A Month Later Than Normal, Royals Done?

Now that Zack Greinke has had a start in which he looked vaguely human, the sky has completely fallen in on the Royals. Ray W at RoRetc is calling for heads (or rather, head) to roll. As Sam Mellinger points out, the bullpen has allowed 33 ER in their last 30 2/3 innings for an ERA of 9.63.

Mere weeks ago, the Royals sat atop the division at 18 - 11.

Now their record is 23 - 27.

Over that 5 - 16 stretch, their offense has been putrid, their defense abominable, the bullpen indefensible, and even their starting pitching has scuffled for the most part.

Who are the Royals then? The team that dazzled (in Royals terms at the very least) at 18 - 11? This awful product on the field?

The answer is probably both.

I don't think that this will be the only rough stretch this season. Another stretch of 18-and-11-ish ball is probably in the cards, too.

Health has certainly been an issue, with the bullpen hit more than maybe any other aspect of the team's makeup. The injuries to two of the Royals most effective relievers (Robinson Tejeda's walks be damned) have left them relying on the likes of Sidney Ponson and Horacio Ramirez* far too often.

* Who Royals fans hope gets the pink slip with every roster move--maybe that collective wish will be granted this week when Soria is reactivated and Crisp is taken off the bereavement list.

The return of Soria, hopefully Tuesday, should move Cruz, Wright, & Co. into more comfortable territory, and the dregs of the bullpen into blowout only roles.

Injuries haven't just affflicted the team on the positional depth chart front either. While Coco Crisp and Mike Aviles have seen their performance suffer on the field as a result of their injuries, it is Gil Meche's struggles that have been most worrisome. While his last start was very encouraging, one cannot help but wonder whether Meche might have been best served doing a 15-day stint on the DL in the hopes of righting his ailing back.

One word, Gil: Yoga.

Regardless of all this, the Royals made an all right run at things for a month or so. Maybe they can keep themselves close enough to strike with a healthy Alex Gordon, but that is probably a longshot at this point. We got a couple of months this time around at the very least.

Now I guess we look forward to Disco ascending the ranks, and hopefully pitching where he needs to--Kansas City.