26-year old righty starting pitcher Zack Greinke won the Cy Young Award in 2009 despite playing on a lousy Royals’ team. He started 33 games for the Royals last season and he was 16-8 with a 2.16 ERA and a 1.07 WHIP. This season he hasn’t been nearly as good as it appears that all of the Royals’ losing is starting to get to him. Greinke has started 32 games for the Royals this year and he is 9-14 with a 4.23 ERA and a 1.26 WHIP. Greinke has now pitched in 209 games (168 starts) in his 7 years with the Royals and he is 59-67 with 1 save, a 3.83 ERA and a 1.27 WHIP. It just doesn’t seem like Greinke is very happy in K.C. and I have little doubt that he will leave the first chance he gets in free agency.

The Royals have shut down 26-year old lefty swinging 2B Chris Getz for the rest of the year due to a concussion. Getz played in 72 games for the Royals this year and he was 53 of 224 (.237 avg, .579 OPS) with 23 runs scored, 18 RBIs and 15 stolen bases. It will be interesting to see how the Royals handle Getz in spring training next season as he was pretty much given the starting 2B job at the start of the year but he gave it back quickly because he wasn’t hitting the ball at all. Mike Aviles has taken over as the starting 2B and it will be hard for Getz to get the starting job back from him unless the Royals trade him over the winter which is a possibility. Aviles has played in 99 games this year for the Royals and he is 115 of 376 (.306 avg, .731 OPS) with 53 runs scored, 6 homers, 29 RBIs and 8 stolen bases.

24-year old righty swinging 1B/DH Billy Butler is having a really good year for the Royals but they expected a little more out of him. He has played in 145 games for the Royals this year and he is 173 of 546 (.317 avg, .853 OPS) with 69 runs scored, 14 homers and 72 RBIs. The Royals would probably like to see Butler give up some points on his batting average for 10-15 more homers in 2011. It remains to be seen whether or not this is something that Butler would want to do or not. It’s just that the Royals have so little power in the lineup that they need Butler to knock himself in more in 2011.

27-year old righty swinging shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt is having an outstanding season for the Royals in 2010. Betancourt has played in 133 games for the Royals this year and he is 126 of 492 (.256 avg, .687 OPS) with 55 runs scored, 15 homers and 70 RBIs. His homers and RBIs are already career highs with a couple of weeks to go in the season. The Royals have really been happy with Betancourt and they hope he can keep up the good work in the future for them.

The Royals have traded 32-year old switch hitting IF/OF Willie Bloomquist to the Reds for either a player to be named later or cash. Bloomquist played in 72 games for the Royals this year and he was 45 of 170 (.265 avg, .684 OPS) with 31 runs scored, 3 homers, 17 RBIs and 8 stolen bases. He played in 197 games in two years with the Royals and he was 160 of 604 (.265 avg, .669 OPS) with 83 runs scored, 7 homers, 46 RBIs and 33 stolen bases. This is not a big loss for the Royals as they aren’t going anywhere this year.