You could call it depth, but the Royals aren´t actually good enough for that compliment. If you thought last year was fun watching chess master Trey Hilman play around with the the line-up then this year is a dream come true. On the other hand, if you cringed everytime you saw Lil´Willie in RF hitting second then this year has the potential to give you a brain aneurysm by the end of the first month.
Being that winning teams have stability and Dayton Moore is a winning GM, he cleared up all of the confusion immediately with a somewhat ambiguous statement which led us to believe that this is our 2010 outfield: LF=S. Pods, CF=Slick Rick, RF=DDJ. Quote me all of the UZR-150 stats you like, however this would all be fine and dandy if indeed you thought that each would play anywhere near 130 games at said positions. However, what people in the know - and by in the know I mean anyone who watched 10 games last year - see coming is an outfield that will have more odd pairings than a Haiti benefit concert. The Royals right now have 6 players on the 40-man who could conciveably play all three positions (Ankiel, DDJ, Anderson, Maier, Posednik, Bloomquist) add-in Guillen, Fields and Callaspo at the corners and you have permutations that would make for a great Click and Clack puzzler.
The infield is only slightly better; at 3B you have 4 possibilities, 2 at SS, 3 at 2B and 3 at 1B, add one more at each position for Willie and top it off with something like 5 different DHs. All of this leads to Trey´s favorite place for expermienting; the batting order, which will probably start out the year with Billy, Rick and Jose hitting 3-4-5 and no team has ever had two more obvious candidates for brining up the 8-9 hole than Kendall and Betancourt - a past-his-prime catcher and a free swinging SS who might not combine for 10hrs all year. The rest of the guys are at best good 2-hole hitters and otherwise fitting for the 6&7th spots in the line-up.
With Trey´s penchant to handle his team as if he were day-trading with Jimmy Johnson (Willie's stock is UP Scott's stock is Down!! Defensive Sub!! Batting order flip!! BUY!! SELL!!) and a team rife with possible injuries, I contend that the Royals will set a new MLB record for different starting line-ups (Including batting order) this year. If anyone can find this statistic please pass it along and lets start tracking (it wouldn't surprise me if we already hold the record) the 2010 Royals line-up cards aka Tokyo Trey's Fun with Exel Spreadsheets.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Drama in KC
This offseason for the Royals just hit its peek of weirdness; enter Mr. Rick Ankiel whose signing has you - and every other Royals blogger/fan - asking themselves if somehow Dayton forgot to withdraw their offer to Slick Rick after signing Scotty Pods, but also speculation is rampant about if this will lead to some other mystery move that The Riddler Dayton has up his sleeve...
Do the Royals have insider info that Jose Guillen can't play RF anymore???
Is David DeJesus being shipped off to greener pastures???
Are the Royals setting themselves up to have someone at every position ready to trade at the All-Star Break in hopes of pulling off another Dotel-for-Davies type move???
Is Dayton Moore a spy being paid by the Twins and Chi Sox???
Can advanced genetics and cloning be used to fuse one great player from Guillen, Ankiel and Posednik???
Did Alberto Callaspo retire?
Are we just assuming that at least two players will be injured by the end of April?
This is all very confusing, but does that mean it´s bad? I guess we´ll just have to wait and see...
Do the Royals have insider info that Jose Guillen can't play RF anymore???
Is David DeJesus being shipped off to greener pastures???
Are the Royals setting themselves up to have someone at every position ready to trade at the All-Star Break in hopes of pulling off another Dotel-for-Davies type move???
Is Dayton Moore a spy being paid by the Twins and Chi Sox???
Can advanced genetics and cloning be used to fuse one great player from Guillen, Ankiel and Posednik???
Did Alberto Callaspo retire?
Are we just assuming that at least two players will be injured by the end of April?
This is all very confusing, but does that mean it´s bad? I guess we´ll just have to wait and see...
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
New Years´ Resolutions
So we´re Royals fans, tough luck, would you really rather be a Yankees fan??? Things have been bad and don´t look to be improving in the near future so its time to take stock and stick to a few New Year´s Resolutions to keep yourself sane and not let the same old complaints get you down.
