Royal Fantasy Report – Who is left?

Last week Alberto Callaspo was traded to Los Angeles Angels and David DeJesus had season ending surgery. This week Scott Podsednik was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers and Rick Ankiel was traded to the Atlanta Braves. The Royals travel to Oakland and Seattle for a three game series this week. Finding quality fantasy help on the Royals is getting harder to find.

Zach Greinke is not the quality pitcher he was in 2009 but he has pitched much better as of late. In July he posted a 4.09 ERA while striking out 34. He only had one poor outing in July which he allowed eight runs against Minnesota. Greinke is scheduled to pitch Friday at Seattle. This season against Seattle he is 1-0 in two quality starts with 14 strikeouts, two walks, 0.00 ERA, 0.71 WHIP, through 14 innings pitched. With those stats he should active in all fantasy formats. Joakim Soria has been one of the most reliable closers so far this season. He recorded his 29^th save against the Orioles on Sunday. His last blown save was on May 6^thwhile converting 29 of 31 save chances. Since Soria has converted his last 22 save opportunities, he should be active in all fantasy formats. Billy Butler had his worst month of production in July. He batted .274 with two home runs and nine RBI. He hit his first home run Saturday in over two weeks. Since the All-star break, he is batting .253 with one home run, six RBI, and scoring seven runs in 16 games. The time has come to consider sitting Butler until he can turn it around.

Jose Guillen had a horrible July. He batted .207 with two home runs and 10 RBI. There could be a sign he could have a decent August. Guillen batted .304 in April, .202 in May, .340 in June, and .207 in July. He still has a respectable season so far with 16 home runs and 61 RBI. At the moment he is a borderline option for mixed leagues. Watch his production over the next week. Alex Gordon has had a slow start since being called up to the big leagues. He is batting .190 with 2 home runs and 5 RBI. Even though Gordon has not had a great start, this is no reason to forget about him. His upside is tremendous and worth hanging onto in deep mixed leagues.

Fantasy Minor League Profile of the week:

The Fantasy Profile of the Week is Mike Montgomery. He was selected in the 1st round (No. 36 overall) of the June 2008 First-Year Player Draft. Montgomery is currently a starting pitcher in the Rookie Arizona League. He was put on the Disabled List back in June with elbow soreness. The Royals are going to take it easy with him for the remainder of the season. Montgomery was rated as the Royal #1 prospect going into the season by Baseball America and was projected to reach the big leagues in 2013. He is worth a roster spot in deep keeper leagues with a potential to front line any rotation.