This is the follow-up to a previous post, which will now focus on this offseason trying to undo what happened last season and how best to move forward with a team that might be able to compete in the worst division in baseball. The Royals surprised the world and were active in early trading when they shipped Mark Teahen to the White Sox for Chris Getz and Josh Fields - so far so good they shaved a few bucks and got two players who may yet still have a future.
The following is an evaluation and prediction of what will happen in the foreseeable future, note the assumption that Mike Jacobs is not in the future plans has been made:
Bullpen: Shockingly the Royals did not have the worst (ERA-wise) bullpen in baseball, the Nationals beat them out for that honor and they finished second worst. Truthfully the bullpen is the biggest crap shoot in all of baseball and the best thing to do would be for them to let out a collective "F**k you JOBU I'll do it myself" move on from last year and hope that their straight ball doesn't get hit so hard.
Bullpen Predictions: More of the same, they will find at least one guy for which they can overpay and Soria will need Tommy John surgery after trying to become the first three inning closer.
Catcher: This is a prickly one; do you overpay for Big Buck Hunter or Olivo or do you risk putting all of your eggs in one basket with Brayan Pena. If its a new look you want to see, this is actually the best place to find it, bid adieu to Buck and Olivo thank them for a Job well...Done and cross your fingers with Brayan Pena, maybe tell Willie to try on a catcher's mitt during the offseason - he actully has respectable offensive numbers for a back-up catcher.
Catcher Prediction: Olivo will think he's worth a multi year deal, run away from the Royals and they'll panic into signing Buck again giving them maybe the worst defensive platoon behind the plate in all the majors.
Outfield: This is where they could get themselves into a lot of trouble trying to get better.
CF: While we would all love to see them go out and get a difference maker in center field, we are just the organization to overpay for an aging injury prone CF and be waiting until his contract is up (see Guillen 3yr/$36mil). I've also read in the wide world of Royals blogging that there is some thought about trying to re-sign CoCo Puffs, even at a discounted price this is playing with fire. Best case scenario; Mitchy gets the job and improves just a little bit.
CF Prediction: We are going to sign Mike Cameron to a 4yr $50mil deal.
LF: David DeJesus, we'll take the same year as last year with a sprinkle of hitting in April and May. Another option, DJ might be our best trade bait; good numbers both using standard and metric measuring units at a reasonably cheap price. The brutal truth is that we can't be any worse of a team without him - they are 202 games below .500 during his formative years (2004-2009) as a Royal - so why not see if we can't get a good prospect haul in return and hope to pull a rabbit out of a hat.
LF Prediction: DJ has another DJ-like year and gets traded to the Mets at the all-star break when the Royals are yet again out of the race.
RF: Dream Scenario; Guillen takes his medication, pumps some iron with Hanz and Franz, wakes-up to realize that this is his last year with these kind of insane game checks and he plays a full season and puts up respectable right field numbers while hitting 5th behind a resurgent Alex Gordon and AL triple-crown threat Billy Butler. Sounds nice right; well that's all we've got Royals fans, so cross your fingers and say your prayers.
RF Prediction: Guillen punches out a fan in spring training, gets his release and we see an all-too-familiar platoon of Lil'Willie and Mitchy.
Infield: This is/was pretty much set, barring injuries, except for the wild cards of Mike Aviles and the new Teahen haul of players.
3B: Alex, Alex he's our man if he can't do it no one can! This is about the size of it, they just need a moderate break-out year from him, an Evan Longoria type year would be lovely, but truthfully we'll take a Joe Randa year. The new Teahen pick-up is something to consider but not really worth the time here.
3B Prediction: Alex has an average year and we're exited about what he might be able to do in 2011!!!
SS: Since, according to the WAR/UZR-lovers out there, Betancourt is one of the worst players in the history of baseball, the best case would be for Mike Aviles to beat him out and to be anywhere near 80% of what he was in 2008.
SS Prediction: A Betancourt/Aviles platoon becomes indistinguishable and futile so they go out and get Miguel Tejada.
2B: This was, up until the Teahen trade, somewhat of a sure thing with Callaspo coming off an impressive offensive year with some defensive question marks. A .300 switch-hitting second baseman with a little pop, sounds pretty good to me. Now speculation is running wild that he will be traded and we are going with the ever so slight defensive upgrade in Jody Getz.
2B Prediction: Callaspo is traded because he can't run or field in exchange for players that will amount to nothing in the future and some lucky team gets a good hitting second baseman...maybe the Cubs???
1B: In a perfect world either this new chap in the Teahen deal or someone from AAA (Kila Ka'aihue, anyone?) would look like a coordinated professional athlete at 1B and allow Billy to move to his natural position of DH because Guillen and Jacobs no longer need to be hidden there. However, we are talking Royals baseball here and a perfect world it will not be.
1B Prediction: Billy spends an inordinate amount of time stumbling around chasing balls thrown by the infielders and puts up about the same not-quite-superstar numbers as last year.
Starting Pitching: Nothing crazy here, it looks like this should be the team's strongest area. Give Hoch one more shot, a repeat Grienke year, Banny just needs to maintain his first half numbers for a full year, Gil goes back to being the workhorse he was, and Kyle Davies or Robinson Tejeda round it out, any kind of break out performance from someone in the minors would be great but no one wants to see a Bruce Chen/Sidney Ponson type signing in the rotation.
Starting Rotation Prediction: The front office will get nervous about not having a lefty in the rotation and sign Jared Washburn for 3yrs $36mil because he also formerly played for Seattle and this automatically means the Royals want him.
A lot of questions and unfortunately not a lot of answers; do they need new players, do they just need their own players to perform or are they just hopeless? We will all wait in anticipation for April to roll around and we can get some answers. In the meantime it should be an interesting offseason watching Dayton play Jenga with our already very shaky Royals team.
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