So far, 2012 is a disappointing season for the Kansas City Royals. Marred by injuries, a mediocre at best starting rotation and the sophomore slump of first baseman Eric Hosmer, the Royals are 37-47 and 9.5 games behind the Chicago White Sox. In an uphill struggle, the Royals are stuck in neutral and rolling back down the hill.

The Royals are getting outfielder Lorenzo Cain and infielder Chris Getz back from the disabled list. But Cain and Getz will not provide the dramatic turnaround the team needs to contend in a weak American League Central. What the Royals need is to get players via trades. But how the Royals play the next couple of weeks will determine if the Royals are buyers, sellers or window shoppers.

Buyers: If the Royals go 2-8 in the next ten games like they did in the previous ten games, they won’t be buyers until the off-season. And unless General Dayton Moore is willing to give up top prospects for starting pitching, the Royals won’t be buyers. Yes, it would be nice to think the Royals would have a chance with a Matt Garza, Cole Hamels or Zack Greinke. But at 9.5 games out and Moore’s aversion to trading prized prospects, this is a pipe dream. And would Moore trade for a front-line starter even if the Royals were in a tight A.L. Central race? I get the feeling he would say “trust the process,” and stand pat.

If the Royals go on a 8-2 run and play well the rest of the month, they might go for a Shaun Marcum, Jeremy Guthrie or Jason Vargas. But it’s likely the Royals will wait until the off-season to get a starting pitcher through free agency or a trade.

Sellers: This is the likely scenario for the Royals, a path the team has traveled too many times. The trade rumors for closer Jonathan Broxton are warming up and the trade rumors of outfielder Jeff Franceour will intensify as the trade deadline approaches.

In Broxton’s case, teams like the New York Mets need bullpen help and he might fit the bill. I wonder if the Mets would trade starter R.A. Dickey straight up Broxton? It’s doubtful, but it would be cool for the Royals to have a Dickey on the team. If the Mets aren’t interested, perhaps another team will show interest in Broxton.

Another player likely to be traded is Franceour, but don’t underestimate the love Moore has for Frenchy. Franceour’s defense is above average, but his offense has slipped from his numbers last year. And if you think we’re getting top tier prospects for Franceour, keep dreaming. But some low to mid-level prospects or a league replacement level player or two would be a fair trade.

Last month, I wrote an argument for keeping Franceour. But Wil Myers is close to Major League ready and if some other general manager gets the love jones Moore has for Franceour and gives up good players, the Royals have to trade him.

Then there’s outside trade candidates like infielder Yuni Betanourt and starter Bruce Chen. Yes, I said Yuni. Offensively, he had a great June and if Betancourt keeps it up, some team desperate for a utility infielder with some pop might be willing to trade. If that’s the case, Yuni needs to go.

As for Chen, he’s a dependable pitcher who can help out a contending team. The Royals shouldn’t give Chen away, but if the team can get some value, he needs to be traded. Chen’s exit would make way for Jake Odorizzi to join the Royals rotation and get a jump on 2013.

Window shoppers: This is an unlikely scenario, but it’s possible. The Royals wouldn’t get anyone in a trade and keep Broxton, Franceour, Chen and Betancourt. The team would shuttle starters like Nathan Adcock and Everett Teaford back and forth between Kansas City and Omaha. They might call up Myers and Odorizzi and whomever they replace will go to the bench, to AAA Omaha or be designated for assignment.

This scenario could happen if the Royals keep playing like they are or if the team doesn’t get the players they want via trades. They would play out the season and wait for 2013.

The reality is the second half of the 2012 season is shaping up like the second half of previous seasons. Middling to mediocre baseball, young players finding or losing their way in the Majors and a few bright spots in an otherwise dull campaign.

Will this ever change? I hope it does. I was heartened by the cheers fans gave Billy Butler during the All-Star Game. And when fans booed Yankees infielder Robinson Cano for not including Butler in the Home Run Derby, it showed fans still care for the Royals and they desperately want the team to win. Let’s hope the enthusiasm the fans had for Butler will carry over to the rest of the team. But the Royals have to play better baseball if they want to salvage the 2012 season.

