I'm by no means advocating bringing any of the following players back, and I realize that one month from now this could look really ridiculous, but I've been perusing the box scores of other teams and noticed some familiar names. In honor of the Royals facing Philip Humber tomorrow and the All Star game coming to town I've assembled a pretty good team with the players Dayton Moore has basically thrown away. Here is the batting order and starting line-up for Dayton's All Throw Away Team:
1. RF David DeJesus: I know, I know, we still have 5 years of Vin Mazzaro going for us. And DJ wasn't under contract for this season, but still he's hitting .266/.375/.760, not exactly Ted Williams, but I'd take that at lead-off over Frenchy's .243/.298/.620 line batting fifth. And shouldn't DeJesus really be the Royals veteran leader? I mean, he's actually a veteran. And he's actually a Royal not a Brave (Dayton does seem to get the two confused). Look, not holding onto DJ and signing him to an extension isn't exactly a searing indictment against Moore, but it's the little things that add up.
2. SS Mike Aviles: For some reason I really liked Mike. I get it, he made some vague comments against management and Dayton said it was time to go. Maybe that's being a no-nonsense GM, but maybe good GMs just ignore harmless comments like this and move on with life. Mike is the type of guy whose numbers could go off a cliff at any point in time, but the fact is right now his numbers are as good as our starting SS.
3. LF Melky Cabrera: As soon as Jonathan Sanchez comes off the DL and stops walking people, I'm sure this one will swing right back in Dayton's favor. His OPS is currently 200 points higher than Frenchy's, and he's not guaranteed $7.5 mil next season, and he currently stands to net the Giants a first round draft pick when he's let go in the offseason. Okay you decide: a better hitter this season, $7.5 mil toward a starting pitcher next season, Wil Meyers starting in RF on opening day and a possible supplemental 1st round pick in 2012 OR a really nice guy to have in the clubhouse?
4. DH Wilson Betemit: This was actually a good move initially by Dayton to get him, but then the Royals really just didn't know what to do with Betemit. Eventually his average dropped a bit and Moose was ready for the bigs so he just sat there spoiling until Detroit came along with a pair of young no-name prospects. Again not the most damaging check mark against Moore, but Wilson ended up being a severely undervalued asset. He's slugging almost .500 so far this season, so he bats clean up. Oh yeah, the Orioles are paying half as much for him as we're paying for Yuni and we're still looking for a right handed bat off the bench.
5. 1B Kila Ka'aihue: We all know this guy never got a shot in KC and I'll bet everyone is really pulling for him to do well in Oakland. Not that I'd trade him back for Hosmer, but Hosmer would kill for his .292/.354/.785 line right about now.
6. C John Buck: Memories! Originally part of that blockbuster-turned-dud Beltran trade. Yeah, that never worked out, but it also seemed like Dayton hated this guy from the very beginning (not that I was his #1 fan). First he went out and got renta-catcher Miggy Olivo to platoon with him and then he just flat-out releases Buck following the 2009 season. Naturally he went on to Toronto to hit 20 HRs and make the F-ing All Star team! How's that for a non tendered player coming back to bite you in the ass. Oh yeah, don't forget that Dayton did this so that he could sign old man Kendall to "develop" the young pitchers. Which you'll recall turned out well. And just as a little cherry on top, Toronto knew the season was pretty fluky and let him sign with Florida, but that got them a supplemental 1st round pick in the 2011 draft. I wonder why Toronto gets credit for being such a well run organization? He's been pretty bad in Florida, but nothing compared to how bad Kendall was with the Royals.
7. 3B Alberto Callaspo: Yes, I'd rather have Moose. No question. But the fact is Callaspo turned into a really solid player at 3B and Sean O'Sullivan turned into absolutely nothing.
8. 2B Yamaico Navarro: Dayton will most likely be back with the Braves and I'll be blogging about the Houston Astros before we know if the players he squeezed out of Pittsburgh are worth anything. What we do know is that Dayton got rid of Aviles for Yamaico because he thought Aviles had a bad attitude, but it turned out Yamico made Aviles look like Chris Getz when it comes to team unity. Also, we had to give $2 mil to Yuni to do the job Navarro was supposed handle. Not exactly great resource management by our GM.
9. CF Willie Bloomquist: Okay this is a stretch, but I really needed a center fielder. Technically it qualifies since he was traded to Cincy for the classic late season "player to be named and cash." I'll admit that I was hard on poor Willie, but it was mainly because he was our starting CF and #2 hitter for the bulk of a season, which was not exactly his fault. However, he did manage to start for a playoff team last season so we'll give him the final spot on the All Dayton Throw Away roster.
SP Phil Humber: Who else? He threw a perfect game this year. Enough said. You know the story, left off the roster a year ago and went through a series of waiver claims to wind up reborn with the Chi Sox. Nobody can really blame Moore for the move, but the facts are still there. He has been pretty awful coming off the perfect game, but Jonathan Sanchez's 2010 season is the only season from the Royals combined staff members which was better than Humber's 2011 season.
After writing this, I've realized that there are two ways to look at the list. First, you could say I just fielded a competitive major league team from players that Dayton Moore cast away. And in return we've received Vin Mazarro, Sean O'Sullivan, Jonathan Sanchez, Jeff Francouer by extension and half of a AA roster. Not good for Moore. However, there is a glass-half-full way to view it in that we no longer need Kila Ka'aihue to be good, we need Hosmer to be great. We no longer need 160 quality innings from Philip Humber, we need 200 dominant innings from Duffy. We no longer need DeJesus to be solid, we need Wil Meyers to be a superstar. This is really the best thing that we can say for Moore right now, at least we're in a position where things can go right. Still we're already looking at next season in mid May, but it is no longer quite as painful as it once was.
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
The Big Three
Six starts 23 2/3 innings, 41 hits, 34 ER, 12 BB, 12 SO. These are the combined last two starts for the "Big Three" of Sanchez, Chen and Hochevar. And that includes a five inning fluke shutout by Sanchez. These were the Royals locks for the starting rotation at the beginning the year. These are the reasons why Aaron Crow can't get a shot, the reasons why Felipe Paulino had to fight for a spot in the rotation and the reasons why the Royals felt they were good on the starting rotation going into the year.
It's been a bad stretch for these guys. So BAD that the Royals might be the first team in the history of modern baseball to have not one, not two, but three long relievers. Yes, the minor league call-up everyone has been waiting for: The Return of Vinny Mazzaro! That's how bad the rotation has been; they need help from a pitcher who is the owner of the worst relief appearance in history. Be honest you never thought we'd have to see Vinny again, did you?
Am I supposed to react like a radio-show-call-in-crazy and recommend that Hochevar be released immediately, Dayton Moore fired and Ned Yost banished to the Korean leagues? I've actually done that already, but this is really all I want to hear from Dayton Moore after a few beers and shots of whiskey...
Dayton after his second double bourbon: "Look Mr. PBR Blogger Guy, I hear you, but it basically came down to me giving up the Matt Latos/Gio Gonzalez uber package of prospects or taking a flyer on Jonathan Sanchez. Can you really blame me? If you and Bobby Joe the radio call-in guy really thought this team was ready for that kind of move then so be it, but I didn't. The Reds and Nationals are at least two years ahead of us in development. Do you see Stephen Strasburg anywhere, how bout Joey Votto? Yeah, I gave Bruce Chen $9 mil, but the Marlins gave Mark Buehrle $58 mil and if I'm regretting not paying 35 year old Mark Buehrle $18 mil in 2014 then I'll personally give you my job. And by the way, do you think David Glass handed me a check book and said go get Yu Darvish? If so, you're not exactly familiar with how Wal Mart CEOs make money.
