Kansas City Royals

Over the past three or four years, third base has been one of the shallowest positions in fantasy baseball—with only a few players worthy of an early-round pick.  

As the 2011 season quickly approaches and fantasy owners begin drafting their teams, many owners will be pleasantly surprised to see that the third base pool is no longer filled with just a small handful of players.

One of the major weaknesses of the Royals team last season was its lackluster bullpen.

This season, there promises to be many new faces in what should be a unit that will be a work in progress from the start of the season.

New additions such as Tim Collins and Louis Coleman should likely help bridge the gap to star closer Joakim Soria, and hopefully improve a 'pen that has been very inconsistent in recent years.

The following slides feature the players that I have predicted to make this 'pen in '11.

Enjoy.

I want everyone to take a deep breath. What I am about to say is nothing short of shocking, mind-bending and literally unbelievable.

Royals first baseman Billy Butler stole a base Sunday in the Royals' spring opener against the Texas Rangers.

I know—incredibly strange news considering Butler only has one career stolen base in 533 games in the majors, but manager Ned Yost told MLB.com that he wants to see his players running more this season.

The Kansas City Royals lost some viable starters in their rotation over the past offseason.

Veteran Gil Meche retired, Brian Bannister left for the Japanese league and former Cy Young Award-winner Zack Greinke was traded to the Brewers.

With all of this recent turnover and many familiar faces gone from seasons past, this year's starting rotation will be full of question marks.

The following is how I see it shaking out for KC in 2011.

Begin Slideshow

With Spring Training right around the corner, it is time to start looking forward to the '11 MLB season which begins at the end of next month.

The Kansas City Royals will have some changes in their 2011 lineup, as they have acquired a slick fielding shortstop in the Zack Greinke trade and also signed a couple of former Braves prospects.

These projections could be modified some as Spring Training gets going, but for now, this is the lineup is that I see the Royals going with this season.

It would be easy to overlook Mike Aviles.

After all, he plays in Kansas City, who are down to two fantasy mainstays (Billy Butler and Joakim Soria) now that Zack Greinke is with the Brewers.

Earlier this offseason, the Royals made headlines when they traded away former Cy Young award winner and ace Zack Grienke, along with 2010 starting shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt.

In return, they were able to get four prospects, including the Brewers' starting shortstop Alcides Escobar.

While the other three players could make an impact on this team down the road, Escobar is the only one that is a sure bet to start at his shortstop position on opening day next month.

When Kansas City Royals General Manager Dayton Moore took over back in 2006, the organization was going in a downward spiral with nowhere to go but up.

In his first full season in KC, the team lost 100 games and once again finished in the cellar of the AL Central division.

Moore, the former Atlanta Braves scout, got to see firsthand why this team has been the laughingstock of major league baseball for over two decades.

"We made it very clear that an area of focus to improve our team this offseason was our outfield. And it became very clear to us that we were going to fill that position with a right-handed bat, somebody that could play defense as well as somebody that could help us offensively and acquire somebody with tremendous leadership ability. With that being said, I am delighted to announce that we've signed Jeff Francoeur as our latest addition to the 2011 Kansas City Royals."

The Kansas City Royals did not have a lot to cheer about during last year's 67-win season, the fifth worst record in Major League Baseball in 2010.

Things only got worse when the Royals traded former Cy Young Award winner Zack Greinke to the Milwaukee Brewers in exchange for a bunch of young prospects.