How All Of The 2014 Royals Pitchers Were Acquired:

By Chuck Booth (Lead Baseball Analyst/Website Owner): Follow @chuckbooth3024

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While James Shields has not had a banner postseason – however it is important to remember his influence on culture change in the Royals clubhouse for this successful franchise turnaround.

The trade that brought the RHP, also brought in Wade Davis, who may be the most important pitcher on the squad other than Greg Holland this campaign.

Dayton Moore has done a fantastic job of assembling this franchise’s roster over the last 5 – 7 years.  It came on the heels of a quarter century of futility yes, but the future definitely looks  bright.

As we have said before, teams residing in either league’s Central Division have a fair chance of competing in a season every year.

The highest payroll team is the Detroit Tigers, but they are not in the stratosphere of the Dodgers, Yankees, Rangers, Angels and Phillies, were there is a 2nd team in the division who can go buck wild in contracts.

The Nationals and Giants are able to spend in the $150 MIL range to join Philly and the Dodgers.  In the AL West, Texas and the Angels can mirror each other, whereas the Red Sox and Yankees own the AL East payroll leaders.

St. Louis is the highest NL Central club, and are always near the fringe of the top 10 for dollars spent annually only.  

The Tigers are the only franchise spending big cash in the AL Central, although the White Sox have delved into higher salaries in previous seasons – when they drew well following the 2005 World Series.  They have since scaled back.

The Royals should be able to field a nice team for the next 2 – 3 years, and it shouldn’t break the bank for the ownership.

  Detroit has aging and hefty contract problems coming up, and KC has more depth for the  1 – 25 Roster, when it comes to withstanding injuries

For the foreseeable few seasons ahead, you will bank on the emergence of Yordano Ventura and Danny Duffy to continue their development as aces, and the Relief Core is the still the strongest asset of the equation. Read the rest of this entry →