Shangri-La

Today, the Royals stand in first place. In ALL of baseball. 5 games played, 5 games won. Every other team has at least one loss. Newcomer Alex Rios has belted 3 home runs and Eric Hosmer has been flashing some of the power potential that made him the 3rd overall pick of the 2008 draft. The Royals even defeated a swarm of bees that twice delayed their game yesterday. All of that begs the questions: Are the Royals here to stay?Are we, as Royals fans, in paradise?!

We must wait until the regular season has commenced to answer those questions, so today I present to you a guest post from the smartest and most articulate man I know. A brother from another mother if you will, we have bonded over our shared love of KC sports teams. I even wrote about him winning the Royals lottery in 2014. Like me, he has been transplanted into another part of the country where the Royals mean only one thing: decades of failure. Last season was basically the trip of a lifetime for both of us, and we are both hoping the Royals can replicate their success this year (and every year from now on, which is hopefully what the new team slogan means...).

I will try to convince him to channel his love for Dem Roys into writing more posts here, or maybe even starting his own blog, and for now let us all welcome him into the Royals blogosphere and read his words below:

Perhaps the mythical utopia of Lost Horizon exists outside of the mountains of Tibet. To me, Shangri-La is a Saturday afternoon on a sunny day. It involves a great morning run, heating up the grill, cooking some all-beef hot dogs, eating peanuts, drinking Boulevard and watching the Royals. This is one of the most exciting times of the year for me. Spring training has started, and my heaven is just a few weeks away 

With paradise so close, it is easy to be optimistic about the Royals this year. They have now had two consecutive winning seasons, they are the defending AL champions and took the World Series into game 7. Power bats have now been added to the team: Alex Rios and Kendrys Morales (based on HR stats from the last few years). Luke Hochevar is back, and reportedly pitching very well right now. The starting rotation and bullpen look solid. It is rumored that the royals will utilize Hochevar-Herrara-Davis-Holland to close out games starting in the 6th inning. This could revolutionize baseball, and the Royals are at the forefront of change. Gordon should be back from the DL by opening day, and the defense looks to be solid as ever.

With all of the excitement the Royals have generated, it is important to remember a few things. First, you should never judge a team’s likely success based on spring training. Spring training is a time where the manager is testing out pitchers and position players to establish the starting rotation, bullpen uses, starting position players and batting orders. Also, starting pitchers typically don't show all of their stuff to reserve the good stuff for the regular season. Based on this, you should not read into the success or lack thereof the Royals may have this spring training. Second, the regular season is 162 games long. Games are played one game at a time, and it is fine if the Royals lose a series here or there. What matters is the cumulative wins the team has accrued during the season. Please be patient and optimistic during the regular season, especially early on. Remember the Royals made a huge push in the second half of the 2013 season. Given the talent is relatively intact from the last few years, this means the Royals have the capacity to go on a hot streak at any point this season. This is an exciting team, and I believe we will be privileged to watch baseball history being made this year. Go Royals!