Me: "Wow Mr. Moore, when you put it that way, please do continue. Bartender, another round."
Dayton: "And could anyone really have imagined that Luke Hochevar would be this bad? I get it, he's been bad before, but now it's to the point where even Ned is having trouble playing this one down. I don't even watch the guys starts anymore. I usually just watch reruns of Two and Half Men or do Pilates and wait for Ned to tell me we have to call-up ANOTHER long reliever from Omaha. Seriously, Ned thinks we're playing fantasy baseball waiver wire here. I can't even keep the names straight anymore, is Jeff Suppan still available?"
Me: "Yeah, I guess you too don't like to see Hochevar pitching like he's playing pinball, but what about Luis Mendoza?"
Dayton: "Yeah, that one was more of a stretch than the others. Look every good team has this guy who comes from nowhere to all-of-a-sudden throw 200 quality innings. Did you know who Doug Fister was until last year? What about Ryan Vogelsong? And I'll punch you in the face if you even think about about mentioning Philip Humber. The point is I didn't think Luis Mendoza was going to be successful, I hoped that he would. In fact, I prayed to every single known deity observed on the face of the earth. I felt I had to take a chance with him, I mean he was the best pitcher in AAA last year. If you just let him go and he goes on to have success somewhere else I'd really give you and your blogging brethren something to talk about."
Me: "You know you fired a pitching coach because because we were walking too many guys, how's that working out so far? By the way we lead the league in walks"
Dayton: "Look Hitler couldn't convince Jonathan Sanchez to walk fewer people. The guy is who he is. If you suddenly swapped brains with Greg Maddux, he'd still walk five per nine innings. As for the rest of them, I'm just glad Felipe Paulino is back. Not that he's got pinpoint control, but at least one of my moves from last season has a chance of looking good. It's been a rough year pal, but this job isn't easy."
If I could believe Dayton actually thought that way, it would be one thing. But I don't. I think Dayton would defend his offseason rotation building to the grave. I think that he would make all of the same moves again and will continue to do so until he's out of a job or Clayton Kershaw, Stephen Strasburg and Cole Hamels decide to volunteer for the Royals.
My contention is that total failure is actually the best thing for the Royals. Teasing your fans with false hope and then trotting out Jonathan Sanchez and Luck Hochever to get shelled every fifth day is the kind of thing that actually will force a GM to do something. If we were sporting a nice little .500 hundred record with decent pitching, Moore would think what he did was okay and proceed accordingly. Now he has to face the fact that this rotation is all on him and it simply isn't going to cut it in order to make your team a winner.
It's been a bad stretch for these guys. So BAD that the Royals might be the first team in the history of modern baseball to have not one, not two, but three long relievers. Yes, the minor league call-up everyone has been waiting for: The Return of Vinny Mazzaro! That's how bad the rotation has been; they need help from a pitcher who is the owner of the worst relief appearance in history. Be honest you never thought we'd have to see Vinny again, did you?
Am I supposed to react like a radio-show-call-in-crazy and recommend that Hochevar be released immediately, Dayton Moore fired and Ned Yost banished to the Korean leagues? I've actually done that already, but this is really all I want to hear from Dayton Moore after a few beers and shots of whiskey...
Dayton after his second double bourbon: "Look Mr. PBR Blogger Guy, I hear you, but it basically came down to me giving up the Matt Latos/Gio Gonzalez uber package of prospects or taking a flyer on Jonathan Sanchez. Can you really blame me? If you and Bobby Joe the radio call-in guy really thought this team was ready for that kind of move then so be it, but I didn't. The Reds and Nationals are at least two years ahead of us in development. Do you see Stephen Strasburg anywhere, how bout Joey Votto? Yeah, I gave Bruce Chen $9 mil, but the Marlins gave Mark Buehrle $58 mil and if I'm regretting not paying 35 year old Mark Buehrle $18 mil in 2014 then I'll personally give you my job. And by the way, do you think David Glass handed me a check book and said go get Yu Darvish? If so, you're not exactly familiar with how Wal Mart CEOs make money.
Me: "Wow Mr. Moore, when you put it that way, please do continue. Bartender, another round."
Dayton: "And could anyone really have imagined that Luke Hochevar would be this bad? I get it, he's been bad before, but now it's to the point where even Ned is having trouble playing this one down. I don't even watch the guys starts anymore. I usually just watch reruns of Two and Half Men or do Pilates and wait for Ned to tell me we have to call-up ANOTHER long reliever from Omaha. Seriously, Ned thinks we're playing fantasy baseball waiver wire here. I can't even keep the names straight anymore, is Jeff Suppan still available?"
Me: "Yeah, I guess you too don't like to see Hochevar pitching like he's playing pinball, but what about Luis Mendoza?"
Dayton: "Yeah, that one was more of a stretch than the others. Look every good team has this guy who comes from nowhere to all-of-a-sudden throw 200 quality innings. Did you know who Doug Fister was until last year? What about Ryan Vogelsong? And I'll punch you in the face if you even think about about mentioning Philip Humber. The point is I didn't think Luis Mendoza was going to be successful, I hoped that he would. In fact, I prayed to every single known deity observed on the face of the earth. I felt I had to take a chance with him, I mean he was the best pitcher in AAA last year. If you just let him go and he goes on to have success somewhere else I'd really give you and your blogging brethren something to talk about."
Me: "You know you fired a pitching coach because because we were walking too many guys, how's that working out so far? By the way we lead the league in walks"
Dayton: "Look Hitler couldn't convince Jonathan Sanchez to walk fewer people. The guy is who he is. If you suddenly swapped brains with Greg Maddux, he'd still walk five per nine innings. As for the rest of them, I'm just glad Felipe Paulino is back. Not that he's got pinpoint control, but at least one of my moves from last season has a chance of looking good. It's been a rough year pal, but this job isn't easy."
If I could believe Dayton actually thought that way, it would be one thing. But I don't. I think Dayton would defend his offseason rotation building to the grave. I think that he would make all of the same moves again and will continue to do so until he's out of a job or Clayton Kershaw, Stephen Strasburg and Cole Hamels decide to volunteer for the Royals.
My contention is that total failure is actually the best thing for the Royals. Teasing your fans with false hope and then trotting out Jonathan Sanchez and Luck Hochever to get shelled every fifth day is the kind of thing that actually will force a GM to do something. If we were sporting a nice little .500 hundred record with decent pitching, Moore would think what he did was okay and proceed accordingly. Now he has to face the fact that this rotation is all on him and it simply isn't going to cut it in order to make your team a winner.
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Press the Panic Button NOW!
We here at the PBR aren't the types to offer calming advice on how to keep things in perspective early in the season. No, we take our laptop computers and go running for the panic room. The Royals are not well my friends. Thankfully we have enough scapegoats to fill a roster...
#1 Jonathan Broxton: He got this whole thing rolling with the worst blown save in Royals history, he leads off.
