So it&#8217;s that time of year again, September, which around these parts means a string of baseball games that will determine just how far the Royals will finish behind the American League Central&#8217;s second-worst team.</p><p>You know all the negatives, like Brian Bannister&#8217;s brutal stretch, Tony Pe&#241;a Jr.&#8217;s struggles at the plate, Trey Hillman&#8217;s adjustment to the big leagues, and on and on.</p><p>You also know the positives, and at the top of that list is Mike Aviles&#8217; emergence from being regarded so lightly that nobody picked him in last year&#8217;s Rule 5 draft to this year making a good case to be the Royals&#8217; player of the year.</p><p>These are the big leaps that a turnaround like the one Royals officials are still planning on depend.</p><p>The Twins got &#8217;em from Torii Hunter and Johan Santana. The Tigers got &#8217;em from Curtis Granderson and Justin Verlander. Grady Sizemore and Travis Hafner did it for the Indians.</p><p>Royals fans hope Aviles is one of those guys for the Royals, along with Joakim Soria and Zack Greinke. They took significant strides this year, with Soria emerging as one of the game&#8217;s best closers, and Greinke proving he can be successful as a starter for an entire season.</p><p>Kila Ka&#8217;aihue is the most obvious choice from the minor-league system.</p><p>Before the season, Ka&#8217;aihue was a career .252 hitter entering his third straight season at Class AA and wondering whether this would be his last professional season.</p><p>Since then, he had one of the best individual seasons in all of the minor leagues, hitting .314 with 37 homers and 100 RBIs, strong-arming his way onto the big-league roster and into the organization&#8217;s future.</p><p>Ka&#8217;aihue&#8217;s emergence is the most obvious, but it&#8217;s not the only one the Royals saw in their minor-league system. To get a grasp on other players in the organization who made bigger-than-expected improvements toward the major leagues, we asked a panel of executives and scouts from the Royals and two other teams.</p><p>Here are the eight names that came up the most often, ranked not by potential, but by the improvement seen this season:</p><p><strong><span class="subhead">1. Chris Hayes, RHP</span></strong></p><p>A sidearm reliever, Hayes signed out of a tryout camp two years ago and pitched all season with Class AA Northwest Arkansas. He went 5-2 with a 1.64 ERA in 65 2/3 innings over 40 appearances, allowing fewer than one base runner per inning and striking out three times as many as he walked.</p><p><strong><span class="subhead">2. Chris Nicoll, RHP</span></strong></p><p>Overcame a disastrous 2007 season, partly through work with pitching coach Mark Davis. Moved to the bullpen and walked 23 batters in 87 innings, compared with 22 in 43 1/3 last year, allowing his ERA to drop from 7.06 to 3.00. Split the season between Class A Wilmington and Northwest Arkansas.</p><p><strong><span class="subhead">3. Jason Taylor, 3B</span></strong></p><p>Improved his pitch recognition, laying off bad off-speed pitches and not pounding the ball into the ground as much as he had in the past. Royals officials say he&#8217;s made as much progress personally with maturity as anybody in the system. Hit just .242 in Burlington but had a .372 on-base percentage with 17 homers and 40 steals.</p><p><strong><span class="subhead">4. Dan Gutierrez, RHP</span></strong></p><p>Repeated a tour with Burlington, but dropped his ERA more than two runs to 2.70, thanks mostly to 104 strikeouts and just 25 walks in 18 starts. Gave up just seven homers in 90 innings. Batters managed to hit just .196 with runners on base against Gutierrez. Shows dominance at times, throws strikes down in the zone, has best curveball considering command, most similar to Meche&#8217;s curve.