SURPRISE, Ariz. | A baseball writer was talking with Chicago White Sox first baseman Paul Konerko last week, and at one point Konerko said that any team in the American League Central can win, that the division is wide open.</p><p>This is another beautiful part of spring training; there are 30 spring-training camps going from Florida to Arizona, and in all 30 of them, players and managers and fans believe that if things go right, if the team can catch a few breaks, if a couple of young players can emerge, well, anything is possible.</p><p>Of course, baseball writers tend to be a bit more cynical than that, so the writer said to Konerko: &#8220;Really? You think any team can win the division? What about the Royals?&#8221;</p><p>To which Konerko said: &#8220;Have you seen their pitching?&#8221;</p><p>People around baseball are beginning to come around to the idea that the Royals&#8217; pitching staff has a chance to be pretty good in 2009. They have a potential ace, a strong veteran starter, a couple of young pitchers who can emerge, a bullpen filled with power arms and the best closer west of Mariano Rivera. Anyway, there is real reason to hope. Here is what people at spring training are talking about when it comes to Royals pitching and their direction.</p><p>&#8226;<strong>Starting pitching: </strong>Gil Meche will pitch on opening day, assuming he&#8217;s healthy, and he&#8217;s the right choice. When the Royals signed Meche to a five-year, $55 million contract two years ago, there was skepticism because, frankly, he had not really pitched all that well.</p><p>&#8220;I was down on the signing,&#8221; one scout says. &#8220;I&#8217;ll admit it. I thought Meche had good stuff, but I had real doubts that he would become a good pitcher. He&#8217;s proved me wrong.&#8221;</p><p>Meche got off to a slow start last year, but he was 11-3 with a 3.09 ERA his last 21 starts.</p><p>And the Royals marvel at how well he has stepped in as a leader for the young pitchers. He may not be the Royals&#8217; best pitcher &#8212; he and Zack Greinke have a healthy competition going between them &#8212; but he&#8217;s the right guy to start on opening day.</p><p>One veteran baseball executive said Greinke was the best pitcher he saw in 2008. He saw Greinke pitch in September, just when everything was clicking. Greinke went 6-3 with a 2.34 ERA in his last 11 starts, and he struck out 69 batters in 69 innings. Then, in the offseason, he signed a long-term deal with the Royals. He has been spending this spring training working almost exclusively on his change-up. He thinks that&#8217;s the extra pitch that could take him up a notch.</p><p>&#8220;His change-up is pretty inconsistent, but his stuff is so good that he doesn&#8217;t need to throw a great change-up,&#8221; a scout says.</p><p>&#8220;If he has fastball command, and locates his slider, he&#8217;s one of the best pitchers in baseball.&#8221;</p><p>Kyle Davies was awfully good last September. He won each of his last three starts, gave up only three earned runs and had 19 strikeouts against only three walks.</p><p>Scouts always say that you should never evaluate a player in September, when there are rookies playing and some of the veterans have already packed it in for the winter. But Davies has picked up this camp where he left off.</p><p>&#8220;He is just throwing with all kinds of confidence,&#8221; a baseball executive says.</p><p>&#8220;Davies has always had the stuff to win in the big leagues. He looks like he may have figured something out last September.&#8221;</p><p>The Royals really want to have a lefty starter in the rotation, and the best bet is free-agent signee Horacio Ramirez. He won 12 games as a rookie with Atlanta back in 2003, and he won 11 games with the Braves in 2005, but it has been a struggle since. He pitched pretty well in relief for the Royals last year and then was traded to the White Sox, where he was dreadful.