28-year old switch hitting 3B Wilson Betemit is on fire with the bat right now. He has played in 57 games for the Royals this year and he is 57 of 172 (.331 avg, 1.001 OPS) with 24 runs scored, 10 homers and 29 RBIs. Betemit has been starting at 3B for the Royals since they traded Alberto Callaspo to the Angels and he has been outstanding. He looks like a late bloomer as he was considered one of the best prospects in all of baseball when he came up through the Braves’ organization but he never had the results to prove it until now.

28-year old righty swinging shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt is probably having his best season ever in 2010. He has played in 108 games for the Royals this year and he is 105 of 394 (.266 avg, .699 OPS) with 48 runs scored, 10 homers and 51 RBIs. It’s amazing the numbers Betancourt has put up this season due to the fact that he has only walked 12 times this year. Betancourt has been a very pleasant surprise for the Royals this season.

28-year old switch-hitting infielder Wilson Betemit will likely see increased P.T. due to the trade of Alberto Callaspo. Betemit has played in 24 games for the Royals this year and he is 21 of 57 (.368 avg, 1.122 OPS) with 10 runs scored, 4 homers and 10 RBIs. He has now played in 540 games in his 8 years in the majors and he is 316 of 1,200 (.263 avg, .773 OPS) with 157 runs scored, 46 homers, 164 RBIs and 5 stolen bases. Betemit has always been a decent hitter so he should be able to do a solid job of replacing Alberto Callaspo in the short term.

Last season 29-year old righty swinging 2B/SS Mike Aviles hurt himself pretty good and it hurt his swing. He played in 36 games for the Royals last season and he was 22 of 120 (.183 avg, .458 OPS) with 10 runs scored, 1 homer and 8 RBIs. Over the winter the Royals traded for Chris Getz with the idea of starting him at 2B. He then got hurt and Aviles was called up and he pretty much took the starting job at 2B away from Getz while he was out of action. Aviles has played in 46 games this season for the Royals and he is 57 of 176 (.324 avg, .753 OPS) with 29 runs scored, 2 homers and 12 RBIs. He has now played in 184 games in his major league career and he is 215 of 715 (.301 avg, .751 OPS) with 107 runs scored, 13 homers, 71 RBIs and 10 stolen bases. I’m thinking that Aviles will be pretty good trade bait for the Royals if he keeps hitting the ball.

The Royals tried to trade 34-year old righty swinging RF/DH Jose Guillen all winter. No team wanted to touch him based on how bad he played in 2009. In 2009, Guillen played in 81 games for the Royals and he was 68 of 281 (.242 avg, .681 OPS) with 30 runs scored, 9 homers and 40 RBIs. This season though Guillen is ripping the ball for the Royals. He has played in 74 games for the Royals this year and he is 78 of 280 (.279 avg, .813 OPS) with 41 runs scored, 13 homers and 45 RBIs. If the Royals fall behind the Twins, Tigers and White Sox more in the near future they will try to move Guillen again.