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.
However, on Tuesday, the Royals organization became the envy of all Major League Baseball, placing two prospects in the Top 10 and six in the Top 50 in the rankings of baseball's minor league prospects, giving them the highest total for this season and matching the highest total by any organization in the past eight years.
Third baseman Mike Moustakas and first baseman Eric Hosmer finished No. 7 and No. 8 respectively in MLB.com's annual listing of the top 50 prospects in all of baseball.
Both players also finished as the top prospect at their respective positions.
Moustakas, the second overall pick in the 2007 MLB Draft, absolutely tore up both Double and Triple-A ball last season, hitting for a .324 average, 36 home runs and 124 runs batted in—all in just 118 games played.
Hosmer, the third overall pick of the 2008 MLB Draft, spent last season in Advanced Single-A before moving up to Double-A ball with Northwest Arkansas.
His 2010 season stats included 20 home runs, 86 RBI and a batting average of .338.
The Royals are young, inexperienced and absolutely loaded with talent—talent being the key word.
They have one of the best closers in all of baseball in Joakim Soria, they have the former No. 1 overall pick Luke Hochevar leading the pitching staff and they have a handful of young baseball players, from Alex Gordon to Billy Butler.
They also added former Braves outfielder Jeff Francoeur, who still might have the best rifle arm in the outfield today.
The Kansas City Royals could still be a few years away from catching the likes of the Minnesota Twins, Detroit Tigers or Chicago White Sox, and they might even get into a future prospects battle with the Cleveland Indians.
But things are looking up for the Blue and White.
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