With all due respect to Royals stars Paul Byrd, Mike Sweeney and Carlos Beltran, the team knew what it had at the start of the season with these former and future All-Stars. Raul Ibañez, however, was pegged as a utility guy, a platoon player who would ride the bench against left-handed pitchers and plug holes in wrap-up duty. Fortunately, with the squad already in the tank, there was time to experiment, and midseason managerial hire Tony Peña moved Ibañez into the starting lineup. His final numbers (.294, 24 home runs, 103 RBI) set career highs in every major category and established the thirty-year-old slugger as an ideal cleanup hitter for as long as the Royals can afford to keep him.
