For most of the last quarter of a century, the Kansas City Royals have done something more difficult than achieving success…they’ve avoided it completely.

Royals fans are very well aware of the last time their favorite team played a post-season game. It was October of 1985, and there is a large group of Royals fans that have been born and graduated college and maybe even gotten their first promotion that have never witnessed this feat. This is truly a remarkable feat, especially when you consider the following things that have taken place in major league baseball since October of 1985:

• The Florida/Miami Marlins have managed to enter the league as an expansion team, and win 2 World Series titles
• The Colorado Rockies emerged as an expansion team and have qualified for the playoffs 3 times and played in one World Series
• The Arizona Diamondbacks entered the league as an expansion team and have qualified for the playoffs 5 times and won one World Series title
• The Tampa Bay Rays entered the league as an expansion team and have made 3 playoff appearances and one World Series appearance, and are currently on pace to make the playoffs again this year
• The Cincinnati Reds have made 3 playoff appearances and won one World Series title, and are currently on pace to make the playoffs again this year
• The Minnesota Twins have made 8 playoff appearances and won two World Series titles
• The Baltimore Orioles have made 2 playoff appearances and are currently on pace to make the playoffs this year
• The Pittsburgh Pirates have made 3 playoff appearances and are currently in contention for a playoff spot this year
• The Toronto Blue Jays have made 4 playoff appearances and won 2 World Series titles
• The Cleveland Indians have made 7 playoff appearances and appeared in 1 World Series
• The Oakland Athletics have made 9 playoff appearances, 3 World Series appearances, and won 1 World Series title
• The Seattle Mariners have made 4 playoff appearances
• The Milwaukee Brewers have made 2 playoff appearances
• The San Diego Padres have made 4 playoff appearances and one World Series appearance

The 14 organizations listed above are all similar in market size to the Royals.  Most of these organizations have had multiple runs of competitive/championship baseball in the time that the Royals have not even been able to put together one. The only organization that has managed to go longer than the Royals without a playoff appearance is the Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals.  However, they are all but assured of making the playoffs this season.  While Royals fans likely are ready to throw their computers out the window after reading this, it provides some good perspective on just how pathetic this organization has been over the last 25+ years.

In the second edition of “Way Too Early 2012 Predictions,” it’s time to pick the Royals’ Pitcher of the Year.

Coming into this offseason, it was obvious that starting pitching needed to be the main focus. The Royals acquired Jonathan Sanchez in a trade with the Giants and signed Bruce Chen to a two year deal, but there hasn’t been a major upgrade over last season’s rotation just yet.

Essentially, the Royals swapped out Jeff Francis in favor of Jonathan Sanchez. While that is a definite improvement, it might not be the answer Royals fans wanted.

It’d be great if Jonathan Sanchez was an ace and a definite lock for pitcher of the year next year, but he’s not. He has a lot to prove before the Royals can say he is anywhere close to an ace, or even a number three starter for that matter.

Last year, Sanchez struggled going 4-7 with a 4.26 ERA. He battled injuries throughout the season, so a healthy Sanchez could look more like his 2010 season: 13-9, 3.07 ERA, 205 K’s. That type of performance would put him at the top of this list for sure, but I’d like to at least see him pitch healthy for 10 starts before handing him the award.

Right now, it looks like Luke Hochevar will once again take home my award for Pitcher of the Year. I gave it to him for the 2011 season and I am sticking with him for next year.

Greg Holland, Joakim Soria, Danny Duffy, and Aaron Crow got some serious consideration for this prediction, but I still have to go with Hochevar.

Call me crazy, but I still believe he can finally turn into that pitcher that everyone hoped he could be when the Royals drafted him 1^st overall in 2006.

He seemed to turn a corner last year when he “figured something out” with then-pitching coach Bob McClure. He had a stretch after the All-Star break where he looked like he should have been playing in said game.

After his red-hot stretch after last year, Hochevar had me thinking he could be our ace this year. His streak didn’t last too long, but he still finished the year much better than he started.

Right now, it looks like he will once again take the mound on Opening Day 2012. He will be the ace and he will be the Royals’ best pitcher next year.

