30 MLB Teams in 30 Posts - 2022 Edition: #3

Welcome back to the next post in my 30 MLB Teams in 30 Posts countdown (plus the contest - see the bottom of the post for details on that).

#3:  Kansas City Royals (Previous Rankings - 2019, 2020: #16, 13)

We've made it to the #3 team in my rankings which means (if nothing else), today's guess should be a free two entries for the ongoing contest (see below).

The #3 team in this year's rankings is the biggest surprise of all (probably) - the Kansas City Royals.  The Royals climbed a full ten spots from their best finish in any of my previous rankings!  The logical question you might be asking is "why?" and that's a tough one to answer.

See, when I make my rankings, I take a blank Word file and copy and paste the first team into the list (I typically start with the AL East and work my way through the divisions from there).  Each team that gets added gets compared to the teams ranked worse until I get to a previously ranked team that I like better than the team I'm adding to the list.  Once I've gone through all 30 teams, the list is done and I'm ready to start doing my posts!  Somehow, someway it was the Royals that made it all the way to #3 - and I think it was a familiar refrain as to some of the other highly ranked teams:  Interesting young players plus ex-Reds to root for.

In the case of the Royals, they have Amir Garrett as their ex-Red of note plus some great young players such as Bobby Witt, Jr. (my "keeper" for this year's fantasy team) and Whit Merrifield.  I've always liked Salvador Perez as well, though he isn't exactly young anymore.  Add to that, the Royals have won fairly recently and I don't get the feeling that their ownership doesn't care about the team (unlike some other teams I know *cough* Reds *cough*).  

So yeah, a bit of a shocker to me as well as I'm guessing to all of you but here you have it, the #3 team this year is the Royals (and here's hoping Bobby Witt, Jr. starts living up to the lofty expectations because my fantasy team desperately needs better offense these days)!

My 2022 MLB Rankings (so far):

#30:  St. Louis Cardinals

#29:  New York Yankees

#28:  Boston Red Sox

#27:  Washington Nationals

#26:  San Francisco Giants

#25:  Chicago Cubs

#24:  Milwaukee Brewers

#23:  Miami Marlins

#22:  Atlanta Braves

#21:  Texas Rangers

#20:  Arizona Diamondbacks

#19:  Philadelphia Phillies

#18:  New York Mets

#17:  Baltimore Orioles

#16:  Los Angeles Dodgers

#15:  Los Angeles Angels

#14:  San Diego Padres

#13:  Oakland Athletics

#12:  Colorado Rockies

#11:  Houston Astros

#10:  Minnesota Twins

#9:  Pittsburgh Pirates

#8:  Cleveland Guardians

#7:  Tampa Bay Rays

#6:  Detroit Tigers

#5:  Chicago White Sox

#4:  Seattle Mariners

#3:  Kansas City Royals

#2:  ??

Contest entries to date (see here for details):

Crocodile 40

Fuji 39

Brett Alan 37

John Sharp 33

bbcardz 33

hiflew 28

Matt 28

The Lost Collector 24

Night Owl 14

Mike Matson 15

Jafronius 7

Nick Vossbrink 4

Wilson 3

Adam Kaningher 2

Alan Deakins 2

madding 1

Wrigley Wax 1

Elliptical Man 1

Up next, is well...a pretty darn easy one to figure out, that's what.  Have a free two entries :)