down by aging, no longer effective power hitters in recent years.

Chicago is already working to fix that, wisely trading Thome during the 2009 season, and likely choosing not to re-sign the admirable but past his prime Dye in the free agent market this off-season. Konerko’s contact will be up after the coming season, and if the White Sox are smart, they will trade him while he still has some value and before he can walk for younger, more agile contact hitters or relief pitching.

Kenny Williams has done an excellent job improving the Chicago farm system and amateur draft moves in recent years, and has made a big splash in the international market as well. These moves are starting to pay off: Gordon Beckham won the Sporting News’ AL Rookie of the Year award for 2009, and Alexei Ramirez looks like a future superstar.

Chicago needs to continue to move in this direction, focusing even more on developing prospects in their farm system from the amateur draft and international signings. Beckham and Ramirez are good indicators that the new strategy is already working. If the Sox can continue to follow through on this, they can completely revamp the look and feel of their roster to great advantage over the next few seasons.

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Overall, the White Sox will need more consistent pitching, a farm system whose productivity continues to improve, and a lineup which shows a marked improvement in producing base runners and efficiently moving them around the base paths without having to rely on the long ball.

Chicago has already done a fantastic job taking its first steps toward making these things happen. If they can continue in that vein, they should be a favorite to win the division in 2010 and in many years to come.

Please feel free to leave your thoughts on what YOU think is important for the White Sox’ future in the comment section below.

2009 Record: 65-97
5th Place in the AL Central

For the beleaguered 2009 Indians, there is nowhere to go but up. The Indians began 2009 as a favorite to win the AL Central, but wound up being the laughing stock of the division as injuries, under-performance, and poor decision making ultimately doomed the Tribe to a last place finish in the Central.

At the close of the 2009 season, Tribe fans found themselves frustrated and relieved only that the team escaped a 100-loss season, rather than watching their team fight it out in a pennant race as was expected going into the season.

Expectations, to be sure, have been tempered. But this doesn’t mean 2010 will be as disastrous for the Indians’ organization as 2009 was. Fans, players, and management have all had to adjust their hopes for the team. But while all involved understand that a World Series berth in 2010 for the Indians is not in the cards, and even a playoff spot would be a very, very distant long shot, the Indians still have a chance to succeed in 2009, so long as all involved adjust their definition of success for this coming season.

Following are three key points for the Indians going forward that, if achieved, should translate into a marked improvement for the franchise and lay the groundwork for greater success a little farther down the road.

1. Successfully integrate a new style of management brought in by new manager Manny Acta with talent and fundamentals already in place in the organization

New manager Manny Acta has his work cut out for him. His hiring has been the subject of a fair amount of criticism, given the fact that his former team, the Washington Nationals, turned in a worse win-loss record than the Indians did in 2009.

That said, the situation in Cleveland is ideal for a new manager with something to prove. Expectations are low, and the team has great long-term potential in the form of young and up-and-coming players.

The key for Acta and for the organization will be to get players and fans to buy into a new style of management and to fuse the already-present talent and what the team did do right in the past with new ideas and a game plan focused on improvement and development.

2. Focus on improvement for the long-term future without compromising the ability to put a quality product on the field in the present

As stated above, there is no doubt that the Indians have a large crop of young talent in the organization from top to bottom. What the team needs to focus on is finding a way to balance out the learning process, in order to build a competitive team for the future, with the possibility of putting a team on the field right now that performs well enough to keep fans engaged and keep players and staff motivated.

This is a team that was criticized for its apathetic and at times incompetent play last season. Older players lollygagged in critical situations, and young players made costly rookie mistakes. Fans became bored and angry, and attendance and enthusiasm suffered.

It would be foolish to expect the team to have the fire and veracity of a playoff contender, just as it would be foolish to expect the team’s youngsters not to have their share of growing pains.

Still, the organization needs to find a way to minimize these things and put together a season that will win back the Cleveland fan base now, while still ultimately focusing on long-term improvement.

3. Assess and foster young talent at both the major and minor league levels in the organization in order to create a winning team from the ground up

The Indians organization has a modest-but-average payroll that provides enough funding for the team to have a fighting chance, but makes it impossible for the team to simply go out and “buy a winner”.

Small market teams with a limited budget have to build a winner from within the organization to succeed. The Indians have the finances to purchase a few key pieces to round out a winning squad, but overall must use trades and their farm system to build a core of talent from the ground up.

Cleveland, as mentioned, has a solid group of key contributors already playing at the major league level, as well as talent with huge potential making its way up through the system in the minor leagues.

Trades of veteran stars like Cliff Lee and Victor Martinez last season were met with heavy criticism, but the true value of the trades cannot be absolutely determined until the prospects the Indians received reach their potential, however high or low it may be. The Indians need to focus on developing those players in order to receive maximum return from the controversial trades they made in 2009.

Additionally, like other teams with a modest budget, they must utilize the draft to find the best available amateur talent and then develop those players in order to make them solid major league contributors who can help the Indians win at a fraction of the cost that would be required to bring in similar talent that has already proven itself at a major league level.

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Overall, the Indians will need standout performances from the players, management, and the front office in order to succeed in 2010 after a disastrous, disheartening 2009 and despite serious financial limitations. It takes a village, as they say, and the Indians will need the help of every facet of their organization in order to achieve greater success going forward.

Please feel free to leave your thoughts on what YOU think is important for the Indians’ future in the comment section below.

