One of the common topics of discussion around the 2022 Kansas City Royals is whether the team is as bad now as it was during the mid-aughts. One way in which they appear to be vastly superior is in terms of minor league talent; if the 2006 Royals had had ten guys decide they’d rather take an unpaid vacation than do their jobs for a weekend, the team would have been forced to call up Justin Huber, Kerry Robinson, Shane Costa, Paul Phillips, Matt Tupman, Ricky Bell, Mike Aviles, Andres Blanco, Runelvys Hernandez, Kyle Middleton, and Bobby Keppel.