10. Instead of "trusting the process" just trust that things will be the same
9. No more Jose Guillen complaints, everyone knows he sucks dollar bills, but as a fan the only thing you can do is root for the guy
8. Learn how to pronounce Yuniesky´s name and don´t read any advanced statistcs blogs about him
7. Just hate the Yankees, concentrate all of your hatred on them, they suck, they are The Evil Empire, they will sign Zach Grienke, they would sign Billy Butler if he were actually good enough for them and they will come get Joakim Soria when they are good and ready
6. I guess you could look forward to 2011, but really you shouldn´t look forward to anything and just watch them good or bad they are your team
5. If Mark Teahen, John Buck and Miguel Olivo have career years this year just say "good job, I always liked you guys, I´m happy to see you doing so well on your new team"
4. When Willie Bloomquist is your Opening Day starter at DH just say that makes sense I´m glad to get his bat in the line-up
3. The AL central is always winable, if the Royals were in the AL East they might not win 30 games
2. When Jason Kenall has season ending knee surgery just be glad you get him for another year
1. Our best team of the decade boasted a starting rotation led by Darrel May, Jose Lima and Chris George - anything can happen.
10. Instead of "trusting the process" just trust that things will be the same
9. No more Jose Guillen complaints, everyone knows he sucks dollar bills, but as a fan the only thing you can do is root for the guy
8. Learn how to pronounce Yuniesky´s name and don´t read any advanced statistcs blogs about him
7. Just hate the Yankees, concentrate all of your hatred on them, they suck, they are The Evil Empire, they will sign Zach Grienke, they would sign Billy Butler if he were actually good enough for them and they will come get Joakim Soria when they are good and ready
6. I guess you could look forward to 2011, but really you shouldn´t look forward to anything and just watch them good or bad they are your team
5. If Mark Teahen, John Buck and Miguel Olivo have career years this year just say "good job, I always liked you guys, I´m happy to see you doing so well on your new team"
4. When Willie Bloomquist is your Opening Day starter at DH just say that makes sense I´m glad to get his bat in the line-up
3. The AL central is always winable, if the Royals were in the AL East they might not win 30 games
2. When Jason Kenall has season ending knee surgery just be glad you get him for another year
1. Our best team of the decade boasted a starting rotation led by Darrel May, Jose Lima and Chris George - anything can happen.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Christmas Wish List
Right now the Royals appear to be heading toward finding the standard lackluster gifts under the christmas tree; Jason Kendall is so far the most exiting thing and he´s about the equivalent of a paisley striped tie from JC Penny that your out-of-touch grandma bought you. The new Teahen players may turn out to be somewhere along the lines of a $20 Itunes gift card but its still too early to tell. If you´re a Royals fan this might be something like your wish list...
- Jose Guillen offers to play for free this year and donates the previous year´s salary to finding a center fielder.
- Billy Butler kisses a frog and wakes up to look like Frank Thomas in his prime
- Jason Kendall pulls an Aaron Boone and breaks his leg while riding his Harley thus nullifing his contract
- Gil Meche discovers the value of Eastern Medicine and acupuncture cures his back forever
- After Tommy John surgery Mike Aviles becomes the Royals go to flame throwing set-up man
- Matt Holliday decides he really loves the Power and Light district in KC and Scott Boras agrees to pay him out of his own pocket
- Trey Hillman just can't find good sushi in KC and returns to the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters in Japan
- David Glass checks his financial records and realizes that Wal-Mart has had a few good years and adds $100 Mil to the payroll this year, but the best part is Royals Fans (not Dayton Moore) get to vote on where to spend the money.
Apparently Royals fans have been the Naughtiest fans in baseball for 20 some years now, what is it that those Yankee fans have been doing, maybe to Santa we really are the "fly over states"?
- Jose Guillen offers to play for free this year and donates the previous year´s salary to finding a center fielder.
- Billy Butler kisses a frog and wakes up to look like Frank Thomas in his prime
- Jason Kendall pulls an Aaron Boone and breaks his leg while riding his Harley thus nullifing his contract
- Gil Meche discovers the value of Eastern Medicine and acupuncture cures his back forever
- After Tommy John surgery Mike Aviles becomes the Royals go to flame throwing set-up man
- Matt Holliday decides he really loves the Power and Light district in KC and Scott Boras agrees to pay him out of his own pocket
- Trey Hillman just can't find good sushi in KC and returns to the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters in Japan
- David Glass checks his financial records and realizes that Wal-Mart has had a few good years and adds $100 Mil to the payroll this year, but the best part is Royals Fans (not Dayton Moore) get to vote on where to spend the money.
Apparently Royals fans have been the Naughtiest fans in baseball for 20 some years now, what is it that those Yankee fans have been doing, maybe to Santa we really are the "fly over states"?
Saturday, December 12, 2009
long lost brothers?
I think this is the only viable explanation for the Jason Kendall signing, basically Tokyo Trey wants an extension of himself and his facial hair on the field at all times.
Of anything that could have come out of the Royals winter meetings this has to be the most ho-hum result possible; the signing of rent-a-catcher Jason Kendall. We signed a guy who is good at "calling pitches" a guy who has a lot of "experience", is going to be a "club-house leader", you get the idea nothing tangible just a lot of speculation and the bonus is we get him for two years not just one. I'm starting the over/under on DL stints with the Royals at 3, any takers on the under?
