The Current Royals Lineup

The big news today is the Royals have traded relief pitcher Ramon Ramirez to the Red Sox for center fielder Coco Crisp. There is speculation this is only first of several trades GM Dayton Moore will make this off season. Mark Teahen could soon move to the north side of Chicago and will be playing for Lou Piniella and the Cubs in 2009. As of now this is only a rumor. But as a result of the trades for Mike Jacobs and Coco Crisp the Royals 2009 lineup is better than the one the club fielded in 2008.

POS	2009 STARTER	2008 STARTER
C	Miguel Olivo	John Buck
1B	Mike Jacobs	Ross Gload
2B	Alberto Callaspo	Mark Grudzielanek
3B	Alex Gordon	Alex Gordon
SS	Mike Aviles	Mike Aviles
LF	David DeJesus	Mark Teahen
CF	Coco Crisp	David DeJesus
RF	Jose Guillen	Jose Guillen
DH	Billy Bulter	Billy Butler

I don't believe Miguel Olivo will be any better at the plate than John Buck but Mike Jacobs will be a huge improvement over Ross Gload. Replacing Mark Teahen with Coco Crisp will also improve the Royals offensive production. It is going to be interesting to see what transpires the next few weeks but the Royals are set up to be a better offensive team in 2009 than they were in 2008.