Ranking the Royals above the Rays, A's and Yankees seems really silly.

For a team with top ten talent, this:

The Royals may make the leap over .500 and into contention.

seems like an incredibly low bar.

The article is behind a pay wall for me.

10. Kansas City Royals — A talented, athletic group of young, core players is coming together. They finally have a bona fide No. 1 starter in James Shields. You can’t be completely sold on the rotation, but on paper it’s better than it has been in years. The bullpen has some outstanding arms. The Royals may make the leap over .500 and into contention.”

It so sad when young writers succumb to substance abuse.

FTA:

After my note championing Dwight Evans for the Hall of Fame last Sunday, Bill Chuck came up with this: Alfonso Soriano is a career .273 hitter with 372 homers; Evans hit .272, with 385 homers. Granted, Evans had 1,384 RBIs compared with Soriano’s 1,035, but Evans played in 2,606 games compared with Alfonso’s 1,757.

I'm surprised Bill Chuck didn't provide the even-more-relevant stats: both Soriano and Evans are 6'1", 190.

Neither Alfonso Soriano nor Dwight Evans have been in my kitchen.

9. One kid you don’t hear about too often is righty Rubby De La Rosa, who was acquired by Boston in the Dodgers deal. Interesting to watch his path with the Sox.

If only Cafardo had some kind of outlet which would allow him to write about someone like De La Rosa, perhaps giving us fans some insight we otherwise wouldn't have.

Alas.

EDIT: Deleted for violating the no-snark New Year's resolution.

1391-454 is the most pertinent Dewey/Alfonzo comparison you need to make.

The article is behind a pay wall for me.

Huh, really? I haven't had a hint of one.

Aside from the KC royals silliness, I recommend the piece. A number of nice updates on different platers.

Cafardo is constantly being quoted on Trade Rumors. I've never actually looked at his stuff before. Reading it, he's pretty bad. I'm a Tigers fan, surprised to see our strong bench based on Santiago and Boesch, both unlikely to make the team. Santiago was god-awful and superseded by Worth, Boesch didn't even make the playoff roster. And Rondon the closer, for all the front office bravado is a glaring weakness. Detroit is going to trade Porcello because they have too many starters and then sign Lohse???? Royals in the top ten? With Frenchy still in RF? Cripes. Texas? Yanks? 6 NL teams of the 10 including the top 2. Please. J. Upton is "underachieving." Yeah, and so was Gary Sheffield at his age. Evans and Soriano. Yeah, they are totally comparable. One was a high walk Gold Glove incredibly underrated star, and the other is a no-walk, no-position, incredibly overrated, overpaid but hardworking average player. Otherwise exactly the same. Boston fans, who I normally see as a cut above, put up with this guy? He's second rate even for the Detroit papers.