Knee Jerk Predictions

The Royals season begins in 6 hours --- here are some totally useless (and I hope incorrect) predictions.

Win/Loss:
68-94

Place:
5th in the AL Central

Story of the Season:
- Billy Butler and Zack Greinke as twin Sisyphuses pushing the rock up the hill to no avail.
- Greinke will have a great season, but not the caliber of his 2009 one. The odds are against him, no matter how dominant he is. Winning 15 games max on a bad team, he doesn't get a sniff of the Cy Young vote.
- Rick Ankiel as a disaster who spends much of the season on the DL
- Jose Guillen as a disaster who spends much of the season on the DL, pissed off
- Alberto Callaspo continues to be the Royals second best hitter but balances it as an utter butcher in the field. Trey Hillman will continue to give Guillen more at bats at DH, sacrificing actual offense in the misguided hope for RBI'S.
- Mike Aviles starting at short by June 1, the Yuniesky era officially over and just as dismal a failure as everyone (not named Dayton Moore) thought it would be.
- A lineup regularly dotted with Scott Podsednik, Chris Getz, Willie Bloomquist, and Yuniesky Betancourt goes down as one of the most impotent in major league history, even as Billy Butler establishes himself as a top 10 offensive threat.
- Gil Meche, the team's second highest paid player and the opening day starter each of the past 3 years will be lucky if he starts 20 games due to the shoulder issues dating back to last year.
- Alex Gordon and Luke Hochevar will officially run out of "Maybe this is their year" chances.
- Kyle Davies will still be Kyle Davies. A liability in 3 out of 4 starts.
- Aaron Crow is in the rotation by September 1st and might actually come through on his promise.

As you can see, I'm very pessimistic about this season. Indeed, it's the least amount of optimism I've had since 2005 or so. I think a lot of Royals fans are with me on this.