Just. ****. Off.

Don't come in trying to be some dipshit troll. PB is the only one allowed to come in and troll stupid shit like that.

Bye

Hey, I see you get to face a soft-tossing lefty who's making his major league debut today. What could possibly go wrong?

September games are gonna be brutal there once the Raiders move.

Not really. They did that last year too.

The offense isn't anything to write home about either.

That's true too. It just looks like a year where the Royals are content to let their MLB players draw a check, Salvy to heal, and the AAA talent to mature "for next year".

I may not be 100% correct, but other than the players giving it their all (even though they're not talented enough for this level, or not enough of them are), the franchise doesn't appear to be doing much more than "letting the year ride".

It's all good..

Last 8 series: 0-7-1

The offense is average, at least. Middle of the league in pretty much every category.

The main problem is the bottom third. We have some good talent at the top to middle.

As a whole no, but they have some individual players having pretty nice years. Whit, Mondy, Gordo, & Dozier have all been fun to watch so far. Soler seems to either strike out or hit a moon shot. O’Hearn is slowly coming around. So those guys are at least worth the price of admission.

The rest and the pitching staff are garbage, though.


Oh well. Top 3 pick, here we come . . . . . . again.

The bottom 3 hit worse than pitchers in the NL.

Dayton Moore is so full of shit with his BS on why Nicky Lopez isn't up here. Apparently they plan on keeping Lopez in the minors for the better part of a decade like they did with Merrifield. Merrifield apparently can't physically handle the outfield full-time, so Lopez literally has no path to the majors on this team for the foreseeable future.

I was surprised by that explanation too.

Yeah that makes absolutely no sense. Daytons such a **** tard

To me that read like GMDM was giving an excuse to service time manipulation.

Pratto is no longer a prospect.

112 AB, 0 hr, 47k. Read that again.



(By comparison when Hosmer was also 20 and at Wilmington, he hit .354 in 325 AB before being promoted to AA)

You can say the same thing for Matias and Melendez. Kyle Isbel is the only one hitting there and he's been out injured.

Who's the last high school or high school aged IFA other than Mondesi this team has developed? They should stay clear of high school players in the draft and just focus on college players. This organization cannot develop young raw talent.

Speaking of a terrrible HS pick have you seen Riley Pints numbers? #4 pick in 2016 from Aquinas HS. Only threw 8 IP last year.


This year is a disaster at Rockies A ball Asheville: 6.2 IP, 12 er, 19 bb (!), 11 wp (!!)

It couldn't be going much worse for the "next wave" of hitters. Hopefully the pitchers can continue what they're doing, but I have my doubts. Im betting one or 2 of them get moved for an MLB guy in the next year or 2. This dumb ass franchise needs to bring up Nicky Lopez though to see if he's the answer at 2B. If he is then that makes Whit much more expendable and trading Whit could bring back some decent talent.

Melbys Viloria (AA): 108 ab, 12 h, 0 hr, 31k, .129 avg


The offensive numbers in our lower and middle minors are just comical

Well, at least he only has 31 strikeouts and not 47. Gotta look at the positives.

There is obviously some kind of flaw in the system when they all have numbers like that.

Also playing OF is easier than playing infield so Moore is totally full of shit on the Merrifield thing.

The OF does more wear and tear on your body, a lot more miles.

Corner OF, especially, is one of the most physically taxing positions on the diamond.

CF is actually fairly easy because you can glide in/out of your stops. There's a little more running but a lot of it is at cruising speed and pretty easy. There are very few times you need to really bleed speed like when you're going at a wall. And as the CF, you have defensive priority so if you make a call it's the corners that have to peel off or break down. They're the guys that defer and have to come to those hard stops.

If you play the corners with the same effort you play anywhere else, there's a strong argument that they're the hardest spots to play.

1b is also a lot more taxing on a lower half than people realize. If you play the position correctly, you go up and down with your legs/knees and your back is constantly working to adjust to throws. A bad defensive 1b will lean over a lot but a good one uses his whole body to move with a throw across.

Less athletic people can play the corners and 1b for obvious reasons, but I don't think most people give enough credit to have physically taxing those spots can be.

Nevermind me...I played center in high school and yea...guess that's why I feel that way.

!@#$ing glory boy CFers...

