Shaking Things Up is Not a Long-Term Solution

Kansas City sports fans are angry. The Sprint Center is vacant. The Chiefs have yet to make their much anticipated splash in the free agent or trade market. And the Royals, well, the Royals just won't stop losing. It's quite a plight.

As it is whenever rock-bottom approaches, the fans are screaming for change. And it doesn't seem like a wild notion. The Royals have lost 5 of 6 and 12 of 16. They've dropped below .500 for the first time since opening week. They look, by all accounts, lost at the plate, totalling four runs in their last four games combined. It seems as if serious change is in order. But I say not so fast.

The Royals have already made some relatively major roster moves in the past couple of days that should eventually provide a spark for the team. First, they sent Luke Hochevar down to Omaha, a move that allows the team to transition to a four-man rotation for the next couple of weeks.

While I didn't feel Luke should have been given up on so quickly, all indications show that is not exactly the case. In fact, the demotion had more to do with the bullpen's horrendous showing in the past couple of weeks. Roman Colon takes Hochevar's spot on the roster, and figures to help patch up a bullpen with serious issues (especially after losing Robinson Tejeda). John Bale also returns to provide a solid lefty arm to a bullpen that is currently sending out the carcass of Horacio Ramirez to fill that lefty vacancy every couple of days. Mike Aviles has been demoted to the DL, a move which is becoming increasingly popular for teams looking to hide struggling regulars. So, all together we have two healthy new bullpen arms and another utilityman, the intriguing Tug Hulett. That constitutes a major shake-up in my book.

The arrival of Bale is the major addition. He will swiftly boot Ramirez from his role as a lefty specialist (finally), allowing the Royals to dismiss the faithful HoRam from the team once and for all. I'm not going to mince words here: Horacio Ramirez will be cut as soon as John Bale proves himself to be a far better option, a feat that should not be difficult to accomplish when compared with Ramirez's brutal efforts.

Once Ramirez is gone and stud closer Joakim Soria is back, the Royals will be freed up to add Hochevar to the big league squad once again. At this point, order will be restored to the universe and the Royals can once again resume winning ball games at their early-season rate.

OK, well it may not be as easy as 1-2-3, or A-B-C for that matter, but the point is that the Royals do not necessarily need to look for help outside of their own organization. People in Kansas City are overreacting to what is commonplace in a 162 game baseball season: a stretch of bad baseball. The team is currently just a game under .500 and 4 games back of division leading Detroit. Relax. If they're this close after a prolonged streak of incessant losing, then a mild winning streak will likely put them right near the division lead. Fans need to remember that this team is not as bad as they look right now, I guarantee it. The offense will eventually start scoring more than one run per game and Coco Crisp and David DeJeseus will get their batting averages up past .250. Billy Butler and Jose Guillen will hit for more power, and Alex Gordon will infuse this lineup with energy when he returns at the end of next month. All these things will happen, as long as Dayton Moore and Trey Hillman keep the faith and don't panic.

It may be difficult to see right now (as the Royals are getting one-hit by Detroit starter Edwin Jackson through 5 innings), but this team will turn it around. I just hope there are still fans piling into the new ballpark by the time it happens.