Kansas City Royals

Ned Yost, former Major League player and manager of the Milwaukee Brewers, is leading the Kansas City Royals: to the bright side of things.

Yost was fired as the Brewers manager, even after posting a 83-67 record, his best winning percentage yet at that time.

After his firing, the Royals put Yost as their bench coach, while Trey Hillman was leading the Royals to another disaster season.

The Kansas City Royals said, "Goodbye," to Trey Hillman on May 13th after two-plus seasons and a 12-23 record to start 2010. Hillman was 152-207 (.423 percent) in his tenure with the club.

Whether you love or hate Trey Hillman, and the onslaught of hate he has absorbed, one thing is certain: a change was necessary.

Hillman's preachings of fundamentals and smart play fell on deaf ears.

Royals manager Trey Hillman has just been relieved of his duties, effective immediately. Ned Yost will take over as the new manager to replace Hillman. Hillman's record was 151-206 in his two-plus seasons as the head guy in Kansas City.

He had been in hot water for quite some time after the team once again to off to a slow start to the 2010 season, winning 12 out of their first 35 games.

The firing of Hillman continues the revolving door of managers that the Royals have had in recent years.

No, no, not his overall play, for a literal single play.

According to the Kansas City Star , the Royals have fined Betancourt, the team's shortstop, following a dropped fly ball in Friday's loss to the Texas Rangers.

The ball was hit to the grass just past the infield, where Betancourt attempted to make a flashy one-handed catch at shoulder level. Unfortunately, he dropped it, allowing a run to score and to give Texas an early 2-0 lead.

For those not familiar with Trey Hillman's in-game management genius, let me lay it out for you in bullet points:

With Rick Ankiel finally being placed on the DL, the Royals have recalled Kila Ka’aihue (unfortunately, we had not yet gotten to cover him in our Prospect Trackers, which you can check out by clicking here and here ). 

It's been a fairly eventful two-plus weeks since I last posted here.  Having not grown up in the Kansas City area (unlike my father, whose fandom I unfortunately inherited), my in-person Royals experiences have been mostly limited to seeing them play the Twins at the Metrodome or seeing Omaha play the Round Rock Express.  While visiting my sister in Lawrence, I got to see the Royals where one is meant to see them: at Kauffman. 

There is no doubt the Royals have better expectations of themselves every single season from their previous year.

It seems the Royals will have a break out year soon.

The Kansas City Royals struck gold when they called Billy Butler up, a .300 hitter with 20HR power, but it is Third Baseman Alex Gordon that is the key for the Royals' future.

Alex Gordon was considered to have "very big" potential when he came up, and the fans in Kansas City had high hopes for him.

This year is his fourth year in Major League Baseball but he is yet to hit above .260.

Coming into the 2010 season, most Royals fans were wondering how much longer they'll have to wait until some of the organization's highly touted prospects will make their way to Kansas City.

The team has started the season with a 9-14 record, and is in a last-place tie with Chicago in the AL Central. And while the team's record may be discouraging to most Royals fans, this team could easily be five wins better if not for horrendous bullpen pitching through the first four weeks of the season.