Y'all always needed to take those extra 12 steps after you caught the ball, didntchya? Don't act like we didn't see you take those three stutter steps so you could dive for a ball you should've caught at your waist...

ROFL

Well......I played in a corner once and I hated every second of it, the hook and slice is so much more severe out there than in center.

The other part of that is the K has the biggest outfield in the league that isn't Colorado. Lot of ground to cover.

Ain't no shit there.

And right about the time you're playing LF and play like you're expecting that tail from a LH batter, it'll be a knuckler that makes you look like a dick.

The corners are a lot like 2b in that the athleticism required is less than CF (as 2b is to SS) but everything about those positions from a purely technical standpoint is more difficult. I was in the unfortunate position of being just athletic/good enough to play SS and CF on bad teams but anytime I had a genuinely good team, there was always someone just good enough to bounce my ass into 2b and LF. Hated both those spots (and eventually pitchers threw stuff that moved, I couldn't hit my weight and that was that).

If you have the athleticism to play CF and SS, those are the easiest positions on the diamond. Everyone defers, everything's in front of you and just about everything travels pretty true and predictably. Fewer people can play 'em because of the threshold athleticism they require, but if you're among the fortunate few, it's just the rich getting richer. You get the glam job that also happens to be easier and a lot more fun...

You guys are placing too much meaning into the exact wording Moore used re: Lopez.

He can’t come out and say “we stink this year, and We can gain another year of control of Nicky Lopez by keeping him in the minors through June. We’re not going to waste that to win 71 games instead of 68 or make this year’s product more enjoyable.”

The union would roast him.

Take what GMs day about prospect promotions (or lack thereof) and reasons why with a grain of salt.

The performance at Wilmington is deeply troubling. No way around that. Too many Ks by far, and this is an organization that never had those problems before, even with guys who struggled at Wilmington (Hosmer, in his first taste at age 19, had an ops around .500, but didnt K like this group is).

It's like the old Hardball game on PC or Commodore 64. If you picked the red team you got stuck with Wratten, Bautista and Dogget - who never got a hit unless it was a blooper.

The other problem with the red team was their catcher, Barnes, was their best hitter. But we figured out catchers never make errors. So the blue team could substitute a good hitter for their crappy-hitting catcher. Not fair.

For our long term success, Lopez staying in Omaha as long as possible is a goox thing. I just want to be selfish & see some fun baseball this year

How do you define as long as possible? By whatever time in June service time is no longer an issue? Wait until September call-ups? Next season?

Maybe, but maybe not.

Sure, you always want to try to get an extra year of team control and/or cost control. But really, that matters far more on guys with genuine star upside. For a guy like Lopez - a good player with the ability to stick for several years but probably not a future all-star, players like that almost invariably extend prior to their FA seasons anyway.

Meanwhile, by slow-playing him you're also just taking away ABs that can be used on his development.

There's probably a few bucks that can be saved here by leveraging that extra year of team control in an extension conversation. But ultimately if you don't find a palatable number for him, he's just gonna refuse to extend early. So if you also hope to get a guy like that to extend before FA, you have to shoot pretty straight in your contract figures.

Pitchers? Yeah, service time games are the way to go there because it's one more year that you get under control when you can see if he's gonna blow up. Players that have superstar potential? Yeah, do that because they're gonna cost a shitload either way.

But a guy who's likely just gonna be a pretty good player for a pretty long time? I'd think that's the kind of guy that often looks to extend after a couple of seasons anyway and at that point the service time game becomes largely moot. So get him up here and see what you have.

All of this.

Why is this so hard to understand ?Moore is just saying what is best at this present time under the circumstances of this team.

It's time Starling played. Starling is as good as Hamilton, and has more upside. Just tired of seeing the old has-beens out there every day!

Hamilton, Owings, Duda, hell even Soler …..need to go!

Soler?

Starling has been a non-garbage hitter for the first time in several years. There are no guarantees with him, other than he is stuck in the majors once they call him up.

Soler is on pace for 30 HR and a .800+ OPS at a very cheap price. Why are dumping him again?

Soler? Don't get that.

Lopez up, Newberry down, 40-man move forthcoming

Guess Whits ready to play the OF full time lol. Wtf

Oh FFS. If you are not going to start Lopez out early in the year, at least wait a *little* while longer to bring him up. 2nd to 3rd week of May is generally around the time of the Super 2 cutoff. If the Royals waited until the end of May or beginning of June he would be virtually guaranteed not to get the arbitration a year early.

