|
06-12-2020, 02:39 PM | #571 |
Hockey Town
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Kansas City, Missouri
|
Usually prospect lists value guys who just got picked so Lacy will probably come in very highly.
|
Posts: 112,377
|
06-12-2020, 03:32 PM | #572 |
M-I-Z-Z-O-U
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Kansas City
|
I'd expect him to be in the middle of the top 50. 25-75 range across all the lists.
Baseball America and MLB may have him higher than Prospectus, Fangraphs, and KLaw. BA and MLB favor college players and high picks more than tools and projection. |
Posts: 21,431
|
06-12-2020, 04:38 PM | #573 |
Sauntering Vaguely Downwards
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Columbia, Mo
|
You're a Loftin fan, eh?
He was pretty heavily linked to the Cards pre-draft and I just wasn't a fan. May become a Hoerner type I guess, but Merrifield was such a bizarre case. He was 25 years old and scuffling until showing some potential in the high minors in his 5th year of organized ball (damn rare for a college bat to even get that kind of rope). Even then he still stumbled for another year in AAA before getting a look by necessity. Those just aren't guys you compare other guys to - they're outliers. I'm more inclined to compare guys like him to the Skip Schumakers or Greg Garcia's of the world. Aaron Miles or Joe Thurston. Those sort of dirtbag guys are who you get 9 times out of 10. That's the type of profile I maybe start to accept in the 3rd round unless we're also looking at a GG caliber glove and I'm not sure I see that in Loftin. He was certainly a consensus first round guy but I think that's based more on floor than ceiling and I just don't like selecting for floor before round 3. Systems produce guys like that on accident all the time so why plow significant draft capital into one? Even someone like Hoerner will never drive the bus. He'll never be a true key contributor to a real contending team. He may be a glue guy someday but at certain stages in the competitive cycle, you still need to be taking swings at anchor tenants before you start looking for complementary players. And Loftin looks like a complementary player even if things go to script. |
Posts: 62,259
|
1 0 |
06-12-2020, 04:48 PM | #574 |
Black Bob's daddy
Join Date: Nov 2017
Location: under the sun
|
Pitching looks awesome. I really hope this group turns out better than the last all-star pitching group, and I think there will. There's simply so much more depth and IMO just as much top end talent as when we had Montgomery, Lamb, Dwyer, etc.
The rest of the rebuild depends on finding something productive among a group of guys including McConnell, Witt Jr, Matias, Lee, Melendez, Isbel, Pratto, Loftin, and probably some other names I'm missing. I'm curious what's going on with the minor leaguers the rest of this year while they're not playing. Hopefully they're still getting some positive instruction that will lead to positive results? Along with a supposedly revamped development system for the hitters I'm hoping some of these guys can finally realize some potential. |
Posts: 5,200
|
06-12-2020, 07:58 PM | #575 | |
Veteran
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Lawrence
|
Quote:
I'm surprised people aren't more concerned about team construction as another poster mentioned after the Lacy pick. I'm not going to ever complain about getting the best pitcher in a draft, but for this team it is a big deal. Mondesi can't stay healthy in his career and hasnt made the leap to star. Soler had a good year but can that continue? Merrifield is going to age out soon. And after that...? If whitt Jr doesn't pan out as a super star we are in trouble. People keep saying "well we can just trade pitching for hitting", and that's correct in theory, but it doesn't really work like that. Greinke gets a haul, not the #75 prospect. People aren't acknowledging the fact that outside of Lacy, our guys project as 2/3s in a rotation, not cy young winners. Unless the royals hit on a rotation that looks like maddux/glavine/smoltz, we won't have a bevy of prospects to trade because we have to hope that all of them collectively turn into that for this to work. If we fall even a little short, and it turns out we get a #2, 2 3s, a four, and some solid bullpen guys , which isn't an unbelievable outcome, we are screwed, because then we don't have enough to trade for a bat and the pitching isn't quite good enough to carry us. You're left in no man's land. We need to have some balance in the system and can't put all our eggs into pitching prospects, the riskiest thing you can possibly do, and then take low ceiling high floor guys on offense. It's unlikely to work. I hope I'm wrong obviously, but I just hate the roster construction looking 5 years out. |
