The end of a very long year...Jason Kubel celebrates hitting a home run off of Luke Hochever, probably one of the most disappointing performers for the Kansas City Royals this year. Injuries revealed lack of talent and depth in the Royals organization, with most good players still in Rookie, low and high A and AA minor league ball. Free agent signings (see Farnsworth, Kyle; Jacobson, Mike) just did not work out. The bullpen was not rebuilt after being raided for trade bait during the winter. And the Royals just didn't play very good baseball much of the season, muffing balls in the field, not advancing runners, poor base running and not hitting cutoff men--baseball fundamentals. Which makes losing even more irritating. It's one thing to lose because you're just not as talented as the other team, but to consistently beat yourself with stupid mistakes is just, well, stupid.
Greinke, Butler, Ciaspo, Betencourt, Meche, Soria have the potential to be the core of a better team next year. Management must be smarter though with free agents. And fundamentals have to improve. Pitching and defense.
See you at Spring Training 2010...
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