ESPN Buster Olney Blog

There is not a lot of original thought in baseball, but there are a lot of mantras repeated over and over and over. Throw strikes. Hit the ball the other way. Hit the cutoff man. Compete on every pitch.

Zack Greinke had heard that last one before, but when a teammate suggested that to him a couple of years ago, the timing was just right. On Aug. 4, 2007, the Royals trailed the Yankees 11-7, and Greinke was summoned into the game. His effort was perfectly acceptable, but what he did not do was throw each pitch with complete conviction; he just threw the ball. And he got pummeled, allowing four hits and a walk and five runs without retiring a batter.

The next day, David Riske approached him and talked to him about locking down mentally and executing his pitches properly, regardless of the situation. "What he said clicked," Greinke recalled. "I made up my mind I was going to focus on executing every single pitch, no matter whether it was in the first inning or we were in the eighth inning with a 10-run lead."

So the Royals' No. 1 pick from 2002, who is still just 25 years old despite a journey that has already taken him out of baseball and back, in 2006, ramped up his intensity. Last season, Greinke went 13-10 with an 3.47 ERA, and it is partly because of his progress that the Royals will go into 2009 with reasonable optimism that they are capable of contending for the American League Central.

Kansas City increased its victory total from 69 to 75 last year and made more improvements this winter while increasing its payroll from $60 million to $74 million. The Royals landed Coco Crisp in a trade that allows David DeJesus to shift from center to left, improving the outfield defense. The Royals added some power, in making a deal for first baseman Mike Jacobs. Kansas City spent big bucks on set-up man Kyle Farnsworth. The roster has a thickness to it that it hasn't had in years, and many pivotal returning players worked diligently in the offseason. Jose Guillen reported to camp in much better condition, and Alex Gordon spent the winter refining his approach at the plate.

The back end of the Royals' rotation could be greatly improved if Kyle Davies can follow up on his strong finish to 2008, when he focused on developing and using a breaking ball and posted a 2.27 ERA in September; if Brian Bannister can shrug off a rough 2008, when he went 9-16, with a 5.76 ERA; if Luke Hochevar can corral his sinker; and if Horacio Ramirez can rebound, with the help of Royals pitching coach Bob McClure, who believes that he can help the left-hander.

But it is the Royals' homegrown players who must lift the Royals if they're going to move into the upper echelon of their division. Greinke recalled that when he played in Double-A in 2006, as he returned to baseball, the group of young prospects there -- including Alex Gordon and Billy Butler -- were told that the organization wanted them all to grow and develop together, to rise together, to develop a camaraderie. "I think they wanted us to get to know each other," Greinke recalled, "and fight for each other."

This is what the Royals have developed in recent seasons. Most of the Royals' 25-man roster was in Surprise, Ariz., long before Kansas City's camp officially opened this winter, the players naturally pushing each other to get back to work early, on a path that they believe is taking them someplace good. "What Tampa Bay did last year, and what the Rockies did the year before, have given other teams a lot of hope," catcher John Buck said.

"The excitement and the enthusiasm here is higher than I've ever seen it, in the time I've been around." The expectations are not just a hope to get better, Buck said, but to aim for something much higher than that. "The expectation," he said, "is how it should be."

Greinke's agent sometimes raised the idea of signing a multiyear deal before this year, and Greinke dismissed notion, because it really wasn't a priority for him; he figured he might as well go year-to-year. Even as he finally agreed to four-year, $38 million deal, he felt some ambivalence.

But as he has thought about the deal since then, Greinke has come to feel very good about the sentiment behind it: The Royals are investing in him.

General manager Dayton Moore has said often, since he took over the Royals, that a goal was to create an organization in which there was a feeling -- among the youngest players, in particular -- that they were all pulling together, all building toward a common goal. It was a radical thought for a club that had been stripped of talent time after time through the years.

Greinke can speak to that change better than anyone, perhaps, considering the many twists in his young career. He's honored by the contract now. "It is just nice that they cared about me that much," he said. "It's a lot of money to give anybody. It makes me want to try even harder for them."

"They believed in me, even when I was at the lowest of lows."

The Royals are in a numbers game, writes Bob Dutton.