Royals' $55 million man has fun proving critics wrong

	The Royals dropped a bombshell on the Hot Stove League when they signed Gil Meche to a five-year, $55 million contract last offseason, but so far the club has no regrets. Barry Taylor/WireImage.com

Gil Meche failed himself miserably. Though he succeeded in taking advantage of the offseason's lucrative free-agent market, the man who tries to avoid attention definitely failed to keep a low profile when he signed with the Royals for five years and $55 million -- the richest pitching pact in team history.

It was the iconic contract fans and the media latched onto as proof that irrational spending was alive and well in baseball. Meche's contract drew the ire of just about everybody, even commissioner Bud Selig, who criticized Royals owner David Glass for accelerating offseason spending.

Meche heard it from the fans but, to his credit, kept a thick skin all spring.

"Fans are fans," he said. "They say things when you go play at their field. Whether they think I'm worth it doesn't really matter to me."

Critics figured they wouldn't have to wait long for Meche to expose his inadequacy against baseball's best. Facing Curt Schilling and the vaunted Red Sox lineup on Opening Day didn't appear to be a favorable matchup for the newly anointed Royals ace. But he efficiently did his job, needing 103 pitches to go 7 1/3 innings with six strikeouts and yielding just one run in a 7-1 Royals win.

"After my Opening Day start, I said that the best thing about the start was that it was going to hush a lot of people," said Meche, who lasted longer than any previous K.C. Opening Day starter since 1988.

Surely, logic seemed to suggest, that outing was a fluke. And the Tigers seemed to prove it in Meche's next time on the hill, pounding eight hits, three homers and six runs to return the Royals to reality in a 6-5 Detroit win. Taking the loss, Meche was where everyone expected him to be -- a .500 pitcher with a 4.40 ERA.

Then a funny thing happened on his way to mediocrity. Meche shut out the Orioles for six innings in start No. 3; he went eight innings, allowing only three unearned runs to the Tigers, in his next time out; and he has made three more starts against the White Sox, Mariners and Angels in which he's gone 2-0 and lowered his ERA to 2.23 with a 1.18 WHIP. Among AL pitchers, he's third in ERA and second in innings pitched (48 1/3), trailing only Toronto's Roy Halladay (52 2/3 IP).

Meche is playing the part of an ace, going deep in games and giving his team a chance to win. The Royals are only 10-22 overall but 4-3 in Meche's starts. A fifth of the way through the season, he's fulfilling the role of a No. 1 starter, a role he's begun to relish.

"Going into camp I wasn't making such a big deal out of [being the ace] because I didn't want to," Meche said over the weekend. "But it does give me a different mindset when I take the mound. I know my team has confidence behind me."

He's also gained more confidence in himself. A slight adjustment to his delivery and a return to the basics seem to have made the difference. In spring training, Royals pitching coach Bob McClure noted that Meche was landing hard on the heel of his left foot. He suggested his new ace work on coming down on the ball of his foot. Meche said it took a week to get comfortable but he's seen obvious dividends: only 10 walks in his nearly 50 innings.