Kansas City Royals

Kansas City Royals’ pitcher Bruce Chen tossed his third consecutive quality start on Tuesday, limiting the Indians to just two runs on six hits in seven innings. He also walked three and struck out five.

Who would have thought a rain delay would be so dangerous?

The Kansas City Royals grounds crew is among the best, but one groundskeeper needs to have a little safety training.

As the Royals crew was bringing out the tarp for a rain delay one of their men jumped over the front only to fall and be steamrolled by the tarp. That’s a good 1,500 pound reminder of just how not to do your job.

Evan Longoria, Josh Hamilton, Chase Utley, Rafael Furcal. There have been a number of ailing fantasy baseball stars. What looked like an offense that only featured Billy Butler as a fantasy option, has produced several players with hot starts.

Wilson Betemit leads the team with a .379 batting average. The third baseman has scored eight runs, drove in five more and swiped two bases. He’s not Evan Longoria, but he has been productive.

The Kansas City Royals will be taking on the Detroit Tigers in game one of a three-game set at Comerica Park in Detroit on Friday afternoon.

KC will be looking to continue their hot start to the season and improve their record to 5-2 while the Tigers are trying to climb out of a season-opening hole that has left them at 2-4 to start 2011.

You know how there are some guys that you just have a good feeling about?

Billy Butler is one of those guys for me.

I used to be an avid baseball card collector and there was always this sector of the hobby that only collected unproven prospects in hopes of hitting it big with one.

The Kansas City Royals knew that they were getting some talented arms when they left camp with rookie relievers Aaron Crow, Tim Collins and Nate Adcock.

But there was no way of telling that the trio would be this dominant in their few games in the big leagues.

In the team's recently completed season-opening series against the Angels, the threesome combined to pitch eight shutout innings while giving up six hits and striking out 11 in the process.

KANSAS CITY ROYALS

Last Year: 67-95, fifth in AL Central 

Manager: Ned Yost

PROJECTED LINEUP 

C: Jason Kendall (R) (will start season on DL)

DH/1B: Kila Ka'aihue (L)

1B/DH: Billy Butler (R)

2B: Chris Getz (L)

3B: Mike Aviles (R)

SS: Alcides Escobar (R)

LF: Alex Gordon (L)

CF: Melky Cabrera (S)

RF: Jeff Francoeur (R)

The Royals have been nothing short of a laughingstock for the last two decades.

They have not posed a threat to the AL Central since the days of George Brett, but after reading an article by Tim Keown in ESPN The Magazine, something struck me.

Could this new up-and-coming group of Royal studs be the next "Core Four?"

It's going to be extremely difficult for the Royals to compete this season. 

They lost 95 games last year, and lost the likes of Zack Greinke, Yuniesky Betancourt, and Jose Guillen, to boot.

2012 is the target date; several baseball experts have proclaimed that the Royals' farm system is baseball's best in a decade.

It's been 25 years since Kansas City last made the postseason, and they've had just one winning season in the past 16 years. 

The future is bright, and patience is a virtue.

This is something that the Royals haven't had for awhile: two All-Stars in the same season.

However, it could very well be a reality this year for KC, with a strong possibility of their two best players making the cut.

If you really think about this, it starts to make some sense.

On one hand, you have a two-time All-Star closer in Joakim Soria, and on the other hand, you have an emerging, young hitter in Billy Butler who has really improved in many areas throughout his short big league career.