21-year old lefty swinging rookie 1B Eric Hosmer has turned in an outstanding rookie season for the Royals, but he’s finishing it with a bang. Hosmer has played in 11 games so far in September and he is 18 for 44 (.409 avg) with 13 runs scored, 5 homers, 12 RBIs and 3 stolen bases. He has now played in 113 games overall for the Royals this year and he is 131 of 457 (.287 avg, .796 OPS) with 56 runs scored, 17 homers, 69 RBIs and 10 stolen bases. Hosmer is going to be a building block for the Royals’ future, which is starting to look really bright.

27-year old lefty swinging LF Alex Gordon appears to be a late bloomer for the Royals. In his first 4 years with the Royals, Gordon played in 408 games in which he was 352 for 1,442 (.244 avg, .733 OPS) with 194 runs scored, 45 homers, 161 RBIs and 29 stolen bases. When he started out with the Royals, he was a 3B and many were expecting him to be the next George Brett. That pressure seemed to weigh on Gordon. This spring, the Royals stuck Gordon out in LF and he has responded big time. Gordon has played in 129 games for the Royals so far this year and he is 156 for 519 (.301 avg, .871 OPS) with 85 runs scored, 18 homers, 71 RBIs and 14 stolen bases. The Royals are very happy with Gordon this year as they were starting to run out of patience with him.

26-year old switch-hitting CF Melky Cabrera was just supposed to be a stopgap in CF until Lorenzo Cain was ready to take over. But, Cabrera has been so good this year that the Royals should think about re-signing him. Cabrera has played in 130 games for the Royals so far this year and he is 166 for 551 (.301 avg, .807 OPS) with 79 runs scored, 17 homers, 76 RBIs and 17 stolen bases. He has already set new career highs in runs scored, homers, RBIs and stolen bases already and he still has another month to go. It will be interesting to see if the Royals try to re-sign Cabrera for 2012 and beyond or if they decide to go with Lorenzo Cain in CF.

The Kansas City Royals have given 27-year old righty swinging RF Jeff Francoeur a 2-year, $13.5 million dollar extension to his contract. He has played in 121 games for the Royals so far this year and he is 128 for 466 (.275 avg, .786 OPS) with 60 runs scored, 15 homers, 66 RBIs and 19 stolen bases. He has now played in 966 games in his first seven years in the majors and he is 984 for 3,662 (.269 avg, .741 OPS) with 462 runs scored, 116 homers, 531 RBIs and 42 stolen bases. Francoeur has played well this year for the Royals as he is GM Drayton Moore’s new ex-Atlanta Brave to love now that Kyle Davies is gone.

21-year old righty swinging catcher Salvador Perez came into this season as the Royals’ #17 prospect according to Baseball America. He has played in 5 games for the Royals so far this year and he is 5 for 19 (.263 avg, .566 OPS) with 2 runs scored, 0 homers and 1 RBI. Perez has also been showing off a rifle behind the plate as he picked off two runners in his major league debut (one off 1B and one off 3B). Perez has also played in 91 games in AA+AAA-ball so far this year and he was 97 for 334 (.290 avg, .769 OPS) with 40 runs scored, 10 homers and 53 RBIs. Look for the Royals to give Perez a nice audition as Brayan Pena and Matt Treanor are not going to block his path to a starting job.