But like I said, call me crazy.

Royals Tweet of the Week

It's always baseball season! RT @mellinger: Seventy days until pitchers and catchers report. #Chiefs #Tricycle < #Royals #Mission2012

December 11, 2011 1:47 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@natorius

Nate Green

Time to break down the I-70 Series with our favorite Cardinal’s fan in Dallas.

With less than a month until the wonderful “Pitchers and Catchers Report” story, some news has started to trickle in. Our Royals friends around the Internet have chimed in with some observations this week.

As is becoming a custom here on I-70 during the off-season, we suggest you give some other sites and writers some love and drop by to read what they have to say.

One of our favorite podcasts out there belongs to the talented guys at Broken Bat Single, and you can check in on their latest edition by clicking here.

The Royals brought back one of the most effective pitchers for the 2010 version of the ball club, Bruce Chen. Michael over at Kings Of Kauffman takes a look at the deal he received over here.

Craig over at Royals Authority took the time to break down the payroll of the 2011 bunch that the Royals will run out there. He openly wonders How Low Will The Payroll Go.

The Royals took a chance on Zach Miner for the upcoming season, and the folks at Royally Speaking break down who he is and what to expect from the young man. Read their breakdown here.

Finally, the trustworty Rany On The Royals breaks down the two left-handers that were signed this past week. One new to the franchise and one returning, they will look to shore up the rotation.

Bill Ivie is the editor here at I-70 Baseball as well as the Assignment Editor for BaseballDigest.com.
He is the host of I-70 Radio, hosted every week on BlogTalkRadio.com.
Follow him on Twitter here.

Maybe going to Chicago was a really bad idea. Seems like a friendly city, but not for the Royals this trip against the Sox.

Carlos Quentin hit two home runs as the White Sox rolled over the Royals in a 5-1 victory. This makes seven straight victories for the White Sox and 24 in the last 29 games. The Royals were 10-3 coming into the series and get the All-Star break to try to get back to the winning streak we had prior to heading to CHI town.

Mark Buehrle pitched a seven-plus inning shutout in the series opener, and the Royals decided that with that welcoming party, well, they would simply head home for a break.

The good news of the series? Well, Brian Bannister’s ERA against the Sox only dipped a tad in 16 starts from 7.97 to 7.93. I would love to give better news, but well, there was none.

The All-Star game gives a chance for baseball’s best players to get together on one field and showcase their talent. This year, the Cardinals are sending five players to the All-Star game: Albert Pujols, Yadier Molina, Adam Wainwright, Chris Carpenter, and Matt Holliday. All of these players have had very different first halves this year, ranging anywhere from completely dominant to slightly disappointing. Let’s take a look and see what we can find…

Albert Pujols: This will be Albert’s ninth appearance in the All-Star game in only ten seasons. So far this season he’s hitting a solid .305/.413/.567 (batting, on base, slugging), which is actually low for him when looking at his numbers spread out over his career. His average line for the first half is .325/.422/.617. I would in fact venture to say that these are the lowest his numbers have been at the midway point in the last five years. That’s on the surface. Digging in a little deeper, with runners on base, Albert is hitting .341/.482/.611. That looks significantly more like numbers we are used to seeing. Pull down another level – batting with runners in scoring position. Here we see a slash line of .356/.533/.630, and you can attach 26 hits in 73 at bats to those numbers, as well as tacking on 31 walks. This man really is a machine.

As far as the second half goes, things are actually looking up in terms of what we can hope to see for our MVP first baseman. His two best months over the course of his career are August and September, and overall he has averaged a line of .342/.432/.634 for the second half. Now, Albert has already declined to participate in the Home Run Derby, and after being the face of St. Louis during last year’s break, having his only responsibility being the actual playing in the game might be a welcome relief for him.

Yadier Molina: This is Yadi’s second appearance in six full seasons. He is having a rough year at the plate, however his line of .229/.309/.302 is deceiving, as Yadi has hit into some bad luck. Many have pointed out that he is making solid contact at the plate, but hitting it right at people. His June and July numbers do, however, show a rather prolonged slump. Like Albert, Yadi is coming up much better when batting with runners in scoring position, putting up a much more respectable .265/.370.426 line.