#2 Luke Hochevar: I don't care how unlucky he got in that one inning, it was demoralizing to come home to a stadium full of hopeful fans and then just serve it up like that. Unacceptable.
#3 Rex Hudler: I'm convinced that Frank White wouldn't let this happen.
#4 Greg Holland: Couldn't he have just carried last year over to this year? Was it really too much to ask?
#5 Alex Gordon: He forgot to tell everyone that he was going to "dominate" again this year.
#6 Jonathan Sanchez: Doing his best to accomplish the feat of making trading Melky Carbrera look like a bad decision.
#7 Luis Mendoza: For proving the old baseball adage that spring training stats are worthless, and then forgetting to tell Ned Yost and Dayton Moore about his experiment.
#8 Aaron Crow: For not having a third pitch which allows you to beat out Luis Mendoza in the starting rotation.
#9 Humberto Quintero: He's hitting too well for us to just blame all of this on the Sal Perez injury.
#10 Eric Hosmer: Stop toying with our emotions like this.
#11 Jeff Francouer: He forgot how to lead like a veteran and also hit like a young man.
#12 Mike Moustakas: You shouldn't be cheered on by fans for having a name which vaguely sounds like an animal, very bush league.
#13 Alices Escobar: Not much to blame here, but I'd trade you back for Mike Aviles and Zack Greinke; a true ace and a shortstop good enough for the Red Sox, any other takers?
#14 Tim Collins: Sorry, but one bad outing is all it takes, loss #3 of 9 (the bench clearing game) has your fingerprints all over it.
#15 Billy Butler: Singles just aren't good enough, neither are double plays on 3-0 counts.
#16 Louis Coleman: You were called up specifically because we didn't have enough scapegoats.
#17 Brayan Pena: Almost without fault, but I'm blaming you for the Kelvin Herrera pitch selection today...
#18 Kelvin Herrera: 100 mph fastballs go fast in the other direction too.
#19 Yuni: Your fielding range was cited as one of the scapegoats for Luke Hochevar's game. Also, the fact that you're leading off for the Royals is some seriously damaging evidence that it is most certainly not "Our Time."
#20 Jason Burgeois: You being our right handed "bat" off the bench clearly says not "Our Time."
#21 Mitch Maier: Sorry Mitchy, but Mitch Maier starting CF = NOT "Our Time."
#22 Chris Getz: Getting beat out by Yuni makes it pretty clear that "your time" is nearing an end.
#23 Jose Mijares: A lefty specialist isn't much good when you have to use him to eat innings because your starting rotation thinks five innings is a complete game. Less a scapegoat than a symptom.
#24 Everett Teaford: Long relief is set-up to fail, it can only lead to being a scapegoat.
#25 Jeremy Jeffress: How's this for a vote of confidence; Hey, Jeremy, I know we sent you down to the minors about a year ago for walking too many hitters, but why don't you take another crack at the pen because...well...you're our last resort.
#26 Danny Duffy: Seriously Danny? You mean you're not ready to throw 130+ pitch complete games and out duel Justin Verlander, we need more.
#27 Bruce Chen: Just stop it already. We're just not good for each other. Some team has to need you come trade deadline. We'll all say our good byes and move on, it's for the best.
#28 Ned Yost: Dayton Moore hired Ned based on his Craigslist ad which read: PROFESSIONAL SCAPEGOAT FOR HIRE. Ned has yet to make the right move even once this year and will be fired one year from today, mark it down.
#29 The Royals Marketing Department: Do you have any idea how many "Our Time" jokes are out there? Really? You know you made us do this, right? You couldn't possibly have had the foresight to see this one coming? 26 years of evidence wasn't enough, you thought you were going to reverse all of that with a slogan? Not really working working for Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, are you?
#30 Dayton Moore: Oh yeah, it's your turn. Do you realize that today a pitcher you let go for nothing pitched a perfect game? And the Boston Red Sox have a starting SS hitting .300 for whom you got 23 ABs out of Yamico Navarro last year and a wad of cash. The Cubs have a leadoff hitter with a .400 OBP and we have Vinny Mazzaro, and Frenchy's sub .300 OBP. And to top it off the SF Giants have an everyday outfielder hitting over .300 and we have Jonathan Sanchez. You really know how to pick' em Dayton. Okay maybe that was a bit harsh, but this is no time for praising the GM of a team on a nine game losing streak.
Deep breath, happy thoughts, it's all a bad dream, right? No, the Royals are in a bad place right now and I have no idea how it could possibly get worse, but it very well could and that's the scariest part of all. I believe that extreme pessimism is the logical takeaway from a nine game losing streak like this one, but if we win nine in a row I'm getting "Our Time" tattooed on my...
#1 Jonathan Broxton: He got this whole thing rolling with the worst blown save in Royals history, he leads off.
#2 Luke Hochevar: I don't care how unlucky he got in that one inning, it was demoralizing to come home to a stadium full of hopeful fans and then just serve it up like that. Unacceptable.
#3 Rex Hudler: I'm convinced that Frank White wouldn't let this happen.
#4 Greg Holland: Couldn't he have just carried last year over to this year? Was it really too much to ask?
#5 Alex Gordon: He forgot to tell everyone that he was going to "dominate" again this year.
#6 Jonathan Sanchez: Doing his best to accomplish the feat of making trading Melky Carbrera look like a bad decision.
#7 Luis Mendoza: For proving the old baseball adage that spring training stats are worthless, and then forgetting to tell Ned Yost and Dayton Moore about his experiment.
#8 Aaron Crow: For not having a third pitch which allows you to beat out Luis Mendoza in the starting rotation.
#9 Humberto Quintero: He's hitting too well for us to just blame all of this on the Sal Perez injury.
#10 Eric Hosmer: Stop toying with our emotions like this.
#11 Jeff Francouer: He forgot how to lead like a veteran and also hit like a young man.
#12 Mike Moustakas: You shouldn't be cheered on by fans for having a name which vaguely sounds like an animal, very bush league.
#13 Alices Escobar: Not much to blame here, but I'd trade you back for Mike Aviles and Zack Greinke; a true ace and a shortstop good enough for the Red Sox, any other takers?
#14 Tim Collins: Sorry, but one bad outing is all it takes, loss #3 of 9 (the bench clearing game) has your fingerprints all over it.
#15 Billy Butler: Singles just aren't good enough, neither are double plays on 3-0 counts.
#16 Louis Coleman: You were called up specifically because we didn't have enough scapegoats.
#17 Brayan Pena: Almost without fault, but I'm blaming you for the Kelvin Herrera pitch selection today...
#18 Kelvin Herrera: 100 mph fastballs go fast in the other direction too.
#19 Yuni: Your fielding range was cited as one of the scapegoats for Luke Hochevar's game. Also, the fact that you're leading off for the Royals is some seriously damaging evidence that it is most certainly not "Our Time."
#20 Jason Burgeois: You being our right handed "bat" off the bench clearly says not "Our Time."
#21 Mitch Maier: Sorry Mitchy, but Mitch Maier starting CF = NOT "Our Time."
#22 Chris Getz: Getting beat out by Yuni makes it pretty clear that "your time" is nearing an end.
#23 Jose Mijares: A lefty specialist isn't much good when you have to use him to eat innings because your starting rotation thinks five innings is a complete game. Less a scapegoat than a symptom.