|
Posts: 1,104
|
06-12-2020, 08:08 PM | #576 |
M-I-Z-Z-O-U
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Kansas City
|
I don’t think I’d call myself a Loftin fanboy but I see the value there. The floor is nice and he does have some upside with the bat. There were a lot of teams connected to him that know what they’re doing with hitters (Yankees, Rockies, Cubs) and saw
Multipl places that thought he would have elevated himself to the middle of the first round with a full/good college season. Yeah, he isn’t a likely centerpiece guy, but those guys were off the board at that point. Personally, I would have rolled the dice with Casey Martin’s upside and am still surprised KC wasn’t in on him there. Lacy and Hernandez are the picks I like the most, but Loftin is solid. |
Posts: 21,431
|
06-12-2020, 08:21 PM | #577 | |
M-I-Z-Z-O-U
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Kansas City
|
Quote:
Worrying about roster construction with your minor league system is how you end up taking Christian Colon instead of Chris Sale or Matt Harvey. It shouldn’t be done. Get the most talent you can and go from there. High-contact hitters with plus D up the middle have value. Loftin isn’t a guy they’re trying to build around but he can be a steady lineup contributor who plays the type of D KC covers. The Royals lack star power/upside on the position player side - Witt, Erick Pena, and Brady McConnell are the only guys with the tools to project to be even potential lineup centerpieces right now - but will get a chance to beef that up next month as well, with the international free agent period. I’m not sure who they have been connected to for this period, but they will have some money to spend. |
|
Posts: 21,431
|
06-12-2020, 08:36 PM | #578 |
MVP
Join Date: Oct 2010
|
Losing the minor league season really ****ing sucks. This should have been a big year for a lot of guys, but instead they all get a year older with very little experience. Shit man! I was actually really looking forward to the minor league season.
|
Posts: 18,044
|
1 0 |
06-13-2020, 07:22 AM | #579 |
Beer Sherpa
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: shackled in a cellar
|
Re: Loftin.
Here's part of what Alec Lewis had to say about him in a recent chat on the Athletic: "Models loved him, evidently. A few things that could be about: His ability for the barrel to remain in the zone for a wild amount of time. And the sheer lack of times he swings and misses." Full Q&A: https://theathletic.com/1868416/2020...-alec-lewis-2/ |
Posts: 1,736
|
06-13-2020, 10:24 AM | #580 | |
I’m a Mahomo!
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Mid-Missouri
|
2020 Royals Official Offseason/Season Repository
https://theathletic.com/1860500/2020...op-draft-pick/
HOW THREE YEARS AT TEXAS A&M TURNED ASA LACY INTO A TOP DRAFT PICK Levi Weaver Quote:
|
|
Posts: 54,038
|
06-13-2020, 10:26 AM | #581 |
M-I-Z-Z-O-U
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Kansas City
|
To circle back to position players, beyond the guys with true star potential you do have some guys who profile as potential above-average players, notably Kyle Isbel and Khalil Lee.
|
Posts: 21,431
|
06-13-2020, 06:57 PM | #582 |
MVP
Join Date: Feb 2013
|
|
Posts: 18,220
|
06-13-2020, 08:59 PM | #583 |
Custom User Title
Join Date: Jan 2007
|
**** the owners, three offers that are essentially the same then blaming the players and saying they’re not negotiating in good faith
|
Posts: 39,340
|
1 0 |
06-13-2020, 09:18 PM | #584 |
Woman should only make babies
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Apartment "G UNIT!"
|
Dayton Moore is always searching for the next jeff blauser
|
Posts: 54,538
|
06-13-2020, 10:53 PM | #585 |
...
Join Date: Nov 2001
|
Yeah it looks like these negotiations to start the season are getting even more ugly, if that's possible. Players basically told the owners they're done, tell us how many games you want to play and we'll be there.
Meanwhile, MLB signed a $3 billion deal today with TBS to broadcast one game a week plus 3 playoff series.
|
Posts: 55,458
|
|
|