Joe Buck and Tim McCarver preview the much anticipated nationally-televised mid-season match-up between the NL Central leading St. Louis Cardinals and the AL Central leading Kansas City Royals

Joe Buck: It gives us great pleasure to welcome the entire country to beautiful Kauffman Stadium for this week’s featured matchup between, currently, the best team in each league.  And in the case of the American League, the separation between the Kansas City Royals and every other team in the league is far and wide.  After last night’s win, this incredibly exciting young Royals ballclub sits at 48 wins and just 28 losses, putting them 10 games in front of the Detroit Tigers in the American League Central.  And they have done it on the backs of their young stars.  We are still a few weeks away from the All-Star Break, and 3B Mike Moustakas leads the entire major leagues with 22 home runs.  1B Eric Hosmer has a batting average of .365 which also leads the entire major leagues.  Left-fielder Alex Gordon picked up exactly where he left off last season, and Catcher Salvador Perez has caught the attention of the baseball world not only with his defense behind the plate, but also with his bat, carrying a .321 average with 10 home runs and 40 RBI into today’s game.

Tim McCarver: You know, coming into this season, everyone in the game was acknowledging that these young Royals had some great hitters.  But the question was pitching.  Nobody on this staff had really established himself as a front-line starter, and the young pitchers were not quite ready to make the leap.  Next  year was supposed to be the year.  But as we sit here today, Joe, you would have to say that under new pitching coach Dave Eiland, the Royals may be sporting one of the best pitching staffs in all of baseball.  The big right-hander we will see today, Felipe Paulino, has to be considered one of the front-runners to start the All-Star Game for the American League, which by the way, will take place here in Kansas City in just a few weeks.

Joe Buck: And if Paulino makes the all-star team, he most certainly will not be alone.  The left-hander Danny Duffy, a kid who the team wasn’t even sure was going to make the team out of spring training, has absolutely electrified since the beginning of the season.  The staff leads the American League in strikeouts, something that manager Ned Yost told us earlier was even a surprise to him.

Tim McCarver: You know, Joe…it doesn’t seem like that long ago when this team was only winning 48 games in a whole season.  Now they have 48 wins and we still have more than 3 months to play.

Joe Buck: When General Manager Dayton Moore arrived in Kansas City 6 years ago, the organization was in shambles.  The major league club was losing, every time they would develop anything resembling a star they would be traded away, and the minor league system had nothing in it to offer any hope for the future.  Moore arrived and stated that his primary objective was to rebuild the farm system.  And he said it would take time.  It has taken time, but Tim, it looks like we might finally be seeing the patience of the Kansas City Royals’ fans beginning to pay off.

Tim McCarver: You got that right, Joe.  This is a deserving fan base that has waited far too long to have something to get excited about.  It’s great a great thing to see.

Joe Buck: This team is taking this city for a ride, and it’s been a long time coming.  Kauffman Stadium is a sea of blue, on a balmy June afternoon, and it’s almost time for baseball.  We will be back for the first pitch, after these messages…

Until the Royals open the 2012 Season I will start each article with important statistics: 16 Days until pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training. 30 Days until Cactus League play starts. 62 Days until Opening Day (I guess night, late night). On to the article. I’m impressed that I made it this far into the off-season without having to resort to this. I have three thoughts on the Royals, but none of them long enough to create an entire article. So here is 2012’s first Royals Potpourri:

Silence From the Front Office – Coming into this week, Edwin Jackson & Roy Oswalt were the two remaining free agent starting pitchers that anyone feels can make a difference. Roy Oswalt has been covered here. I’m confident Oswalt would not have come to Kansas City based on his public statements of not wanting to go to Cleveland or Detroit. That left Edwin Jackson, who signed with the Washington Nationals this week.

I did not think Dayton Moore was going to sign either of these pitchers. That doesn’t mean I was hopeful of some surprising un-fiscal responsibility from the Royals front office. I get why the Royals are waiting to see what they have in Mike Montgomery, Danny Duffy, and Felipe Paulino. That’s the most cost effective way to go. If all three take steps forward this season, which is optimistic. The Royals still need to spend some money or prospects to get a front line starter if they want to have prayer of getting past Detroit in the AL Central. If all three flame out it will be time to call for an end to “The Process”. It’s something to keep an eye on. Especially if the Royals get off to a good start this season.

Royals: You’re Doing it Wrong! – Bob Dutton had an article in the Kansas City Star this week listing possible replacements for Frank White as the Royals television Color Commentator. It seems the leading candidate is former big league, and Angels Broadcaster Rex Hudler. I’ve heard Rex on Jim Rome’s show a few times. I like him in the interview setting. He’s kind of goofy, and brings the motivational speaker cheese. That’s fine for a radio interview every few months. I have a feeling if I had to listen to that shtick game, after game, after game that it would get old by Tax Day. If Rex Hudler is Frank White’s replacement I will have to mute or turn off the television and let Boulevard Brewing Company sell it’s beer to me on it’s own merits. Some baseball blogs contend that Hudler is one of the worst commentators in Major League Baseball.

