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Kansas City Royals Season Predictions | 2013 Season Betting Preview

2013 MLB Team Preview: Kansas City Royals

The Royals have been mired in sub-mediocrity for some time now. They have been trying to get out of it through the draft and prospect development but not enough of their young talent have become solid contributors, let alone the stars they were hoping for.

  • American League Central Odds +650 from Bovada
  • Odds to win AL Pennant: +2500
  • Odds to win World Series: +6000

Key Additions:

James Shields (P), Wade Davis (P), Ervin Santana (P),

Key Subtractions:

(None at the Major League level)

Stuck in the AL Central with Detroit they have elected to go with a more immediate approach, bringing in some experienced arms which they hope will change the losing culture and maybe inspire the performance of some of their laggard talent.

The strategy may be sound but it is highly unlikely that it makes the Royals a legitimate challenger to the Tigers, or even, the White Sox in 2013.

Offense – The Royals offense has great potential. DH Billy Butler is one of the more underrated hitters in the American League and there is a chance that 1B Eric Hosmer and 3B Mike Moustakas reach their ceilings by contributing 50 homers and 200 RBIs. The power seems more likely to be there which could make this lineup dangerous.

LF Alex Gordon hasn’t become the second coming of George Brett but it looks like he has finally found his level and Salvador Perer is emerging as an offensive threat at catcher. This lineup is far from elite but it has good potential to be better than average.

Projected Lineup

  • CF – Lorenzo Cain
  • SS – Alcides Escobar
  • LF – Alex Gordon
  • DH – Billy Butler
  • 1B – Eric Hosmer
  • C – Salvador Perez
  • 3B – Mike Moustakas
  • RF – Jeff Francouer
  • 2B – Chris Getz

Pitching – After years of trying to develop pitching from within the organization the Royals decided to deal for arms instead this offseason. This year the top dog in the rotation is former Rays ace James Shields, a very reliable and competitive pitcher the last few seasons fffor Tampa. Fellow former Ray Wade Davis, and former Angel Ervin Santana, will make up the top of the rotation as this team tries to move closer to competitiveness. [dfads params=’groups=10&limit=1&return_javascript=0′]

These are improvements that should yield extra wins but they are not going to catapult the Royals into contention.

The bullpen is in better shape than the rotation. Relievers Greg Holland, Tim Collins and Aaron Crow have proven to be able to get guys out, often by missing bats. The emergence of Kelvin Herrera means that the pen is even deeper and that if the starting pitching is indeed more effective not too many games will be lost late. The question is how many leads will the offense actually given them.

Projected Rotation

  • James Shields
  • Ervin Santana
  • Jeremy Guthrie
  • Wade Davis
  • Luke Hochevar
  • Projected Bullpen
  • Greg Holland
  • Tim Collins
  • Aaon Crow
  • Kelvin Herrera

Projection: 4th Place American League Central

As stated above the Royals should be improved this season, but it is marginal. Better pitching should lead to more victories but the values might be lower this season too so it might not get you further ahead. Shields has the ability to shut down lineups so you might want to look for situations when he is on the mound against better teams where you can really capitalize on his abilities.

On the other side of the coin the market tends to really downplay the abilities of starter Jeremy Guthrie, to the point that he was +5 units even though he was a sub .500 pitcher overall.

Kansas City was +11 units playing at night last year. That is a hard statistic to try and project going forward as there is no real explanation for that profit and most teams play 2/3 or more of their games under the lights these days.

Another profitable situation was when they were big time underdogs +200 or worse. Not a lot of those situations but for this team which seams perpetually underrated this was a value opportunity.

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By The Wiesguy

The Wiesguy is a newcomer to the handicapping scene. Hailing from Toronto, Canada he is always sweet on the underdogs and you can often find his thoughts, musings and picks at moneydogs.blogspot.com.