K.C. slowly making positive strides

Tuesday, August 21, 2007 | Feedback | Print Entry

More than half of the teams are contending and the Kansas City Royals are not among them, so they aren't to be confused with the '69 Mets or the '91 Braves, or the 2000 Athletics. But this has been a season of marked improvement.

A year ago today, the Royals were on their way to their fourth 100-loss season in five years, and they didn't have an identifiable ace, or a closer, or a shortstop. They've got 55 wins this season, and with 38 games to go, it's possible that they could finish 2007 with anywhere from 70 to 74 victories, and see a double-digit improvement in their victory total.

Gil Meche is the ace of the Royals staff this year, and into the future. Joakim Soria, among the best Rule 5 picks of the last decade, is the closer now and presumably will be again next year. Zack Greinke, out of baseball for a lot of last year, is throwing at 98 mph, in a year of transition, and figures to be a weapon for the rest of his career, in relief or as a starter or a closer.  
 

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  • Buster Olney Buster Olney

    Buster Olney is a senior writer at ESPN The Magazine. He began covering baseball in 1989, as the Nashville Banner's beat reporter assigned to the Triple-A Nashville Sounds. Later, he covered the San Diego Padres (1993-94), the Baltimore Orioles ('95-96), the New York Mets ('97) and the Yankees ('98-2001). Olney joined ESPN The Magazine in 2003, after six years at The New York Times, and he's the author of the Times' best-seller "The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty," a book about the Paul O'Neill-Tino Martinez Yankees dynasty of 1996-01.

    He grew up in central Vermont collecting baseball cards and listening to Red Sox, Expos, Phillies and Pirates radio broadcasts, and was a rabid fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He graduated from Vanderbilt University the same year as hoops legend Will Perdue, and ranks among the all-time leading scorers in pickup basketball at Memorial Gym. He claims to have witnessed the Commodores' winning football season in 1982 (although anthropologists have not yet confirmed this).

    Olney also contributes to ESPN.com, ESPN Radio, ESPNEWS, "SportsCenter" and "Baseball Tonight."

    Follow Buster on Twitter: @Buster_ESPN

    Ask Buster a question: Buster's Mailbag

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