#24 Everett Teaford: Long relief is set-up to fail, it can only lead to being a scapegoat.
#25 Jeremy Jeffress: How's this for a vote of confidence; Hey, Jeremy, I know we sent you down to the minors about a year ago for walking too many hitters, but why don't you take another crack at the pen because...well...you're our last resort.
#26 Danny Duffy: Seriously Danny? You mean you're not ready to throw 130+ pitch complete games and out duel Justin Verlander, we need more.
#27 Bruce Chen: Just stop it already. We're just not good for each other. Some team has to need you come trade deadline. We'll all say our good byes and move on, it's for the best.
#28 Ned Yost: Dayton Moore hired Ned based on his Craigslist ad which read: PROFESSIONAL SCAPEGOAT FOR HIRE. Ned has yet to make the right move even once this year and will be fired one year from today, mark it down.
#29 The Royals Marketing Department: Do you have any idea how many "Our Time" jokes are out there? Really? You know you made us do this, right? You couldn't possibly have had the foresight to see this one coming? 26 years of evidence wasn't enough, you thought you were going to reverse all of that with a slogan? Not really working working for Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, are you?
#30 Dayton Moore: Oh yeah, it's your turn. Do you realize that today a pitcher you let go for nothing pitched a perfect game? And the Boston Red Sox have a starting SS hitting .300 for whom you got 23 ABs out of Yamico Navarro last year and a wad of cash. The Cubs have a leadoff hitter with a .400 OBP and we have Vinny Mazzaro, and Frenchy's sub .300 OBP. And to top it off the SF Giants have an everyday outfielder hitting over .300 and we have Jonathan Sanchez. You really know how to pick' em Dayton. Okay maybe that was a bit harsh, but this is no time for praising the GM of a team on a nine game losing streak.
Deep breath, happy thoughts, it's all a bad dream, right? No, the Royals are in a bad place right now and I have no idea how it could possibly get worse, but it very well could and that's the scariest part of all. I believe that extreme pessimism is the logical takeaway from a nine game losing streak like this one, but if we win nine in a row I'm getting "Our Time" tattooed on my...
Sunday, April 15, 2012
The Start: the good, the bad and the ugly
Three wins and three losses on the road; two wins against one of the best teams and then two painful losses against one of the worst. And top it off by getting swept at home by your division rival while giving up 32 runs in three games. These are your 2012 KC Royals. Well, lets hope not. So far there have already been some pretty big stumbles on the road to success for these young Royals, lets take a look at the good, the bad and the ugly...
Hitting
The Good: There hasn't been anything really great about the lineup so far other than some unexpected hot starts by secondary players. The one exception might be Butler; his 5 2Bs and 2 HRs hopefully indicate that he's getting closer to that .900+ OPS level that really separates him from a David Ortiz. It's wouldn't take much, if just a few more of those off-the-wall doubles and warning track flyouts make it over the fence Billy could easily be a 40 2B 30 HR player. Oh yeah, kudos to Getzie, YUNI and Humberto on their respective hot starts.
The Bad: Alex Gordon has been off to a slow start, it's probably nothing to get too worked up about, but he needs to pick it up soon. We've already seen way too much Ned Yost line-up tinkering thus far; Alcides number two, no Getzie, no wait...Frenchy? Obviously the injury to Cain has led to much of this, but Yost just loves to unnecessarily play with his line-ups. For the love of God just pick one and give it a week! Also, I much prefer the Hosmer of opening weekend to the one from this past week, but even his outs are more enjoyable to watch than most.
The Ugly: Lorenzo Cain's terrible start and subsequent placement on the DL were not the way any of us wanted to see the year begin. It would be nice to see the same person in CF from year to year, but I have the feeling we're going to be playing the Bubba Starling waiting game for the next few years. Centerfield is such a difficult position to lock down. Obviously I'm not giving up on Lorenzo, but I was really looking forward to him being there everyday when the year started, after all I've seen what Mitch Maier can do.
Starting Rotation
The Good: Bruce Chen is an ACE! Well maybe not quite yet. But he's proven those ugly numbers he put up in spring training were all just a product of the thin desert air, hopefully. I still don't understand how he can get out Albert Pujols, but maybe the secret will be revealed one day in his must read tell all book. And lets not forget about Danny Duffy, it's just one start, but he really is the only thing worth getting excited about in the entire Royals starting rotation.
The Bad: Jonathan Sanchez, in two starts he's gone 7.2 innings, walked 7 and given up 7 ERs. Not exactly the production we were hoping to see from him. For the Royals to surprise anyone this year he needed to have an exceptional year, and so far we haven't seen anything which would lead us to believe that he's headed for a breakout year.
The Ugly: It doesn't get much uglier than this. Yes, it was one of those innings where everything went wrong, but still we've seen Hochevar post way too many of these types of innings. Would anyone really be that upset if Teaford got a few starts? Is it really any less likely that he could be the #3 starter we all had hoped Hochevar could be? We spend way too much time kicking people when they're down here at the PBR, but unless someone really steps up in the minors, the Royals will need to go out and get an ace (see Cincinatti, Cleveland, New York, Washington, Arizona, etc.). It was asking too much for Hoch to be that guy, but if they want to make the "Our Time" slogan more believable than the classic "Juntos Podemos" slogan from Tony Pena, they're really going to need a boost to the rotation.
Bullpen
The Good: The quantity is certainly here, however no one has been without their faults so far. But the sheer amount of quality arms is what is so impressive. Watching Kelvin Herrera blow 102 mph fastballs by hitters yesterday and knowing that he's the fourth or fifth man in the bullpen makes this team fun to watch.
The Bad: During the Cleveland series we saw what happens to bullpens when their starters can't make it to the fifth inning. If this keeps happening, no amount of hard throwers will be able to withstand the damage done to their overworked arms.
The Ugly: It can't possibly get much uglier than this. Despite piling up a nice amount of strikeouts the ERAs for the relievers have been pretty high. As a result, the Royals' pen has not held leads or kept the game close this year, i.e. their job. This is one ugly which can turn around quickly, but this is supposed to be one of our strengths so if it doesn't this year could stay bad for 153 more games.
Team
The Good: It's early. That's really about all I've got. I could tell you that the team has been "resilient" or "tough" or they've "kept trying" or any number of things, but I'll leave that to Yostie.
The Bad: Our new TV announcer (no need to beat a dead horse), our record, the fact that Tigers are really good, basically everything. I'm still a believer, but so far nothing has changed.
The Ugly: The Cleveland series, with an exclamation mark. Ugly defense, ugly pitching, ugly luck, ugly breaks, ugly fights and ugly swings equal a very ugly result. It's hard to stay positive after this one, and by the way...
Up next is Justin Verlander and the Tigers. Just the kind of game you want when trying to turn things around.
Hitting
The Good: There hasn't been anything really great about the lineup so far other than some unexpected hot starts by secondary players. The one exception might be Butler; his 5 2Bs and 2 HRs hopefully indicate that he's getting closer to that .900+ OPS level that really separates him from a David Ortiz. It's wouldn't take much, if just a few more of those off-the-wall doubles and warning track flyouts make it over the fence Billy could easily be a 40 2B 30 HR player. Oh yeah, kudos to Getzie, YUNI and Humberto on their respective hot starts.