For his career, Yadi doesn’t do a lot of up and down as the season goes on. There is the slightest increase from his first to second half numbers, so slight it’s hardly worth mentioning. Month by month, nothing much changes, with exception to starting slowly in April, then staying on an even keel from May through the end of the season. I expect that some of those hits that have been finding gloves will eventually start finding holes again, and we will see a more consistent hitter to go along with Yadi’s Gold Glove defense in the second half.

Adam Wainwright: This is Adam’s first appearance in five full seasons (four as a starter). Literally every statistic you look at will tell you that this is his best year yet, and last year he was third for the Cy Young award! His ERA of 2.24 is third in the NL, he has four complete games, is second in innings pitched, first in strikeouts, and is giving up fewer hits and walks than in years past. That’s impressive!

Are you ready for the best news? Things get better for Adam in the second half! His ERA goes down, his walk rate goes down, and his strikeouts go up. That’s including the fact that his best first half ever is padding the first half numbers tremendously! This is the first one that really surprised me, because I was not prepared to think that his first half numbers would get any better in the second half. It is going to be an absolute dog fight for the Cy Young this season, and it would be a mistake to think that Adam’s name will not be near the top of the list.

Chris Carpenter: This is Chris’ third appearance in thirteen full seasons. What a deceptive sentence. It is very difficult to look at his career statistics and not cringe, thinking ‘What if?’ It is not easy even trying to compare his career statistics, since he was a very different pitcher in his years with Toronto. What I will say is that in his healthy years in St. Louis, this is a slightly abnormal year. His home run rate is very obviously up (1.1 HR per 9 innings), as are his ERA (3.16) and walks (2.7 per 9). Another number that is elevated is his strikeout rate. This is the highest his strikeout rate has been since his Cy Young winning 2005 season, but the similarities between the two seasons start and end there.

Make no mistake – Chris Carpenter is still having a good year. However, due to his sporadic history, I am struggling to come up with a solid comparison on first and second half statistics. Looking at things year by year did not help either, as his second half in 2009 was better, but his first half in both 2005 and 2006 was the stronger half. For Chris, the safest thing to say might be that as long as he stays healthy, things should look at least as good in the second half as they were in the first.

Matt Holliday: This is Matt’s fourth appearance in seven seasons. A lot has been made of his ‘slow’ start this season. Whether Matt is feeling pressure due to the fact that he signed a record contract with the Cardinals over the winter, he has hit into some bad luck, of he is just having a bad year, it is probably one of the most talked about ‘issues’ of the first half for the team. Truth be told, Matt’s .326 batting average on balls in play is the lowest this year than it has been at any other point in his career. If that corrects itself, his .298/.374/.493 line will move more towards the mean as well.

Do not live under the assumption that Matt Holliday is a second half player, because the splits do not agree with that. It looks more like Matt gets consistently better throughout the months of April through July. He has been getting better this season, while his numbers are still under the ‘normal’ range for Matt by far. Look for things to keep improving as the year goes on, due to the weather continuing to warm up and his continuing to become more comfortable in the grass of Busch.

If I had to make the call, I would say that between the pitchers and hitters listed here, it is more important for the hitters to step up in the second half. It would be ridiculous to ask too much more of either Wainwright or Carpenter to do more than they already have been doing this season. They have both gone out and very rarely left the game without giving the team a strong chance to win. Thinking about how many games the Cardinals have been shut out of this year by pitchers that are getting ripped to shreds by the rest of the league (Looking at you Bud Norris. You started this.), my head starts to hurt. Your ace pitchers should not lose games with 1-0 scores.

I mentioned this on Baseball Digest on Tuesday, but the team has been hit with the injury bug. Combine this with the fact that our hitters have failed to all figure out how to hit at the same time, and things should eventually get better. It will depend on how the bats respond to the heat to see if the Cardinals push for the NL Central crown this year.

Angela Weinhold covers the Cardinals for i70baseball.com, BaseballDigest.com and writes at Cardinal Diamond Diaries. You may follow her on Twitter here or follow Cardinal Diamond Diaries here.