Baseball people say that you should never, ever judge baseball in September. They say that because September is a quirky baseball month. You have teams clawing for playoff spots and teams that have packed it in. You have young players fighting for roster spots, and old players playing for good contracts and tired players setting up golf reservations and making vacation plans.</p><p>So, those baseball people would say not to get too excited about the Royals&#8217; 18-8 month of September, their best month of baseball since their miraculous start in 2003.</p><p>But . . . I can&#8217;t help it. This was a great baseball month.</p><p>The reason this was such a great month is that it turned the 2008 season into a positive year. Most people understood coming into this season that the Royals were probably not going to the World Series. They were probably not going to be in real contention come September. They were probably not even going to finish .500.</p><p>But the hope was that the Royals &#8212; with a new manager and some young players &#8212; would take a step forward. The Royals came into 2008 without much starting pitching, with a promising but still unknown closer and with a lineup filled with talented but unproven young hitters. The hope was that at the end of the year, the picture would look a lot clearer.</p><p>And, after an excellent September, the picture does look a lot clearer. The Royals won 75 games, which isn&#8217;t ticket-tape parade stuff but is marked improvement from last year. The Royals now have a real nucleus of starting pitching. The Royals&#8217; lineup shows signs of promise. Things are hopeful for, oh, let&#8217;s say 10 reasons:</p><p><strong>&#8226;1. </strong>Joakim Soria at the tender age of 24 had a dominant season as a closer. I mean dominant. Soria&#8217;s final numbers include 42 saves, a 1.60 ERA and &#8212; this is amazing &#8212; just 39 hits allowed. You may wonder how many pitchers have saved more than 40 games while allowing fewer than 40 hits. The answer is now seven. And none of the other six was nearly as young as Soria.</p><p><strong>&#8226;2</strong>. Zack Greinke started to live up to his awesome potential. His numbers were very good: 13-10 record, 3.47 ERA (sixth in the league), 183 strikeouts (tied for fifth in the league with teammate Gil Meche and the most for a Royals&#8217; starter since 1996). But even more than the numbers was the consistency &#8212; his ERA only topped 4.00 twice all year &#8212; and the dominant way he finished. One baseball executive called seven innings of shutout ball against Seattle recently, &#8220;as good as I&#8217;ve seen anyone all year.&#8221; He too is only 24, and it seems like his toughest times are behind him.</p><p><strong>&#8226;3. </strong>Gil Meche is emerging as a team leader. Not only was he dominant after a sluggish beginning (he was 11-3 with a 3.09 ERA and almost a strikeout per inning in his last 21 starts), but Meche seems to be embracing his place as the staff leader. There were snickers all around baseball when the Royals paid Gil Meche $55 million for five years, but I suspect there are a number of teams around baseball who would pay a lot more than that for Gil Meche now.</p><p><strong>&#8226;4. </strong>Something seemed to click for starter Kyle Davies. Yes, it&#8217;s dangerous to judge a player in September, but Davies did go 4-1 with a 2.27 ERA his last five starts, and his stuff looked much sharper. Davies just turned 25, and he&#8217;s always had talent. If he can settle in as a solid pitcher, the Royals have a nucleus for a darned good young rotation (especially because I think Brian Bannister will rebound after a tough year).