The Bad: Alex Gordon has been off to a slow start, it's probably nothing to get too worked up about, but he needs to pick it up soon. We've already seen way too much Ned Yost line-up tinkering thus far; Alcides number two, no Getzie, no wait...Frenchy? Obviously the injury to Cain has led to much of this, but Yost just loves to unnecessarily play with his line-ups. For the love of God just pick one and give it a week! Also, I much prefer the Hosmer of opening weekend to the one from this past week, but even his outs are more enjoyable to watch than most.
The Ugly: Lorenzo Cain's terrible start and subsequent placement on the DL were not the way any of us wanted to see the year begin. It would be nice to see the same person in CF from year to year, but I have the feeling we're going to be playing the Bubba Starling waiting game for the next few years. Centerfield is such a difficult position to lock down. Obviously I'm not giving up on Lorenzo, but I was really looking forward to him being there everyday when the year started, after all I've seen what Mitch Maier can do.
Starting Rotation
The Good: Bruce Chen is an ACE! Well maybe not quite yet. But he's proven those ugly numbers he put up in spring training were all just a product of the thin desert air, hopefully. I still don't understand how he can get out Albert Pujols, but maybe the secret will be revealed one day in his must read tell all book. And lets not forget about Danny Duffy, it's just one start, but he really is the only thing worth getting excited about in the entire Royals starting rotation.
The Bad: Jonathan Sanchez, in two starts he's gone 7.2 innings, walked 7 and given up 7 ERs. Not exactly the production we were hoping to see from him. For the Royals to surprise anyone this year he needed to have an exceptional year, and so far we haven't seen anything which would lead us to believe that he's headed for a breakout year.
The Ugly: It doesn't get much uglier than this. Yes, it was one of those innings where everything went wrong, but still we've seen Hochevar post way too many of these types of innings. Would anyone really be that upset if Teaford got a few starts? Is it really any less likely that he could be the #3 starter we all had hoped Hochevar could be? We spend way too much time kicking people when they're down here at the PBR, but unless someone really steps up in the minors, the Royals will need to go out and get an ace (see Cincinatti, Cleveland, New York, Washington, Arizona, etc.). It was asking too much for Hoch to be that guy, but if they want to make the "Our Time" slogan more believable than the classic "Juntos Podemos" slogan from Tony Pena, they're really going to need a boost to the rotation.
Bullpen
The Good: The quantity is certainly here, however no one has been without their faults so far. But the sheer amount of quality arms is what is so impressive. Watching Kelvin Herrera blow 102 mph fastballs by hitters yesterday and knowing that he's the fourth or fifth man in the bullpen makes this team fun to watch.
The Bad: During the Cleveland series we saw what happens to bullpens when their starters can't make it to the fifth inning. If this keeps happening, no amount of hard throwers will be able to withstand the damage done to their overworked arms.
The Ugly: It can't possibly get much uglier than this. Despite piling up a nice amount of strikeouts the ERAs for the relievers have been pretty high. As a result, the Royals' pen has not held leads or kept the game close this year, i.e. their job. This is one ugly which can turn around quickly, but this is supposed to be one of our strengths so if it doesn't this year could stay bad for 153 more games.
Team
The Good: It's early. That's really about all I've got. I could tell you that the team has been "resilient" or "tough" or they've "kept trying" or any number of things, but I'll leave that to Yostie.
The Bad: Our new TV announcer (no need to beat a dead horse), our record, the fact that Tigers are really good, basically everything. I'm still a believer, but so far nothing has changed.
The Ugly: The Cleveland series, with an exclamation mark. Ugly defense, ugly pitching, ugly luck, ugly breaks, ugly fights and ugly swings equal a very ugly result. It's hard to stay positive after this one, and by the way...
Up next is Justin Verlander and the Tigers. Just the kind of game you want when trying to turn things around.
Monday, March 19, 2012
The Cactus Defense
Nobody said defending the Cactus league would be easy, but let's catch-up on what's happening down there in Surprise, AZ.
Chen and Sanchez have sucked: I had wanted to kill the subject of Dayton Moore's offseason starting pitcher aquisitions, but I just can't let it go. I realize that spring training stats are to be taken with a huge grain of salt, but these two have had really bad stat lines thus far and I'm starting to worry this won't stop once the season rolls around. If both of these experiments go wrong, we've got some serious problems. Don't forget that these were two of the three "locks" to make the rotation, per Yosty. I'm not sure if this is really something to panic about yet, but we might have to readjust our upside hopes for Jonathan Sanchez.
No, you're not dreaming: This was some breaking news that has sent hard core Royals bloggers tail-spinning through the three stages of grief. We started to see it happening, and we denied it. Then it was confirmed, and we spun into depression. Now we must simply cope with the fact that YUNI might get more at-bats than we had originally hoped. But lets face it, this is due to the fact that for all of the Royals' prospects, they simply do not have one at 2B. Most teams would have chosen EITHER Chris Getz or Yuniesky Betancourt before spring training, but not the Royals. We needed to have both of these guys in camp in order to cloud the fact that Giavotella should be given the chance to lose the job for at least a half season. Getzie and Yuni have already lost their respective jobs at least once, but the charitable Dayton Moore is giving one last chance to the guy who hasn't hit a home run in two years and the guy who hasn't had an OBP of .300 since 2008. I have to believe that the $3 mil going to those two could have netted you something more useful.
The Duffman impresses: For three innings Danny Duffy looked like the pitcher the Royals desperately need him to be. Forget the fact that he followed it up with a less impressive stat line, Duffy might be the most important starting pitcher on the staff. If the Royals have a potential #1 starter, it's Duffy. Here is a much, much more detailed analysis of the start and potential Duffy possesses. That the Royals need a front end starter is no surprise, but Duffy becoming Cole Hamels could be the difference between battling for 3rd place with the Indians or 1st place with the Tigers.
The hitters are hitting (mostly): Hosmer, Butler, Gordon and even Cain have all been hitting well this spring. Moose, Frenchy and Giavotella not so much. However, I would argue that those first four are much more important the others. We know that scoring runs wasn't the Royals' problem last year and hopefully we can expect more of the same this year. It will be interesting to see who are the Royals' fourth and fifth best hitters this year, but if the top three aren't Butler, Hosmer and Gordon in some order, something probably went wrong.
Dayton's ink: I think Dayton Moore got so tired of negotiating with Alex Gordon and his agent that he went straight to the two people most likely to sign long-term team friendly contracts. Enter Sal Perez and Acides Escobar and their multi-year deals. These deals have been roundly praised and have such little down side that they might be the two best contracts signed in the history of the organization. If you can lock up a SS and catcher for several years to come and part with less money than you'll be paying your closer next year, there isn't much for even your biggest critics to say. Unfortunately, it took about one week for the Royals to see the only thing that could possibly go wrong. This sucks, a lot!
The wild card: Luis Mendoza just won't go away. From bullpen failure to possible rotation candidate, I have no idea where to come down on this situation. Barring an injury, I'm not sure where he fits in, other than long relief. But then again, I wouldn't mind seeing the guy get a few starts on the off chance he's unlocked some potential which was hidden deep down in the depths of that right arm. Most likely this is nothing more than a nice spring training redemption story, but you just never know. The fact that something has to go wrong for another pitcher is the only thing keeping me from getting on the Mendoza band wagon.
