Fantasy Kansas City

To get you ready for draft season, Fantasy FanHouse will be running through each major league team, covering lineups, rotations and sleeper/busts.

Meet the ...
New Braves. In theory anyway. John Schuerholz' protege, Dayton Moore, is working on turning Kansas City around, and while he might have a long row to hoe, he's at least working his way there, especially when you consider he has studs like Billy Butler and Alex Gordon to lean on immediately. Yes, the pitching -- led by the disturbingly effective Gil Meche and underrated Brian Bannister -- needs some help, and yes, the batting isn't there yet but the team will be good sooner than later. Or maybe later. Either way, there are some cheaper, intriguing fantasy options here.

The Breakout
I could easily pick Billy Butler but I'm rolling with Alex Gordon instead. I, along with a lot of fantasy owners, broke the bank to acquire Gordon last year, only to be severely, severely disappointed. Gordon's second half was drastically improved (well, except for the jump to a .300 OBP), and he is immensely talented, so there's no question he'll be good. The only question is whether it happens this year or not. I'm thinking it is, and I'm also thinking there's a decent chance he gets 20/20 as well, even if his average doesn't approach .300.

The Bust
Brian Bannister actually got a lot of ROY love late in the season, and with good reason. When you finish 12-9 with a 3.87 ERA on KC, you deserve some love. Unfortunately, there is this Red Sawx bias, and he got dissed. Still, Bannister will be a relatively popular pick this year because a lot of people think the Royals will be improved. The problem is that he lacks a lot of dominance to really be trusted as anything more than a fifth or so fantasy starter -- witness his 77 K's in 156 innings last year. There's also the chance that he could lack in run support occasionally. Just saying you don't want to overpay.

As Dan Benton reported earlier this evening, Larry Johnson is purportedly done for the year. In the world of fantasy sports, we don't worry about whether things are fact or rumor (well, we do, but we're usually smarter to act on the possibility that an early rumor may be true than wait for confirmation from a bigger source). What does this mean for your fantasy squads?

First of all, don't drop LJ juuust quite yet. Let's get official confirmation from the team, NFL, etc before we go doing anything rash.

Secondly, snatch up Priest Holmes anywhere you can. Sure, he's elderly, and sure, that Chiefs line is declining, but he's a starting running back and a former consensus number one overall fantasy pick a few years back. He also secretly doesn't have as many miles on his body relative to the number of years he's been in the league, so he could absolutely surprise for teams down the stretch.

Next, you can bump up Damon Huard and Dwayne Bowe a bit on our current rankings. Yes, they lose a lot of their offense with LJ gone, but that means the Chiefs have to throw more. Huard doesn't get as much a bump as Bowe does because he might be slinging more picks than before.

And finally, Tony Gonzalez. Gonzo is a wait and see type thing, but my thinking is that Herm Edwards begins to use him more and more in the blocking scheme to give Priest some protection. I could be wrong and he could keep going at his bounce-back pace, but if I own him, I'm selling.

And not to get on a high horse, but how's that whole 400-plus carries thing working for people these days? Seriously - don't draft people with more than 400 carries the year before.

Major League Mongering will look at players rumored to be on the move between now and the July 31st pseudo-trade-deadline.

Why does this need to happen? Because Reggie Sanders is 39 years old and in the last year of a two-year contract. I mean, seriously, the Royals are in the middle of a youth movement, have been vying for the worst record in the league since Opening Day, and are still giving at-bats to someone five years shy of middle aged?

Besides, it's no secret that Sanders wants to be dealt to the Red Sox -- in fact, he's outright campaigning for it. From the Boston Herald:

"No, not at all," Sanders said when asked if he would be adverse to a trade to the Red Sox. "It's a great group of guys over there. I have never played there, but I have felt like I have just because of the way they embrace everybody."

Sanders has relished his role of elder statesman on this ultra-youthful Royals team for the past 1 1/2 seasons. But he also has heard about the euphoria that can come with playing in Boston from his friend Curt Schilling. And there is also the prospect of making a fourth World Series appearance.

"I think so," Sanders said when asked if the Red Sox would be among the teams at the top of his list, if traded. "(Schilling) is probably over there trying to make it happen right now."

Sanders certainly wouldn't be anything more than a fourth outfielder for the Sox, but it's not like he's racking up the playing time in KC -- he's played in just 18 games, missing two and a half months with a torn hamstring.

In his strongest comments yet about his contract situation, Chiefs running back Larry Johnson tells Jason Whitlock in a Kansas City Star interview that he is ready for a holdout if the team doesn't give him a new contract.

OK, are you prepared for a long holdout?

"I'm prepared," Johnson said matter-of-factly. "They (my agent and father) got me saving money. I'm hustling to get more money to put in the bank. They already started setting aside different accounts, if that would have to happen. They're already telling me to be cautious about how I spend, where I go and stuff like that. To make sure that if it goes down like that, then I've got to be able to pace myself so I won't be in trouble."

Johnson has one year left, at a $1.7 million salary, on the contract he signed as the Chiefs' first-round draft pick in 2003. A $1.7 million salary is a bargain for a player of Johnson's caliber, but that's just the way contracts in the NFL work: Your first contract is based on how good teams thought you'd be when you entered the league, not how good you actually are.