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Rumor Time/My proposed blockbusters
Wouldn´t being a Basball GM be fun, really what other professional sports executives get to have more fun with their Jobs. It is just like the good old days of trading my Topps Barry Bonds rookie card for your Score Don Mattingly - only you get paid, put up in hotels, eat steak dinners and get to hang out with your buddies all night (mom can´t tell you it is time for dinner).
With the seeming calm before the storm (winter meetings) the best thing we've got are rumors and things we as fans would like to see (deep down we´re the best GMs for our team)
So far the Royals have actually been fairly prominent in the rumor mill despite having such a limited arsenal to play with. Lets explore the best rumors and then take a look two flawless trade options that could make the Royals dominant next year.
The best rumor - in terms of Royals' benefit - was the proposed Jose Guillen to the Mets for Angel Pagan. Would any one have honestly objected even if the Royals had to pay $11 of the $12 Mil owed to Guillen this year in order to get a seemingly serviceable and possibly a very valuable young center fielder? This could have erased all of Dayton Moores hiccups from last year but...it was too good to be true (see story)
Alberto Callaspo has been in more rumors than Roy Halladay ever since the Royals acquired another young second baseman. Now Dayton had to come out with the standard "we are not shopping him" SuperGM-tough-guy-statement right before the meetings to try and get max value for a player that they have almost forced themselves into trading (see story). That everyone knows the Royals need to trade him for something of equal value makes this the most interesting wait and see trade they have pending.
The Royals are in hot persuit of Erik Bedard (no lefty in rotation equals death) an oft injured former quality starter who might have some potential upside. Basically a more expensive Bruce Chen. If he really is healthy, no way the Royals outbid other clubs (see story).
The best one - in terms of what the hell are you thinking - is the team's interest in Pudge. Seriously Royals, Dayton please see Benito Santiago from a few years back (see story).
Now, drum roll please, here are the two trades that would change the team, with as much upside and as little downside as possible, based on the realistic conditions of the trade market (no Pujols for Guillen tomfoolery) and keeping it interesting no minor league deals here we want to see something on Sportscenter:
Trade #1:
Royals give/Cubs get: Jose Guillen, John Buck, Alberto Callaspo
Cubs give/Royals get: Milton Bradley, Geovany Soto, Sean Marshall
Result: Teams swap problem children, Royals lose money but might get what they pay for in the end as well as getting a catcher with lots of upside and possibly the lefty they want for the risk of the extra money. The Cubs get cheap offense from Callaspo and Buck might hit 30 homers in Wrigley, not to mention getting rid of a player they can't keep without having to eat his contract.
Trade #2:
Royals give/Mets get: Gil Meche, Josh Anderson, Mike Jacobs
Mets give/Royals get: Oliver Perez, Angel Pagan
Result: Teams swap expensive contracts (Both are owed 2yrs/$20+ mil), the Mets get the benefit because Gil is much less risky than Ollie but for that they have to give up Pagan and sweep up the Royals trash. The Mets can then decide if they want to experiment with Jacobs at 1B and get a very good #2 starter behind Johan for a couple of years. The Royals possibly get the steady-Eddie CF they desperately need and a potentially dominant lefty starter behind Grienke.
The Odds of these happening are a million to one but with these trades the Royals might actually resemble a professional ball club and wouldn't really be any worse for the wear. Dayton please contact the Powder Blue Room if that assistant GM jobs becomes vacant.
With the seeming calm before the storm (winter meetings) the best thing we've got are rumors and things we as fans would like to see (deep down we´re the best GMs for our team)
So far the Royals have actually been fairly prominent in the rumor mill despite having such a limited arsenal to play with. Lets explore the best rumors and then take a look two flawless trade options that could make the Royals dominant next year.
The best rumor - in terms of Royals' benefit - was the proposed Jose Guillen to the Mets for Angel Pagan. Would any one have honestly objected even if the Royals had to pay $11 of the $12 Mil owed to Guillen this year in order to get a seemingly serviceable and possibly a very valuable young center fielder? This could have erased all of Dayton Moores hiccups from last year but...it was too good to be true (see story)
Alberto Callaspo has been in more rumors than Roy Halladay ever since the Royals acquired another young second baseman. Now Dayton had to come out with the standard "we are not shopping him" SuperGM-tough-guy-statement right before the meetings to try and get max value for a player that they have almost forced themselves into trading (see story). That everyone knows the Royals need to trade him for something of equal value makes this the most interesting wait and see trade they have pending.