I’m becoming more irritated with this situation knowing that Rockies Commentator George Frazier didn’t get the job. I used to live in Denver and always enjoyed Frazier as part of the Rockies broadcast. I think he would have been an improvement over White. I know that’s blasphemy in Royals Nation, but that’s just how I feel.

But, let me redeem myself. I have been on the fence about the whole Frank White firing. There are two sides to every story, and we’ll never hear the Royals side. However, the Royals organization does not have a good track record of doing things right. Until they start consistently doing that I’m going to assume they’re doing things wrong. Firing a living legend and ambassador for your organization; then bringing in a person who many feel is not very good at that role seems like the wrong thing to do. Cancelling Fanfast was doing it wrong too. I would expect this type of Public Relations indifference out of a winning organization whose games and merchandise are in high demand. The Royals have not been a model franchise since Bob Saget was rocking a Giants warm-up jacket on Full House.

Last season the Royals finally gained some credibility with their fan base with the infusion of prospects from their minor league system. Then they do the dumb stuff mentioned above. I’m not going to rant and rave and say I’m going to quit being a Royals fan. I’ve been over that before. However, the Royals organization isn’t compelling me to spend more money with them than I had already budgeted.

Can We Get This Over With? – In case this got passed you. The Super Bowl is tomorrow. Baseball is my favorite sport, football is a close second. However, this Super Bowl is so un-compelling to me I’ve thought about not watching it. No one close to me would believe that statement, so I’ll probably watch.

There is only so much you can say about a three hour football game. I’ve gone on a sports media black-out this week to avoid Evangelical Football Fan Hyperbole. However, the biggest reason I can’t wait for the Super Bowl to be over? Baseball Season is the next thing on the horizon.

This season has been anything but smooth for the Cardinals and their fanbase. An up and down, rollercoaster of a ride has seen fans start thinking towards 2012 and the team exploring options to trade some potential free agents, only to realize the Braves were falling apart and the team might be able to salvage something in 2011.

The season's hopes are on the shoulders of EJax

The playoffs, or the three games that represent the playoffs to this point, seem to have taken that idea to the next level. The Cardinals had Roy Halladay on the ropes and the fans were excited to see that their team was, in fact, worthy of being in the playoffs. A few innings later, however, the team would show a weakness to pull through and see the victory all the way through and ended up being blown out in the first game. The blowout seemed to confirm to most fans that the team was overmatched and that the Phillies truly were the powerhouse. The road was not going to get any easier, either, as Cliff Lee still had to pitch before they could leave Philadelphia.

Game two rolled around and the Cardinals worked hard against Lee, taking his pitch count high early on and scraping out a few runs. The bullpen, used in a match up environment despite an early exit by the starter, would pin down a solid victory. Fans were back on the bandwagon seeing that the team could hang tough, compete hard, gain a victory against a top of the line starter, and band together for a win. The series was shifting to St. Louis and the fans were clamoring about a potential National League Championship Series appearance.

Game three had the potential to be one of two things: a great performance for the team or an extreme statement by Philadelphia. It turned out to be a bit of both but ultimately, simply a let down for the Cardinals. Behind a strong start by Jaime Garcia, the Cardinals kept Cole Hamels on the ropes throughout the entire game. The problem this time around was lack of follow through. Why Hamels labored and constantly found himself in a threatening position, he did what any ace pitcher would do and worked his way out of it. The Cardinals failed to drive the point home with the youngest of the “Four Aces” on the mound and found themselves in trouble when Garcia left a pitch up and surrendered a pinch-hit, three run home run. Much like the season, the Cardinals would not let this go down without a fight, and scraped together a few runs of their own. As happened often in 2011, the team found themselves coming up just short.

This has been one of the most heartbreaking and exciting versions of the Cardinals to watch. If there is one thing this team has earned from the fans, it would be the support knowing that they just will not give up. On Wednesday evening, the team will take to the Busch Stadium field facing yet another elimination game. They hand the ball to Edwin Jackson and ask him to keep hope alive. They face a familiar foe in Roy Oswalt and will look to use that to their advantage.

Win or lose, they will go down with a fight. Fans deserve a team that leaves it all on the field. This team deserves fans that will get behind them and fight with them. This is the highs and lows of baseball. The fans may be rewarded with one more game in Philadelphia. The fans may be let down and left feeling like it was not enough.

Who says you cannot be romantic about this game?