Deep Farm System gives Royals great optimism

Mike Moustakas

Eric Hosmer

It's been quite a while since the Royals were anything close to royalty.  In fact, it has been 25 years since there has been baseball in Kansas City, in 1985.  That year, they were led by then-future hall of famer George Brett, the face of the legacy of Royals baseball.  It has been a long 25 seasons since then, only six of them resulting in winning records, and just one since George Brett hung up the spikes following the 1993 campaign.

In 2011, the team has a strong optimism that the recent trend of losing that has spanned over the last three decades, will be reversed.  This is because of a recent surge of young prospects within the system, making the Royal's farm system ranked at the top of the list of MLB farm systems going into the season.

To say that this system is loaded is an understatement.  The two most recognizable names of course being corner infielders Mike Moustakas and Eric Hosmer, the 2007 and 2008 first rounds picks for the Royals, respectively.  In 2010, Hosmer hit .338/20 HR/86 RBI/.977 OPS between 2 levels, while Moustakas put up monster numbers, hitting .322/36 HR/124 RBI/.999 OPS, posting numbers that nobody within the minors could match in 2010.  Both players should be up with the big club at some point in 2010.

Others highly-touted prospects expected to be up in the next few years include Mike Montgomery, who posted a 2.41 ERA in 93 innings while showing major development in his fastball, curve, and changeup according to scouts.  There is a also Josh Lamb, who led the organization with 159 strikeouts in 147 innings.  Wil Myers is expected to be up sometime in either 2011 or 2012, after having a season in which he hit .315/14 HR/83 RBI at class A, and will be the catcher of the future unless he is moved to the outfield.  The farm system became even more deep when the team shipped ace Zack Greinke to Milwaukee, acquiring pitching prospects Jake Odorizzi and Jeremy Jeffress.

At this point, the Kansas City Royals are a franchise that continues to wait-wait for the prospects to become stars, and for the Royals to get back to the days when they were royalty.  Barring any Alex Gordon-like episodes, they will rise to the top of the American League, and become relevant once again.