{"id":9228,"date":"2009-03-06T12:11:14","date_gmt":"2009-03-06T17:11:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.capperspicks.com\/blog\/?p=9228"},"modified":"2023-02-07T07:36:42","modified_gmt":"2023-02-07T15:36:42","slug":"2009-kc-royals-preview-predictions-60309","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/mlb-baseball\/2009-kc-royals-preview-predictions-60309\/","title":{"rendered":"MLB Predictions \/ Previews: KC Royals"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>MLB Team Previews \u2013 Kansas City Royals<\/h2>\n<p>This hasn&#8217;t been said in MLB betting circles in ages &#8211; maybe the mid 1980s? &#8211; but things may finally be looking up for the Kansas City Royals, especially in the anything-goes AL Central. Raise your hand if you knew they went 18-8 last September. All those draft picks are finally arriving and the pitching staff even offers a glimmer of hope.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Those who bet sports can&#8217;t deny the Royals&#8217; lineup is at least young and offers some pop. Coco Crisp joins the team and should become the everyday leadoff man; he has a chance to re-establish the level of play he showed in his Cleveland days. Mike Jacobs &#8211; though he&#8217;s never seen a pitch he didn&#8217;t like &#8211; adds 30-homer power to the lineup. Miles Aviles probably played over his head at shortstop last year, but he&#8217;s at least shown he has doubles power. Most importantly &#8211; Alex Gordon, the former second overall pick many baseball betting pundits dubbed &#8220;the next David Wright&#8221; &#8211; could make that next leap this season. He had a .277 average, .392 on-base percentage and .888 OPS after the All-Star break last season &#8211; all very good signs. We can&#8217;t forget about minor-league hitting legend Billy Butler either, but he&#8217;s running out of chances to prove he can be an elite major-league slugger.<\/p>\n<p>The pitching staff will get knocked around again but still has its bright spots.<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" style=\"margin: 1px; border: 1px solid #ffffff;\" src=\"http:\/\/baff.betonline.com\/aspx\/affiliateGetImage.aspx?ID_SC=2225&amp;ID_I=1646\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"250\" \/> Zack Greinke&#8217;s velocity has exploded and he mowed down hitters last year, suggesting his personal problems are behind him and that he&#8217;s ready to deliver on the promise that made him a 2002 first-round draft pick. Gil Meche won&#8217;t send you running to the offshore sportsbook with excitement every time he takes the mound, but he&#8217;s an underrated innings eater who can miss bats.<\/p>\n<p>Things are definitely looking up in the Royals&#8217; pen; Joakim Soria proved 2007 was no fluke with a dominant 2008 season. He seems destined to remain a steady reliever for the next decade. The Royals also picked two absolute flamethrowers off the scrap heap\u00a0 &#8212; Kyle Farnsworth and Juan Cruz &#8211; who should hold their own as setup men.<\/p>\n<p>While nothing comes easy for the Royals in <a title=\"MLB Betting Odds\" href=\"\/mlb\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>MLB odds<\/strong><\/a>, those who bet sports should keep them on the back burner in 2009. They don&#8217;t have the same number of strong prospects the Rays did last year but they also play in a much weaker division. You just never know what could happen for the Royals in the 2009 MLB odds.<\/p>\n<h3>Planning On Doing Some MLB Betting This Year? BetOnline.com Sportsbook Has The Best Kansas City Royals MLB Future Odds For You!!! Click Here &gt;&gt;&gt;<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here&#8217;s your 2009 KC Royals predictions and in MLB betting circles in ages &#8211; not since the mid 1980s has this been said, but things may finally be looking up for the Kansas City Royals&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[670],"tags":[10727,11333,11341,11342,11343,9709,10608,10601,66513,10729,11334,11335,11336,11337,66497,678,681,11338,11339,11340],"class_list":["post-9228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mlb-baseball","tag-2009-mlb-team-preview","tag-2009-royals","tag-al-central","tag-al-central-predictions","tag-al-central-preview","tag-betonlinecom","tag-betonlinecom-articles","tag-betonlinecom-sportsbook","tag-handicapping","tag-handicapping-baseball","tag-kansas-city-royals","tag-kansas-city-royals-predictions","tag-kc-royals","tag-kc-royals-picks","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-betting","tag-mlb-gambling","tag-royals-futures","tag-royals-odds","tag-royals-predictions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9228"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":107549,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9228\/revisions\/107549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}