More bad news: This is just plain sad. We thought he was our Mariano, but now the future of the closer formerly know as the Mexicutioner is in serious trouble. Even though we have some good replacement options, Joakim's injury is a real downer to start the season.
Ah, the ups and downs of spring training. Lets hope the Royals are getting the bad luck out of the way early because we're one more big injury away from really having to hit the panic button.
Chen and Sanchez have sucked: I had wanted to kill the subject of Dayton Moore's offseason starting pitcher aquisitions, but I just can't let it go. I realize that spring training stats are to be taken with a huge grain of salt, but these two have had really bad stat lines thus far and I'm starting to worry this won't stop once the season rolls around. If both of these experiments go wrong, we've got some serious problems. Don't forget that these were two of the three "locks" to make the rotation, per Yosty. I'm not sure if this is really something to panic about yet, but we might have to readjust our upside hopes for Jonathan Sanchez.
No, you're not dreaming: This was some breaking news that has sent hard core Royals bloggers tail-spinning through the three stages of grief. We started to see it happening, and we denied it. Then it was confirmed, and we spun into depression. Now we must simply cope with the fact that YUNI might get more at-bats than we had originally hoped. But lets face it, this is due to the fact that for all of the Royals' prospects, they simply do not have one at 2B. Most teams would have chosen EITHER Chris Getz or Yuniesky Betancourt before spring training, but not the Royals. We needed to have both of these guys in camp in order to cloud the fact that Giavotella should be given the chance to lose the job for at least a half season. Getzie and Yuni have already lost their respective jobs at least once, but the charitable Dayton Moore is giving one last chance to the guy who hasn't hit a home run in two years and the guy who hasn't had an OBP of .300 since 2008. I have to believe that the $3 mil going to those two could have netted you something more useful.
The Duffman impresses: For three innings Danny Duffy looked like the pitcher the Royals desperately need him to be. Forget the fact that he followed it up with a less impressive stat line, Duffy might be the most important starting pitcher on the staff. If the Royals have a potential #1 starter, it's Duffy. Here is a much, much more detailed analysis of the start and potential Duffy possesses. That the Royals need a front end starter is no surprise, but Duffy becoming Cole Hamels could be the difference between battling for 3rd place with the Indians or 1st place with the Tigers.
The hitters are hitting (mostly): Hosmer, Butler, Gordon and even Cain have all been hitting well this spring. Moose, Frenchy and Giavotella not so much. However, I would argue that those first four are much more important the others. We know that scoring runs wasn't the Royals' problem last year and hopefully we can expect more of the same this year. It will be interesting to see who are the Royals' fourth and fifth best hitters this year, but if the top three aren't Butler, Hosmer and Gordon in some order, something probably went wrong.
Dayton's ink: I think Dayton Moore got so tired of negotiating with Alex Gordon and his agent that he went straight to the two people most likely to sign long-term team friendly contracts. Enter Sal Perez and Acides Escobar and their multi-year deals. These deals have been roundly praised and have such little down side that they might be the two best contracts signed in the history of the organization. If you can lock up a SS and catcher for several years to come and part with less money than you'll be paying your closer next year, there isn't much for even your biggest critics to say. Unfortunately, it took about one week for the Royals to see the only thing that could possibly go wrong. This sucks, a lot!
The wild card: Luis Mendoza just won't go away. From bullpen failure to possible rotation candidate, I have no idea where to come down on this situation. Barring an injury, I'm not sure where he fits in, other than long relief. But then again, I wouldn't mind seeing the guy get a few starts on the off chance he's unlocked some potential which was hidden deep down in the depths of that right arm. Most likely this is nothing more than a nice spring training redemption story, but you just never know. The fact that something has to go wrong for another pitcher is the only thing keeping me from getting on the Mendoza band wagon.
More bad news: This is just plain sad. We thought he was our Mariano, but now the future of the closer formerly know as the Mexicutioner is in serious trouble. Even though we have some good replacement options, Joakim's injury is a real downer to start the season.
Ah, the ups and downs of spring training. Lets hope the Royals are getting the bad luck out of the way early because we're one more big injury away from really having to hit the panic button.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
The PBR Oscars
Pretty soon Brad Pitt and George Clooney will look good wearing expensive tuxedos, LOTS of people will be thanked, at least one person will cry and we'll all watch on as the Academy Awards are handed out to random people for work on movies we've never seen or awards that never should have been invented. Then, finally, we'll get to see the awards for best actor, movie and director. Here at the PBR we'll dispense with all of that and just go straight to the most important awards...
Best Actor: Unlike the real Oscars, the Royals actually had two very strong candidates for this years award. Alex Gordon played the forgotten local hero, who had been cast out and now comes back to regain the hearts and minds of the people who had written him off. While Melky Cabrera played the new comer with A Lot of baggage (about 30 lbs.) who had to win over the people with an outstanding performance. Both exceeded expectations and put together two great performances, which in any other year might have made them locks for the award. Alas, someone has to take home the award. Both of these actors showed tons of promise early on by becoming breakout teenage stars, however something happened in their mid 20s and they started taking on roles not meant for them. Alex was miscast as the next Brad Pitt (George Brett) for years and this year he finally was able to shed those lofty expectations and settle for the next Jeff Bridges, reliable but not so unattainable. Similarly, Melky had high expectations placed on him as the next Bernie Williams on the big stage in New York, that did not happen and he ended up down-and-out in Hot Lanta doing cameos as the villan on CSI Miami episodes. It strikes me that Melky should take home the award due to the degree of difficulty in his turn around, Gordon's performance was technically better, but Melky's was more surprising and grittier. Alex's role was about like a Tom Hanks performance, while Melky's was more like the indie actor who never had a shot. And the award goes to...Alex Gordon.
No surprise here, there just wasn't enough support for Melky and Alex's movie was the higher grossing, studio film tear jerker that the voters really can get behind. Congrats to Alex! Hopefully he profusely thanks Kevin Sitzer.
My Prediction for the real Oscars: Brad Pitt for Moneyball in a shocker.
Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Eric Hosmer, and it's not even close. This is a classic best supporting actor win for Hosmer in that he stole the show but was only limited from the best actor category due to his service time. Next year he'll be up there with Pitt and Clooney, but he had to go through the supporting category first. Hosmer's win this year is something akin to Heath Ledger's win for Dark Knight or Javier Bardem's for No County because it was so impossible that it could go to anyone else. His performance in the second half of last season will literally bring people to the ball bark this season. It was the sort of role the Royals have been patiently waiting to be filled; Beltran and Damon came close, Sweeney for about two years, Gordon couldn't do it until it was too late, if you thought Angel Berroa was going to do it you were crazy, Billy Butler doesn't quite have it, Grienke came very close for one season, but Hosmer is the guy who actually makes other teams jealous. And we've got him for six years. Keep your fingers crossed.
My Prediction for the real Oscars: Jonah Hill for Moneyball in a shocker.