Minnesota’s loss in their first playoff game to the New York Yankees last night should hardly seem surprising. The Twins flew into New York less than 24 hours before the first pitch. They were exhausted from a one-game playoff with Detroit that wound up being a grueling 12-inning contest that left the Twins with no off-day before the playoffs, no sleep the night before their first game in New York, and a very depleted bullpen that needed eight pitchers to hold off the Tigers on Tuesday night.

So it is certainly not shocking that the first game of the series went to the Yankees, who were well-rested, well-prepared, and able to kick off the post season in the comforts of their own stadium in their own home town.

Fear not, Minnesota fans; dropping the first game in a playoff series is by no means the end of the world. Teams have come back from far greater deficits and gone on to win playoff series’.

However, it does have a psychological effect that can set the tone for the next four games, and while this loss may be merely the product of the aforementioned reasons Minnesota wasn’t at 100 percent, it might also simply be one more instance of a fact that should be very disturbing to Twins fans:

All season long, New York has simply had Minnesota’s number.

Minnesota scored just 25 runs against New York during the regular season over seven games. Even the hapless Indians were able to score twice that many in just eight games versus the Yankees. The Twins managed just a .232 average against New York, the fourth-worst showing versus the Yankees of any AL team.

Minnesota’s 22 RBIs and 57 hits were also the third-worst totals in those respective categories of any AL team versus the Yankees this season, and the Twins also ranked last among AL squads in doubles against the Bronx Bombers.

The only good news for AL Central supporters? Despite the fact that Minnesota, overall, had about the third-worst showing against New York during the 2009 season, they are still the best chance we have.

Why? Because the team that fared the worst out of all the teams in the AL against New York this season was in fact, none other than the Detroit Tigers.

Still, things look grim. New York hit .300 against the Twins this season and registered their best OPS versus any team against Minnesota at .870.

Then there is the most telling statistic of all: in the seven games played between the Twins and Yankees this season, New York emerged victorious seven times.

Sad but true, Minnesota has not registered a single victory against the Yankees this year. After last night’s loss, they are 0-8 versus New York in 2009. Pretty damning for the Twins, yes, but by no means a death sentence.

Everyone knows weird things happen in the playoffs. How else do you explain the 2007 Rockies? The best teams don’t always win. World series contenders are eliminated in the first round, and sometimes the weakest team in the field going into the post-season winds up winning it all.

We all remember the 2004 ALCS, when Boston surprised a dominant New York team by coming back from a 3-0 deficit. The Twins are only down 1-0. The odds are stack against them, true, but the Twins are fighters and survivors, so I certainly wouldn’t count them out just yet.

It seems a little unfair for the stakes to be so high on just nine innings after the Twins and Tigers have each played 1,458 innings over the course of the season (give or take an extra inning game or a rain-shortened contest).

But yet, when the regular season ends in a tie between two teams, it was really only about one measly game at ANY point during the season. If either the Twins or the Tigers had managed to eke out just one more victory, at any point between the beginning of April and last weekend, there would be no one-game playoff.

So perhaps the stakes are no higher than they were on any given day during the season, but simply appear intensified by the finality of the one game that winds up determining who survives and who perishes, and the fact that said game is occurring the day before the start of the playoffs.

Or maybe this IS the one game that means more than all the others, and all arguments to the contrary are just attempts to settle nerves, humble the victor, or comfort the loser.

So who will emerge victorious from this one battle that, in illusion or reality, now means everything? Determining this is far more difficult than predicting a division winner over the course of a whole season.

Why? Because in baseball, the better team doesn’t always beat the weaker one in any given nine innings. If it did, there would be some team out there with zero wins on the season, and even the beleaguered Nationals managed to notch 59 victories in 2009.

The winner of the central division, be it the Twins or Tigers, will simply be whomever plays the best baseball today at 5 p.m., and perhaps whomever has just a little more luck on their side tonight.

Will Detroit, the team that hung onto the lead in the Central division from July until the very last day of the regular season, win because they are able to hang on for one more game?

Will Minnesota, the team on a roll hot as a firecracker right now, be able to take advantage of their current momentum and perhaps Detroit’s recent off-field distractions and claim the prize?

Or will the victory simply go to the team that has a critical call go their way, a key hit fall in just the right spot, or the chance to take advantage of a crucially timed error by their opponent?

We won’t find out until the 27th out is recorded in tonight’s contest. No matter who emerges the winner, it should be a battle for the ages. Every game counts in baseball, but no matter how you spin it, this one counts just a little more.

Somewhere, lost amongst the big markets in Los Angeles, New York, and Boston, the former World Series champions in Philadelphia, and the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry, lurks the AL Central, home of the season’s most intense (and least noticed) pennant race.

The Minnesota Twins late-season push to knock off the Detroit Tigers, who have held a tenuous and uncomfortable, if steady, lead in the AL Central for the better part of the season, reaches its climax today, on the last day of the regular season, as the two teams fight for the right to continue their season into the playoffs, or at least into a one-game playoff to break a potential tie.

The Twins and Tigers are not, and never will be, the Yankees and Red Sox, so it should come as no surprise that the national media and baseball fans across the country are not salivating over this match up the way they would over a down-to-the-wire Boston-New York showdown.

Still, outside of Detroit, Minnesota, their fellow central division cities, and the nation’s baseball die-hards, the duel to the death has generated an astonishingly low level of interest. The season’s most exciting baseball is being played as we speak, and few, if any, are watching.

We central division followers are no strangers to taking a back seat to what is happening in larger markets. Still, the Detroit – Minnesota fight to the finish is the best baseball you’re not watching.

There is only one day left to witness it. Tune in while you still can.