The Kansas City Royals, a team that had been the goat of the AL Central for the longest time, have just been to two World Series in a row, winning the last one.
The big question- will the Royals be able to reach the very top again?
Well, let's look at the big picture. This is a team that's not drastically different from the 2015 squad. The two guys they picked up at the trade deadline, Ben Zobrist and Johnny Cueto, aren't there anymore, and some smaller pieces like Alex Rios aren't there anymore, but, if anything, this is a stronger team. Wade Davis is in place as the closer from the get-go, instead of running Greg Holland until he runs out of steam. Paulo Orlando and Reymond Fuentes are currently switching off at RF, but Orlando's likely gonna be the full-time starter.
This is a fully formed team, one with a generally strong pitching staff, one where one guy isn't outdoing everybody else on the team. The guys they've kept are all doing pretty well so far, especially Mike Moustakas and Salvador Perez.
This is a solid core, one that has stayed intact over the past two seasons, and has gotten stronger. Not too much is stopping them from making another run at the top spot. The Tigers are looking kind of intimidating right now, and the White Sox could be a late-season sleeper, but if the Royals can stay at first for the remainder of the season, we could be in for a ride.
The trick is outdoing whoever ends up in the top spot in the NL. It's 2016, so that might be the Giants again, which could be a pretty tough battle. I want to see what happens to the Royals over the course of the season, to see how plausible WS #2 is. Here's hoping they can snag it.
Coming Tomorrow- The big Cardinals rookie who's been hitting like crazy lately.
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