Big trade could turn pretenders into contenders in K.C.

Eric Boston

By Eric Boston
Guest Columnist

The Kansas City Royals are my favorite baseball team.

I was 3 years old when they won the World Series in 1985, so I pretty much only know losing seasons and giant letdowns.

Every year come spring training, however, there’s always hope — even for Royals fans.

Kansas City has a solid pitching staff along with several young position players who are constantly improving. Expectations for this season were higher than they have been in several years.

The first half of the season has come and gone. We’ve had our usual lone representative at the All-Star game (Joakim Soria).

In spite of a 12 game losing streak, the Royals went into the break ahead of defending American League Central champs, the Cleveland Indians, in the standings.

We are improving.

Dayton Moore has done many good things for the Royals since taking over as general manager. One thing that he has done that needs to change in the next week though is activity, or lack thereof, at the trade deadline.

Moore has made a few minor moves at the deadline the past couple of seasons, but nothing extraordinary. The organization is in a spot where it should be looking to make a bold trade before the deadline comes — for better or worse.

In the last week, the Royals have been linked to Atlanta Braves’ outfielder Jeff Francoeur who seems to have fallen out of graces somewhat with his current team.

Francoeur possesses raw power at the plate, something the Royals’ lineup desperately needs.

A trade for a player like Francoeur would show the baseball world and Royals fans (myself included), that Kansas City is ready, and looking, to contend.

If not Francoeur, then there are several other power bats that are available — the Cincinnati Reds’ Adam Dunn, the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Jason Bay and the Colorado Rockies’ Matt Holiday.

We have the assets to make a trade happen and, in a down year for the American League Central, the Royals could be just one solid offensive player away from contending. By