[CRTsports.com]

2010 Season, Two Months Down.

As it stands at the moment its June 1 and the Royals are dealing with a mixed bag of marbles. Some of them are really good ones and some of them are just awful. Not even your sister would want them. But in all seriousness it has been a trying two months for the Royals.

Coming into the season most analysts had the Royals winning the Central division outright but they have not lived up to those expectations yet. They are currently 26-22 and in fourth place in the division while the Detroit Tigers lead the way at 31-17. It will certainly be a long road ahead if the Royals want to claim their first ever Central Crown under GM Christopher Torres.

But even in these times their have been some bright spots on the team along with some low spots on the team. First we will take a look at the pitching staff.

Winners
- SP Bobby Brownlie - There is not much else to say about Bobby other than perfection. He currently sits at 7-0 with a 3.25 ERA. He won his seventh game of the season last night against the Blue Jays. He would have a sub three ERA but a late sixth inning two run homerun off David Eckstein guaranteed that number would be above three.

Overall in the NABL, Brownlie is tied for fifth in wins and is tied for second in the American League. And when it comes to his ranks among fellow AL pitchers here is how he breaks down. Sixth in BB/9 with 1.70, sixth in K/9 with 4.42, fifth in WHIP with 1.13 and fifth with only 10.33 baserunners per 9.

- CL Ramon Hernandez - So far Hernandez has been lights out when he has come into the game. He currently has 12 saves in 13 opportunities and the lone blown save. His ERA is quite high at 5.40 but that is because of his last outing where he earned his blown save and gave up three earned runs in 2/3 of an inning.

Losers
- SP Vince Perkins - Coming off his 14 win season last year many people had high expectations this year. Perkins has been anything but good so far this year. He lost his starting spot to rookie pitcher Paul Valtierra and has been assigned mop out duty for the rest of the year. He did pitch well in last nights blow out win against the Jays by going two innings with four strikeouts and one hit. It will take more relief outings like that for him to earn him a start again. Perkins currently sits at 0-4 with an 7.92 ERA.

The Kansas City Offense is the one that has been the most inconsistent. For the first few weeks of the season this was the worst ranked offense in the American League. And considering this was the top ranked offense in 2009, it was hard to understand what was going wrong.

They have righted the ship for the most part so far going into June but they are still a bit off. The Royals offense is ranked fourth in the AL with a .280 clip, second in OBP with .778, sixth in runs scored with 240 and are tied for third in home runs with 50. By no means bad numbers but they need some work.

While we cant pinpoint the exact reason why the bats are off all signs point to CF Santiago Rao's sub par performance this year and the fact that Walter Young lost his 30 home run swing and is currently in A ball making $4 million this year.

Rao's average is currently at .253, down from .301 last year and has seven home runs and 33 RBI's this season. Rao is still young at 23 years old but this is his fourth year in pro ball and a past Rookie of the Year winner in 2007. All bets are that Rao will come back and be the clean up hitter we all expect but hopefully its sooner than later.

Winners
- CF Larry Bigbie - Wow is all you can say really. When he was re-signed in the 2009 it was to be a fourth outfielder and pinch hitter. Neither Bigbie or the organization expected him to start. But man has he turned heads so far this year.

He is currently hitting .326 in 45 games with .377 OBP and .528 slugging percentage. He has also clubbed eight homeruns and knocked in thirty runs so far. He is on pace for 27 home runs and 101 RBI's in 2010. He is on pace for career numbers in almost every category this year and considering he was signed for a total of $5($1.6/$1.7/$1.7) million over three years, you can definitely say the Royals got a huge steal in Bigbie.

- LF Robert McElroy - McElroy has been a player than has bounced around the Royals organization since 2006 but was never able to stick. He stayed on the active roster most of the time until last year with the emergence of outfielder William Quattlebaum. So he was sent down to AAA to finish out the 09 season and just killed pitchers there.

He started this season back on the active roster and didn't know what to expect. But when Walter Young was sent down, the Royals moved Quattlebaum to the DH spot and McElroy to right field. And he hasn't shown much rust as of yet. He is currently hitting .333/.414/.573 in 22 games so far and has four home runs and 14 RBI's. McElroy has been hitting down in the order so not many RBI chances but his chances will come.

Losers

- DH Walter Young - As it stands now Young will be gracing the cover on the yearly "Where Are You Now" Sports Illustrated issue. From 2006-2009 Young clubbed 128 homeruns and was cemented in the DH spot for the Royals. Yes he struck out a lot but his homeruns and RBI's warranted his playing time.

But this Spring Training all hell broke lose. Young lost his swing and has not been the same. In 27 games this year with the Royals he hit .189 with three home runs and ten RBI's. But in the 27 games he racked up 28 strike outs and the result of that is he lost his confidence. Shortly after Young was designated for assignment and placed on waivers. He went unclaimed and the front office placed him in A ball hoping he can work his way back. But he is making $4 million plus this year so you can expect him to be cut if he does not regain his past form.

So as the sun rises on this day, June 1, 2010 we can only hope that when this month ends the Royals are making a run at the division crown and Brownlie is still undefeated!!!! Let's go Royals!!!!