The dubious duality of Butler and Gordon

Well, we've heard over and over that the Royals need(ed) Billy Butler and Alex Gordon to have breakout years and big time careers. At least one of them is the real deal.

Alex may still end up having a good career, but the whole idea of him ever being great is starting to seem silly. So it goes. Sure, the Royals probably needed Butler and Gordon to have breakout years if the Royals wanted to contend in 2009. But what I want to consider today is the myth that the Royals reallly did/do need BOTH Gordon and Butler to be saviors (or at least very good MLB ballplayers) in the long term.

Let's think of the Royals top prospects as pairs, much like Butler and Gordon have always been mentioned together.

The obvious Butler-Gordon-like pair is Moustakas and Hosmer. But I'll just throw some others out for fun: Melville and Crow, Montgomery and Duffy, Bianchi and Giavotella, Parraz and Lough, Dwyer and Coleman.

If one of the players in each pair turns out to be a darn good MLB ballplayer and if the other is a bust...would you take that as a Royals fan?

If that were to happen, your big disappointments could look like this (for the sake of this argument): Hosmer, Crow, Duffy, Bianchi, Parraz and Dwyer. But, on the other hand, you could conceivably add the following to the MLB roster within the next three years: a big bat (Moustakas), two solid starting pitchers (Melville and Montgomery), a good middle infielder (Giavotella), a starting outfielder (Lough), and a good reliever (Coleman).

P.S. This is probably not going to happen. If I know the Royals luck (and skill or lack thereof) in developing prospects, there's no way half of these guys are going to make it. Maybe two of them will have some kind of lasting impact at the Major League level. The magic trick is identifying the right two, and trading the others.

P.P.S. Callaspo is so godawful bad at 2B. The defense up the middle is too brutal for words. But, of course, trust the process.

P.P.P.S. Our everyday No. 2 hitter (and today's starting right fielder) has an on-base percentage of .300, and, according to Trey and DM, he's having a solid year. Hey, he plays hard and has a carer high of four home runs!