Taking Stock

The PBR is going to put on its three-piece Gordon Geko suit and play analyst for the Royals to see which player's stock is up, who's stock is down, who's a buy, who's a hold, who's a sell, you know all of that good stuff. As an overall portfolio, I think we can all agree that the KC Royals are weak to quite weak? For all of the small battles the team is winning they're still losing the war...

Alcides Escobar

I'm going to give this my Hold rating; he was a penny stock about two weeks ago and now he's the hottest tech stock on the market. However, I need another month of data before I really consider Alcides' hitting stock - even after today's HR - as having any growth potential. Just to illustrate how bad he was hitting; during his steak (not including today) he's had to go 20 for 40 over his last 11 games just to get his SLG% to tick over .300, the streak has taken him all the way from The WORST offensive player in the league to the 4th WORST (per OPS+ @ Baseball Ref) Juan Pierre and Orlando Cabrera watch out! The PBR won't be suckered in to buying that type of hype, but if you do own it it's probably got more room to grow before it's profit taking time.

Danny Duffy

If you were a day trader who happened to be playing Duffman stock today, you had fun. He was coming in fresh off his first major league win, then has a typical first inning rough patch, next he looks like Randy Johnson for two innings, then gets injured. I'll just say I was buying all of the Duffy stock that I could get my hands-on as he was striking everyone out; in 3 2/3 innings he struck out nine, by far and away the most of any Royals pitcher this year (Chen and Davies each had a game of 7K) and all in less than four innings! After the injury I panicked and sold most of my stock, but then upon hearing that it was just a "leg cramp" I bought half of it back. Here is the bottom line; the Royals need an ace, Duffy is probably not it, but he is closer than anyone else. The Royals had four top minor league lefties coming into the start of the season; the best of them can't find the plate and has a 5.00 ERA in AAA (Montgomery), the next will undergo elbow surgery (Lamb), number three has a 6.00+ ERA in AA (Dwyer) and then there is Duffy who is in the majors and hopefully still healthy. Starting pitchers are the most fickle stocks of them all, and the Duffman has at least made it to the majors and proven that he can strike-out professional hitters so for a Royals stock right now that's a BUY.

Jeff Francouer

Since May 5: .224/.269/.308. Basically for the last six weeks Jeffy has hit like Alcides Escobar, if he hadn't put together that monster April, he'd be platooning with Mitch Maier and maybe still should be. I'm not as down on Frenchy as it might seem, but I wouldn't touch his stock with a ten-foot pole right now. Hopefully there is one MLB team out there that just looks at April stats and needs Le Jeff, but I think that hope is fading by each AB.

Wilson Betemit

His stock is no longer available on the open market, Dayton and Yost seen to that.

Eric Hosmer

He came out with a very strong LinkedIn-like IPO, but has had exactly one extra base hit in the month of June and has been out-homered by Alcides Escobar. I'm still strong to quite strong on Hosmer stock, but I liked it a lot better when his hits found the gaps and went over the fence.

Vinny Mazzaro

I've been shorting his stock since it came out, and we'll probably see him replaced by Bruce Chen asap, but make no mistake about it the Royals might need him to be a passable starter if they hope to do anything next year. He's the heir apparent to Kyle Davies, whatever that means.

Mike Moustakas

I'm placing a hold on this stock, I like it, but don't quite love it yet. On the defensive side he has the hands of concrete laborer, but looks like he might throw harder than Aroldis Chpman. At the plate he's looked solid except for the fact that he might never hit lefties (0 for 9 so far). All this adds-up to potentially a good major league player, but probably will always be limited by the defense and aversion to left handed pitching and therefore never great. Still I'll take what I can get in this no-so-hot market.

Felipe Paulino

Depends on the price tag, the Royals bought low and Dayton might have found another good project player that he can turn into a useful everyday player. He could very well be the best pitcher in the starting rotation now, however this is on a team that has as its only two regular starting pitchers the 49th and 50th (out of 54, per ERA+ @ Baseball Ref) best in the league, so we're working on a sliding scale.

Aaron Crow

In my humble opinion, he's been mislabeled as a small cap fund when he should really be a large cap fund. I'm still holding out hope for Yost and Moore to put him back in the starting rotation, but Yosty and Dayton are the two guys most likely to stick with convention and the philosophy of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." It's also possible that they've got to have someone ready if Joakim falls apart again, but still Crow doesn't seem to be getting the most out of his potential. Yesterday, he was apparently passed over by Yosty in favor of Greg Holland as the 8th inning guy who predictably gave up the lead with a two-run bomb. So I'm failing to see any of their logic with regard to Aaron Crow usage and the firm of PBR doesn't put out buys on part-time 8th inning guys. So hold if you already bought him, but wait until he moves to the rotation for anymore action on the Crow fund.

Melky Cabrera

Melky is about like one of those mutual funds available in your work 401K plan and seen advertised during golf tournaments. You could do a lot worse than having invested in the Cabrera fund, but you're probably not going to buy that house in the Hamptons because you dropped 5% of your paycheck into the Melky Global Markets Growth Fund from TD-Lynch'n-heimer. Still I'm buying on Melky as a very low-risk investment and I like his price-to-earnings ratio better than Jeff Francouer, while seeing more room for sustained growth. The Royals have no use for both Frency and Melky going forward this year with Lorenzo Cain tearing it up in AAA, one has to go and Melky will still be under contract next season for a lot less than the cost of the Francouer mutual option. Sorry it's just business.    

Billy Butler

I've finally come around on this stock, I used to be a seller but after all is said and done, Billy is our best hitter until proven otherwise. I've gotten past all of the flaws and now in my old age just want a steady 10-15% return every year and that's exactly what Billy gives the Royals.

Chris Getz

I prefer the larger cap hitting fund of Aviles, always have and always will.

Alex Gordon

I've been holding this stock for a long time now and still won't sell until the bitter end. In short, if the Royals are going to win in the next couple of years they need Alex Gordon to be the exact player that he is right now. We no longer need him to be Geoge Brett, but if he can continue to be an above average/useful player then he's got value. All that being said, I can still see Gordon stock turning into a Madoff-style ponzi scheme leaving them with nothing.

The KC Royals Fund

I've been selling at a loss for weeks now; 10 games under .500, all the way beneath the Twins and in last place. It feels familiar, but somehow even worse than ever; it's June and our hope rests on the shoulders of Bruce Chen and maybe even Kyle Davies, Jeff Francouer putting together another hot streak, Alcides Escobar hitting like Tulo, things that just don't happen. What happens next will depend on very undependable players and that scares me as a fan because there still remains the possibility that it could get worse. It's a long way up from here and today's market closed at a new 52-week low.