What a difference a year makes

One month in the books and the Royals and their fans should be feeling pretty good about the young season. While the pitching has been fantastic the offense has been slow to come around, though Toronto may think otherwise. Sitting at 12-10 and in first place the Royals are in position to be a factor all year long in the Central - something not heard in Kansas City for quite some time.

The offense hasn't been great but it is better than last season.

Year	Record	RPG	AVG/OBP/SLG	HR's
2008	12-15	3.70	.259/.316/.364	15
2009	12-10	4.41	.249/.331/.429	23

Well right off we notice that they are getting on base more and hitting for a lot more power which of course will lead to more runs. While quite a bit was said of the Crisp and Jacobs acquisitions they have been as advertised. Crisp is batting .247/.371/.494 with a league leading four triples and sixteen walks, good for fourth in the AL. Jacobs is who we thought he was, a power hitter who strikes out a lot. He is on pace for the eleventh 30 home run season in club history but he will need to pick up the pace to make a run at Balboni's team record. I guess I should also mention another newcomer though he hasn't played as much (43 PA's), Willie Bloomquist is batting .333/.439/.424 and has been more than impressive at the plate.

And while those three have been part of the offensive improvement there are four holdovers having terrific seasons, three of which are contributing more than many thought they would.

Player	2008	2009
Teahen	.277/.360/.406	.300/.391/.488
Butler	.290/.351/.370	.262/.377/.431
Callaspo	.351/.415/.432	.379/.432/.545
Buck	.221/.316/.353	.300/.370/.700

Butler's numbers are skewed by his last two games (6/9, 4 extra base hits) but he has been taking more walks this season so it just seemed like a matter of time before he would start producing. I think many of us will feel better when he is more Sweeney and less Harvey. Those numbers should get better.

Callaspo and Buck will both a some point come down while I think Teahen can sustain his numbers over a full season. I don't know that he will but I believe it's possible.

Buck and Olivo each have 46 PA's through the first month. Can we just end this charade and let Buck take over the majority of playing time?

• Buck - .300/.370/.700 3 HRs 15 RBIs
• Olivo - .178/.196/.333 2 HRs 4 RBIs 

Aviles is starting to show signs of life as evidenced by a .980 OPS his last five games so that is great to see. Now we are just waiting on DDJ's bat to come alive.