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	Wednesday, July 12
	Midseason report: Kansas City Royals By Marty Bernoski ESPN.com
	April sure was exciting, wasn't it? What do the Kansas City Royals do now? Let's take a look at Kansas City's thrill-a-minute first half. First-half MVP: Jermaine Dye's red-hot start (a team-record 11 HRs and 28 RBI in April) wasn't enough to beat the consistent play of Mike Sweeney, who leads the team in average (.350) and RBI (76) through 82 games. Sweeney tied a club record for most RBI through June (74) and was named Royals' Player of the Month for the second straight month after batting .373 with three homers and 27 RBI in June. His .436 average with runners in scoring position leads the league. Sweeney recorded his 100th hit on June 24 and has seven four-hit games. Biggest disappointment: The 1999 AL Rookie of the Year is hitting .247 through July 5. Carlos Beltran, who became the first AL Rookie to collect 100 RBI since Mark McGwire in 1987 (118), has driven in just 32 runs in 76 games. Beltran kicked off the season 22-for-100 (.220) in April, hit .307 in May and .240 in June. He went 0-for-8 (three games) to open July and went on the disabled list with soreness in his right knee. Biggest surprise: Mark Quinn, the Royals' 1999 Minor League Player of the Year, may be in the running for Rookie of the Year. It would be quite a feat for the Royals to pull it off back-to-back. As of July 5, Quinn's 10 homers rank second to Cleveland's Russell Branyan (11) among AL rookies. He's also among the leaders in extra-base hits, RBI and total bases. Quinn batted .279 (48-for-172) with seven home runs and 26 RBI in 48 games before his demotion to Triple-A Omaha on June 3. He was recalled June 21. Second-half goals: Winning games in your last at-bat can be thrilling for the fans, but quite taxing on a team. In 82 games, Kansas City won 17 times in its last at-bat. Eleven wins were of the walk-off variety. Kansas City has blown 17 of 32 save attempts. The bullpen has more wins (23) than the starters -- an AL-worst 15. Reliever Ricky Bottalico leads the team with seven wins and he's also blown a team-high six saves. The Royals would like to see more quality starts in the second half to keep the bullpen as fresh as possible. Grade: -- The Royals need a balanced attack. Dye and Sweeney had 35 of team's 87 homers (40 percent). Pitching may be too much to ask. (Scale: 1 to 4 baseballs; 1 = worst, 4 = best) We told you what we thought of the Royals' first-half performance, now you've told us. Here is what you had to say about what the Royals have to do in the second half.		ALSO SEE Midseason Feedback: Royals MLB midseason reports ESPN.com's All-Star Game coverage Kurkjian: Stories of the first half Ten second-half questions for the AL Ten second-half questions for the NL