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Cub fans and Mets fans are known for their ability to cheer for their teams that are consistent loosers.

I suggest those of us who still cheer the Royals (and I do) are in a class by ourselves even in comparison to our role models cheering the Cubbies and Mets.

Why? Simple: Read this article above!

"So, to review: they can't hit, can't hit for power, and can't get on base but make up for it by being slow, playing bad defense, and giving up a lot of runs late in games."

To me this means the sad thing is you don't need to go to Omaha, Wichita, or even T-Bones to see minor league play. You can pay two to three times as much and see it at Kaufman Stadium.

Royals fans deserve some props.

billybob wonders...how will more payroll make us better...if we pay everyone on the roster like we do guillen and meche, will we leap into the playoffs? if we give a 16 year old kid 30 million dollars to try to stay uninjured for 5 years in the minor leagues, will we be world champs? and if the kid and grienke both get 12 mil a year, and both play great, will that get us to 500? the answers i keep coming up with are no no and more no...glass spent 20 percent more this year, and we got 20 percent worse...should we double down? i think not...i am not clear why some people think glass is obligated to throw more of his money in our toilet...it won't make the stuff in the toilet float any higher...we could do this...everybody who thinks more money will do it, band together and offer glass a deal...each of you folks will agree to pay double for every ticket and royals product you buy, and glass will agree to redirect 100 percent of that extra money to whatever players you want to buy...or, maybe more sensible, with every ticket sold,for an extra dollar, the buyer gets a vote card on which he/she gets to note who to keep, who to dump...from gm to manager to bullpen, and after the votes are in, the vote money will all be used to meet the needs of those choices...and if y'all want to keep hillman, and moore,...well, i always have had kind of a soft spot for the cardinals.

We have a twenty five year old, potential perennial Cy Young candidate starting pitcher locked up long term. We also have a fireman of the year quality closer. And a legitimate number three hitter, a twenty three year old who is good enough to compete for a batting title every year for the next ten years.

This is nothing like 2004.

I know the record is bad. But there is young talent on this team, too. And we have enough good arms -- granted, many of whom have had sub-par years -- to make a strong move over the next few years.

Defense can be improved through hard work. If they can just become average with the gloves, and close to average with the bats, we have decent enough pitching to get us back in the game.

goatlockerloungelizard

On a lighter note Sam, awesome picture. Makes you wonder what hubby is doing while the bride is doing kegstands.

Unfortunately, after 15 plus years of a crap product on the field and a joke of minor league development system the fanbase has grown so apathetic and is simply resigned to the fact that the Royals will suck well into the future, um, if not forever.

"You know, it's time for the local paper to quantify just how historically disappointing this season is." No offense Sam, but been there, done that for the last 10 years.

No, it's time for the local paper to dig into the financial situation of the Royals. Let's see some real specifics on their payroll and how they spread this mammoth 20% payroll increase.

I for one would really like to know how much the Royals get through Advertising, TV, Radio & MLB kickbacks (revenue sharing, etc.).

Many of us believe this organization receives FAR more than it spends and this infuriates those of us that watch b & c-level players get signed to contracts every year instead of going after real major league talent.

An article was written a week or so ago (I think you wrote it) that excellently illustrated the history of this franchise over the past 20 years. It had some surprising info like, as I recall, that the club payroll in 1994! was over $47MM! I find it astounding that over the past 15 years of baseball salary inflation that this club has only raised it's payroll $23MM. Through all the bargain basement teams, salary dumps and All-Star Pitcher Mark Redmond, this team has managed to raise it's payroll $1.54MM dollars a year! Now I know that's a simplistic way of looking at things but when you don't have much info to go on, how else do we evaluate?

Instead of banging our collective heads against the wall about how 'historically bad' THIS YEAR's team is, you guys need to do your job and dig up the details on WHY it is this bad.

It's starts with curiosity. 'Has this owner REALLY changed his ways?' On the surface it appears he has, but that's only looking at two things. The money he's spending in the draft & the money he upped the payroll by. But the big picture is that in 2007 & 2008 the payroll remained the same at $58MM. He signed Guillen & Meche to $36MM & $55M respectively BUT he also took Mike Sweeney's $12MM off the books. So is he really spending that much more? I know other teams are spending less, but frankly, I don't care what others are doing. After 15 years of putting bargain basement teams on the field, it's time that he spend a little more than others, don't you think? If that means overspending, so be it. I DON'T CARE how much money it takes. There's no salary cap. Just a commitment by the owner to do whatever it takes to fix his mess.

The fans have little voice. It's clear that David Glass doesn't respect the Royals' fan base or he would have never allowed this experiment to show MLB that small markets can't compete destroy our ballteam. He would have never tried this if he had owned St. Louis because they would hold him accountable. We depend on the local paper to keep the owner honest. Many of us believe there are tens of millions that David Glass could still put into this club but isn't.

The fans of KC are depending, and quite frankly, deserve & demand you and your peers at the Star to expose this team's operations. It's been 15 straight years of ineptitude.

We need answers, not more statistical analysis.

I'll be at the game tonight - only because its my birthday this weekend and I'm hoping to see a really hot chick streak naked, hop the fence and jump in the fountain. My wife would not volunteer. At this point, its probably more important to stimulate the economy one $7.50 beer at a time, enjoy a plate of ribs, coerce the bartender to let us do shots at the RF bar and then try to see if anyone in our group can beat Billy Butler's time at the Base Run in the Outfield Experience. (more fun than the cup game after a few drinks.)

The Royals trail Washington by 4.5 games in the quest to be the #1 pick in next year's draft. I'm pretty sure based on their track record for not being able to do anything right, they couldn't even properly tank down the stretch.

This is all, obviously, being said in jest as there is so much more wrong with this club than a teen phenom could fix.