Yeah, sometimes crazy athletes turn into Lorenzo Cain.

And sometimes they turn into Bubba Starling.

Lolwut?

That's certainly a risk. With our park it's mitigated a bit. moneyball says you can't win playing the Yankees or Red Sox rules. Plus DM has a hard on for athletes and tools

Not to mention Dyson and Gore. If Dyson doesn't steal 3B in the wild card game, who knows what happens with this team. They lose the wild card game, who knows if they have that same drive to get back to the World Series. We never see Moose break out either.

That’s s great argument but he is one of the few.

I see that some don’t understand my comment. Of course most ball players are athletes but if the choice is an athlete with little skill in baseball...I’ll pass.

Es-co-bar hype video lulz

You know what’s dumb?

At age 19, Starling had way more baseball skills than Cain. And he was a superior/is a superior athlete.

But along the way, Cain developed the ability to recognize pitches and developed a strong hit tool. Starling never has.

Do you think this is the last year for Starling?

Let's ask a question about that, have the Royals developed any guys that were drafted on being athletes into guys with good hit tools? Or are the guys they have that can actually hit guys that were drafted with that ability?

Cain was largely developed by another organization so this is just an honest question if the Royals have just honestly struggled to develop anyone into a better hitter than they were when they were drafted.

To KC’s credit, he did find his power while he was here. Whether that would have happened anyway is up for debate - but Brewers analysts were legitimately surprised when Cain started roasting the ball the moment he re-joined the Brewers organization. He was a slap/bloop hitter who largely relied on his speed to reach base when he joined KC.

Now, Cain could very well have the largest increase in walks ever from season to season this year - which could serve as an indictment of KC’s lack of respect for plate discipline (not exactly a secret, but still).

With that said, when Cain found his power from 2014-2015, he transformed from a defensive maestro who relied primarily on his speed at the plate to a legitimate MVP candidate. Credit to Hootie for saying he had that type of power potential all the way back in 2013.

How about this guy?

I meant under Moore.
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Any player who progresses through the minors to the majors and can hit enough to stay at the big league level is having his hit tool developed. Moustakas and Hosmer both had struggles in the minors and had to work through some issues with approach. Moustakas obviously carried some of those problems to the majors.

Merrifield and Bonifacio stand out as major development successes, as does Jarrod Dyson, Alex Gordon’s reworking of his hitting approach pre-2011. Cain also was someone who improved as a hitter with time in KC’s system.

I’m of the opinion that the hit tool is the hardest thing to fix with a hitting prospect.

That’s why it is nice to see them shift some of the draft focus away from crazy toolsy HS player and into guys who have tools but also have shown hitting skills. Less busy risk (though less upside than Bubba Starling).

Had Bubba been able to figure the hit tool out, his D and Power would have made him a star.

What about Salvy?

If Matias ever hits .312 in the majors, I'll jump off a cliff.