The Royals are in hot persuit of Erik Bedard (no lefty in rotation equals death) an oft injured former quality starter who might have some potential upside. Basically a more expensive Bruce Chen. If he really is healthy, no way the Royals outbid other clubs (see story).
The best one - in terms of what the hell are you thinking - is the team's interest in Pudge. Seriously Royals, Dayton please see Benito Santiago from a few years back (see story).
Now, drum roll please, here are the two trades that would change the team, with as much upside and as little downside as possible, based on the realistic conditions of the trade market (no Pujols for Guillen tomfoolery) and keeping it interesting no minor league deals here we want to see something on Sportscenter:
Trade #1:
Royals give/Cubs get: Jose Guillen, John Buck, Alberto Callaspo
Cubs give/Royals get: Milton Bradley, Geovany Soto, Sean Marshall
Result: Teams swap problem children, Royals lose money but might get what they pay for in the end as well as getting a catcher with lots of upside and possibly the lefty they want for the risk of the extra money. The Cubs get cheap offense from Callaspo and Buck might hit 30 homers in Wrigley, not to mention getting rid of a player they can't keep without having to eat his contract.
Trade #2:
Royals give/Mets get: Gil Meche, Josh Anderson, Mike Jacobs
Mets give/Royals get: Oliver Perez, Angel Pagan
Result: Teams swap expensive contracts (Both are owed 2yrs/$20+ mil), the Mets get the benefit because Gil is much less risky than Ollie but for that they have to give up Pagan and sweep up the Royals trash. The Mets can then decide if they want to experiment with Jacobs at 1B and get a very good #2 starter behind Johan for a couple of years. The Royals possibly get the steady-Eddie CF they desperately need and a potentially dominant lefty starter behind Grienke.
The Odds of these happening are a million to one but with these trades the Royals might actually resemble a professional ball club and wouldn't really be any worse for the wear. Dayton please contact the Powder Blue Room if that assistant GM jobs becomes vacant.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
I just WAR-ed myself!!!
Seriously when I saw this I BABIP-ed down my leg, I choked on my own wOBA and I was laughing so hard that I had RAR coming out of my nose...
Royals fans and fans of FanGraph (and advanced statistics) I bring this to your attention; Kyle Farsworth had a decent year, nothing special but about what was expected of him, this according to FanGraphs! Anyone who watched the Royals this year should be shocked by this mathmatically unbiased conclusion drawn from complex formulas and such. These guys hate saves and holds so much that they have to live with the folllowing conclusion: Kyle Farnsworth had a better year than Carlos Marmol.
Marmol: SV-15; HLD-27; IP-74.0; ERA-3.41; BAA-.170
Farny: SV-0; HLD-5; IP-37.1; ERA-4.58; BAA-.287
These are the UN-advanced numbers of the two which tell you that Marmol is infinitely better, however through some myriad of advanced statistic gathering this is what FanGraphs says:
Marmol: RAR-5.5; WAR-0.6; Dollars-$2.6 Mil
Farny: RAR-6.8; WAR-0.7; Dollars-$3.0 Mil
RAR (Runs Above Replacement); WAR(Wins Above Replacement); Dollars (actual value)
Are you +WPA-ing serious you have to be out of your REW-ing mind!
Just thought I would bring it up since it seems to be one of those curious instances where advanced stats miss something (or maybe we all missed something while watching Farny, good year big guy looking forward to having you back in 2010???)
Royals fans and fans of FanGraph (and advanced statistics) I bring this to your attention; Kyle Farsworth had a decent year, nothing special but about what was expected of him, this according to FanGraphs! Anyone who watched the Royals this year should be shocked by this mathmatically unbiased conclusion drawn from complex formulas and such. These guys hate saves and holds so much that they have to live with the folllowing conclusion: Kyle Farnsworth had a better year than Carlos Marmol.
Marmol: SV-15; HLD-27; IP-74.0; ERA-3.41; BAA-.170
Farny: SV-0; HLD-5; IP-37.1; ERA-4.58; BAA-.287
These are the UN-advanced numbers of the two which tell you that Marmol is infinitely better, however through some myriad of advanced statistic gathering this is what FanGraphs says:
Marmol: RAR-5.5; WAR-0.6; Dollars-$2.6 Mil
Farny: RAR-6.8; WAR-0.7; Dollars-$3.0 Mil
RAR (Runs Above Replacement); WAR(Wins Above Replacement); Dollars (actual value)
Are you +WPA-ing serious you have to be out of your REW-ing mind!
Just thought I would bring it up since it seems to be one of those curious instances where advanced stats miss something (or maybe we all missed something while watching Farny, good year big guy looking forward to having you back in 2010???)
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