The Royals hit the all-star break 15 games behind the White Sox, and a world away from any chance of a wild card berth. Is it to early to start thinking about next year? Absolutely not. In fact, they probably should have been thinking about next year last year. The Royals have one major need, pitching. Starting pitching, relief pitching, any pitching. And it doesn’t appear that too much of it is coming from the minors. The only thing that is clear, is that most of the guys currently on the big league roster are part of the problem, not part of the solution. Frankly, they’re not helped by having Tony Muser as a manger who has shown no signs of knowing how to handle a pitching staff. Part of me would like to see the Royals bring up their pitching prospects later this year to give them a tate of the big leagues, but the rest of me knows Muser would destroy them. One thing they can do in the second half is trade Johnny Damon. The Royals need pitching and they have two cheaper outfielders in Mark Quinn and Dee Brown that they should be willing to try in left.