Best Director: Another easy one. Jeff Francouer!!! After spending the last few seasons directing TV commercials after failing to live up to his next-big-thing hype. Francouer was signed by producer Dayton Moore to direct the uber feel good rom com of long time losers finally turning things around. His comedy routine is pretty, well, routine. However, if you smash enough pies in peoples faces, make enough "great win for the team" post game speeches, get your own fan club, and just smile for the camera A LOT, sometimes it works. The PBR does not see Jeff Francouer turning into Peter Jackson and directing the next great trilogy, but Dayton needed the veteran presence/leader type to carry his young team into the future and whatever you (I) may think of Dayton, he's earned the right to choose Francouer as the Director.
My Prediction for the real Oscars: Whoever directed Moneyball, despite not being nominated.
Best Actress: Chris Getz. I'm sorry Chris, but I had to. In 604 career ABs with the Royals you've yet to hit a home run. People get called a "Sally" for much less than that in little league.
My Prediction for the real Oscars: Were there any females in Moneyball?
Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Luke Hochevar. No, this is really the year he turns it around. Well you never know, here's hoping that he's this year's Alex Gordon and not Kyle Davies. But another +5.00 ERA and I'm done, and so should be Dayton.
My Prediction for the real Oscars: Brad Pitt's daughter in Moneyball?
Contratulations to everyone, enjoy your statues and here's to Spring Training games in the near future!
Best Actor: Unlike the real Oscars, the Royals actually had two very strong candidates for this years award. Alex Gordon played the forgotten local hero, who had been cast out and now comes back to regain the hearts and minds of the people who had written him off. While Melky Cabrera played the new comer with A Lot of baggage (about 30 lbs.) who had to win over the people with an outstanding performance. Both exceeded expectations and put together two great performances, which in any other year might have made them locks for the award. Alas, someone has to take home the award. Both of these actors showed tons of promise early on by becoming breakout teenage stars, however something happened in their mid 20s and they started taking on roles not meant for them. Alex was miscast as the next Brad Pitt (George Brett) for years and this year he finally was able to shed those lofty expectations and settle for the next Jeff Bridges, reliable but not so unattainable. Similarly, Melky had high expectations placed on him as the next Bernie Williams on the big stage in New York, that did not happen and he ended up down-and-out in Hot Lanta doing cameos as the villan on CSI Miami episodes. It strikes me that Melky should take home the award due to the degree of difficulty in his turn around, Gordon's performance was technically better, but Melky's was more surprising and grittier. Alex's role was about like a Tom Hanks performance, while Melky's was more like the indie actor who never had a shot. And the award goes to...Alex Gordon.
No surprise here, there just wasn't enough support for Melky and Alex's movie was the higher grossing, studio film tear jerker that the voters really can get behind. Congrats to Alex! Hopefully he profusely thanks Kevin Sitzer.
My Prediction for the real Oscars: Brad Pitt for Moneyball in a shocker.
Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Eric Hosmer, and it's not even close. This is a classic best supporting actor win for Hosmer in that he stole the show but was only limited from the best actor category due to his service time. Next year he'll be up there with Pitt and Clooney, but he had to go through the supporting category first. Hosmer's win this year is something akin to Heath Ledger's win for Dark Knight or Javier Bardem's for No County because it was so impossible that it could go to anyone else. His performance in the second half of last season will literally bring people to the ball bark this season. It was the sort of role the Royals have been patiently waiting to be filled; Beltran and Damon came close, Sweeney for about two years, Gordon couldn't do it until it was too late, if you thought Angel Berroa was going to do it you were crazy, Billy Butler doesn't quite have it, Grienke came very close for one season, but Hosmer is the guy who actually makes other teams jealous. And we've got him for six years. Keep your fingers crossed.
My Prediction for the real Oscars: Jonah Hill for Moneyball in a shocker.
Best Director: Another easy one. Jeff Francouer!!! After spending the last few seasons directing TV commercials after failing to live up to his next-big-thing hype. Francouer was signed by producer Dayton Moore to direct the uber feel good rom com of long time losers finally turning things around. His comedy routine is pretty, well, routine. However, if you smash enough pies in peoples faces, make enough "great win for the team" post game speeches, get your own fan club, and just smile for the camera A LOT, sometimes it works. The PBR does not see Jeff Francouer turning into Peter Jackson and directing the next great trilogy, but Dayton needed the veteran presence/leader type to carry his young team into the future and whatever you (I) may think of Dayton, he's earned the right to choose Francouer as the Director.
My Prediction for the real Oscars: Whoever directed Moneyball, despite not being nominated.
Best Actress: Chris Getz. I'm sorry Chris, but I had to. In 604 career ABs with the Royals you've yet to hit a home run. People get called a "Sally" for much less than that in little league.
My Prediction for the real Oscars: Were there any females in Moneyball?
Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Luke Hochevar. No, this is really the year he turns it around. Well you never know, here's hoping that he's this year's Alex Gordon and not Kyle Davies. But another +5.00 ERA and I'm done, and so should be Dayton.
My Prediction for the real Oscars: Brad Pitt's daughter in Moneyball?
Contratulations to everyone, enjoy your statues and here's to Spring Training games in the near future!
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Would that it were
Barring any last minute Dayton Moore head scratchers, the Royals have had a pretty tame offseason. We're all expecting that Alex Gordon contract extension, but it probably won't get any of us too excited. However, the seemingly harmless signings (mostly REsignings) and trades from this offseason present us with some interesting "what if" scenarios after a second look. Hopefully this will give you some food for thought until we can analyze the Gordon extension, spring training or Dayton's controversial signing of a back-up DH. Anyway, would you rather have....
Melky Cabrera in RF this season and $7.5 million next season or Frenchy for those two years? I'm hopefully going to be moving on to bigger battles than the Jeff Francoer signing, but for now this is a legitimate question and one which will help to judge Dayton Moore's talent evaluation radar. So far he's held onto his biggest prospect trading chip in Wil Meyers, but if he dominates this season - as expected - his progression is completely blocked by Frenchy and his $7.5 million salary in 2013. My hope is that Dayton is still eyeing a big trade with Meyers as the center piece when the Royals are ready to contend. But if Frenchy is hitting .250 in 2013 and taking playing time away from SUPER DUPER PROSPECT Wil Meyers, then I'm going to write a super nasty blog post all about it (gotta love internet anonymity). Granted the Jonathan Sanchez trade would not have happened, but we'll get to that.
The above scenario plus no Bruce Chen. Under this scenario you get $10 mil this year (Chen + Sanchez, Cabrera and Frenchy are a push) and $12 next season (Bruce + Frenchy) to make a run at a free agent starter? What does 2 years and $20+ mil get you? Maybe Roy Oswalt? Half of Yu Darvish's posing fee? Edwin Jackson and Oswalt? The answer is not entirely clear this year because Sanchez and Chen are might be a better bet than those options, but it's hard to believe the $12 mil in 2013 wouldn't be more useful elsewhere. And let's face it, if a top 5 farm system can't replace the production of Frenchy and Chen by 2013, then the team has probably failed miserably. As it stands now, we have the two best locker room pranksters in the biz for two more years and $22 mil. These contracts are not unreasonable, and have a little upside, but still that is some decent coin which could have been thrown at a starter. The point is more that the Royals really had no pressing need to fill these holes, especially not in 2013; if Myers isn't as good as Frenchy by 2013 something went wrong, dido on Mike Montgomery (or someone else) surpassing Chen. Next year the Royals will start to have some fairly high salaries (Butler, Gordon, Soria, etc.) so let's hope that $12 mil won't prevent us from getting a real difference maker when the time is right.
