When the Royals brought up 27 year old rookie, Mike Aviles, it was done with very little fanfare. After all, to the Royals, at age 27, Aviles was more organizational depth than a touted rookie. When looking at his minor league stats, it seems a bit odd that he was promoted slowly through the Royals farm system. Aviles first year in pro ball, he hit .363. The following season at A ball, he hit .300 again, and in his following season at AA, he had a slightly lower average but cracked 14 homeruns. Last season, while at AAA, he hit 17 homeruns and batted .296, yet we never heard about Aviles until he made his major league debut this season. The Royals, for some strange reason, felt that Tony Pena Jr. should start the season as their shortstop, despite Aviles minor league success. But in what can only be described as better late than never, the Royals called Aviles up from AAA Omaha on May 29th, and it's been raves for Aviles ever since.

Aviles is currently batting .335 with 7HR and 31RBI in 231 at-bats for Kansas City. But perhaps even more impressive is his slugging percentage which sits at .521. To put that in perspective, he owns a higher slugging percentage than Ian Kinsler, Joe Mauer, Ichiro Suzuki, Justin Morneau, Vladimir Guerrero, Curtis Granderson, and Nick Markakis just to name a few. In fact, if he were on the first place Tampa Bay Rays, he'd have the second best slugging percentage on the team...not to mention the highest batting average. But the numbers don't end there. He's batting .435 with runners in scoring position with two outs. Against left-handers, he's hitting .418 with a slugging percentage of .731. Aviles has 23 multi-hit games through the first 54 games of his major league career.

Hitting aside, the thing that has earned Aviles the most praise and accolades is his hustle, and his hard-nosed style of play. Aviles has sparked the team. And though the Royals have fallen on hard times of late, no one can blame it on Aviles. Granted Aviles only has 231 MLB at-bats under his belt, but he's done alot more with his first 231 at-bats, than most rookies not named Longoria have done for their respective teams. And his minor league stats suggest that Aviles can be a consistent .300 hitter with gap power. The Royals next great homegrown star was supposed to be Alex Gordon...it may just be Mike Aviles instead.



Court Adjourned!