Chen for two years and $9 mil or Jeff Francis and no guaranteed money. This one surprised me. Jeff Francis has had more prior success, is younger and was healthier in 2011. However, he had to take a minor league deal from the Reds while Chen parlayed 25 starts last year into a nice little 2-year contract. Sure his ERA was higher and he didn't have that sparkling win-loss record, but Francis pitched in more games and piled on more innings and stayed off the DL. This is less about the Royals, but I just don't see how that adds up, it seems like a great backup plan and the Reds might get 200 innings for next to nothing. But then again, they they don't get moments like this one.
Bruce Chen for two years or Edwin Jackson for one? In fairness, when Bruce Chen signed Jackson and Scott Boras still thought he was getting 5 years and $80 mil. Now this happened. It was an interesting fall from a starter with so much experience, but a rotation featuring Sanchez, Jackson, Hochevar, Paulino and Duffy has some real upside. The Royals could have had this and not been out a prospect or even very much money, but I digress. I promise this is the last I mention Bruce Chen in this post.
Alex Gordon or Zack Greinke? I don't know where this is coming from, but committing big money to Gordon might mean no big free agent contracts for a couple of years and obviously Greinke coming back is not very likely. Still $50 mil to Gordon isn't exactly the safest bet in the world based on past performance. However, the safe and relatively modest contract extensions like the one Gordon would get usually work out better in the end than $100+ mil to a free agent pitcher. Here's a more intriguing question; would the Royals 2012 season be a lot more promising if they had never traded Greinke? What if you take the current team, put Jarrod Dyson in CF and Marco Scutaro at SS? With Greinke at the top of the rotation, you can really start to believe in this team contending now. Colorado got Scutaro for basically nothing and as good as Escobar is on defense I don't think you lose anything by essentially swapping him for Dyson; elite defensive CF for elite defensive SS, neither of whom can hit? If only Greinke had known we were just a Greinke away from contending in 2012!
Being an internet GM is fun, especially in February. GM Dayton Moore did not sign Prince Fielder, Albert Pujols, Yu Darvish or even Edwin Jackson. He stayed pretty calm this offseason and seems to be in a wait-and-see mode for 2012. I think he wants badly to be in it at the deadline to make a big trade that will get the Royals to the playoffs for the first time in 26 years. However, the team may have taken a big step back by doing so little this offseason. The Tigers made their move, the AL West is stacked at the top, the East may have four teams better than the Royals and is this going to change anytime soon? It's not that far-fetched that one of the White Sox, Twins or Indians could turn it around. The way I see it the Royals could have stepped up this year and made themselves heard, but opted for the safe plays all around. Let's hope it works out.
Melky Cabrera in RF this season and $7.5 million next season or Frenchy for those two years? I'm hopefully going to be moving on to bigger battles than the Jeff Francoer signing, but for now this is a legitimate question and one which will help to judge Dayton Moore's talent evaluation radar. So far he's held onto his biggest prospect trading chip in Wil Meyers, but if he dominates this season - as expected - his progression is completely blocked by Frenchy and his $7.5 million salary in 2013. My hope is that Dayton is still eyeing a big trade with Meyers as the center piece when the Royals are ready to contend. But if Frenchy is hitting .250 in 2013 and taking playing time away from SUPER DUPER PROSPECT Wil Meyers, then I'm going to write a super nasty blog post all about it (gotta love internet anonymity). Granted the Jonathan Sanchez trade would not have happened, but we'll get to that.
The above scenario plus no Bruce Chen. Under this scenario you get $10 mil this year (Chen + Sanchez, Cabrera and Frenchy are a push) and $12 next season (Bruce + Frenchy) to make a run at a free agent starter? What does 2 years and $20+ mil get you? Maybe Roy Oswalt? Half of Yu Darvish's posing fee? Edwin Jackson and Oswalt? The answer is not entirely clear this year because Sanchez and Chen are might be a better bet than those options, but it's hard to believe the $12 mil in 2013 wouldn't be more useful elsewhere. And let's face it, if a top 5 farm system can't replace the production of Frenchy and Chen by 2013, then the team has probably failed miserably. As it stands now, we have the two best locker room pranksters in the biz for two more years and $22 mil. These contracts are not unreasonable, and have a little upside, but still that is some decent coin which could have been thrown at a starter. The point is more that the Royals really had no pressing need to fill these holes, especially not in 2013; if Myers isn't as good as Frenchy by 2013 something went wrong, dido on Mike Montgomery (or someone else) surpassing Chen. Next year the Royals will start to have some fairly high salaries (Butler, Gordon, Soria, etc.) so let's hope that $12 mil won't prevent us from getting a real difference maker when the time is right.
Chen for two years and $9 mil or Jeff Francis and no guaranteed money. This one surprised me. Jeff Francis has had more prior success, is younger and was healthier in 2011. However, he had to take a minor league deal from the Reds while Chen parlayed 25 starts last year into a nice little 2-year contract. Sure his ERA was higher and he didn't have that sparkling win-loss record, but Francis pitched in more games and piled on more innings and stayed off the DL. This is less about the Royals, but I just don't see how that adds up, it seems like a great backup plan and the Reds might get 200 innings for next to nothing. But then again, they they don't get moments like this one.
Bruce Chen for two years or Edwin Jackson for one? In fairness, when Bruce Chen signed Jackson and Scott Boras still thought he was getting 5 years and $80 mil. Now this happened. It was an interesting fall from a starter with so much experience, but a rotation featuring Sanchez, Jackson, Hochevar, Paulino and Duffy has some real upside. The Royals could have had this and not been out a prospect or even very much money, but I digress. I promise this is the last I mention Bruce Chen in this post.
Alex Gordon or Zack Greinke? I don't know where this is coming from, but committing big money to Gordon might mean no big free agent contracts for a couple of years and obviously Greinke coming back is not very likely. Still $50 mil to Gordon isn't exactly the safest bet in the world based on past performance. However, the safe and relatively modest contract extensions like the one Gordon would get usually work out better in the end than $100+ mil to a free agent pitcher. Here's a more intriguing question; would the Royals 2012 season be a lot more promising if they had never traded Greinke? What if you take the current team, put Jarrod Dyson in CF and Marco Scutaro at SS? With Greinke at the top of the rotation, you can really start to believe in this team contending now. Colorado got Scutaro for basically nothing and as good as Escobar is on defense I don't think you lose anything by essentially swapping him for Dyson; elite defensive CF for elite defensive SS, neither of whom can hit? If only Greinke had known we were just a Greinke away from contending in 2012!
Being an internet GM is fun, especially in February. GM Dayton Moore did not sign Prince Fielder, Albert Pujols, Yu Darvish or even Edwin Jackson. He stayed pretty calm this offseason and seems to be in a wait-and-see mode for 2012. I think he wants badly to be in it at the deadline to make a big trade that will get the Royals to the playoffs for the first time in 26 years. However, the team may have taken a big step back by doing so little this offseason. The Tigers made their move, the AL West is stacked at the top, the East may have four teams better than the Royals and is this going to change anytime soon? It's not that far-fetched that one of the White Sox, Twins or Indians could turn it around. The way I see it the Royals could have stepped up this year and made themselves heard, but opted for the safe plays all around. Let's hope it works out.
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