Still possible he misses it, but if he doesn't, and you bring him up a week early and it costs the team a few million dollars, or if he's a star he leaves a year early, that's dumb.

It’s almost like it was just an off-the-cuff excuse that didn’t actually mean anything.

.@codybtapp says on #TheDrive that Whit Merrifield signed off on a move to the outfield with Nicky Lopez coming up. "Part of the exhaustion for him was moving around the diamond. Now he'll primarily play in the outfield." #Royals

Should have waited till June or July or whenever it extends service time but will be nice to see

Flanagan:

We just had a conference call with Dayton Moore and he apologized for misleading the beatwriters: "It was not intentional. I didn't expect this to happen this fast. I anticipated end of May, early June, based on all the moving parts. But things change in a minute in this game."

If Bubba doesn't cut in the majors soon, he never will. This is year 7 or 8 for him. If he can't hit in the Bigs it's time to move on.

But bring him up now when overall expectations are low and play him every day. See if he hits.

That's another thing with Ned, no one plays every day. He's constantly playing with the line up and there is no continuity for these young guys. Dozier, O'hearn, Whit , they're all constantly in and out of the lineup and moving all over the field.

Basically 2 weeks would have done it and we could possibly waste a year of playing time for 2 weeks early.

It won't cost them the year of control - he's already been down the requisite number of days to miss his 6 full seasons of service time. Even if he never goes down again, the Royals will have him this season + 6 to follow (absent a non-tender).

The only difference this makes is that he'll be a super 2 eligible player and thus get 4 cracks at the arb apple instead of the usual 3. It could cost him a few million bucks but again - this is exactly the kind of player who usually extends early and that sort of service time consideration vanishes anyway.

My issue with Soler is his ability to stay healthy. He is probably at the top of his value right now. If the Royals get a decent offer, I'd jump all over it. I just hope he makes it to the trade deadline before gets injured. He won't be worth anything if he's on the DL.

Yeah, arbitration is a big deal for the Royals and I'm not sure why bringing this guy up 2 weeks early is worth giving up the extra year of non-arb.

All I ask for is that Owings get DFA'ed.

I'm just happy getting his ass off the field.

WTF? I thought Whit was too hobbled to play the outfield. Not a good look for Moore.

I never understood the Owings signing. Lopez was ready LAST year. I guess Dozier has been a surprise, but it's not a surprise that Owings sucks.

Hobbled Whit > Unhobbled Soler

Tonight’s lineup:

Merrifield - 9
Lopez - 4
Mondesi - 6
Gordon - 7
Dozier - 5
Soler - DH
O’Hearn - 3
Maldonado - 2
Hamilton - 8

That’s fun.

Man if you put Salvy back in there and get Khalil Lee in CF next year, you might have yourself a nice little lineup.

Big question is what you do about LF. If Gordon finishes the year at this pace, he’d have the best year of his career:

.296/.381/.542
31 HR, 44 2B
99 R/122 RBI
83 K (12.5%)
6.7 bWAR (career-high)
6.7 fWAR (career-high)
147 OPS+ (47 percent above average, career high)
143 wRC+

I mean, if he wants to come back, you have to try at that point, don’t you?

All I ask is for Owings to get murdered and buried in the woods somewhere he'll never be found

Owings might singlehandedly win us a World Series in 5 years when the 1st overall pick from 2020 pitches the Royals a World Series shutout.

Ned would get the red woman to bring him back

If the price is right, hell yeah

Trying to think of the last 35 year old to make bank on a new deal :shrug:

I don’t think it would be huge and would imagine KC would actually get a discount this time.

I got giddy about Gordon and forgot to mention Khalil Lee. I wouldn’t want to see them rush him. He’s having a good season for his age at AA, but not so good you want to push him to MLB to start the year.

Some seasoning at Omaha will do him well.

That price would be $23 Mil.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="da" dir="ltr">Royals have DFAd Frank Schwindel.</p>&mdash; Jeffrey Flanagan (@FlannyMLB) <a href="https://twitter.com/FlannyMLB/status/1128395305236533248?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 14, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Yeah...I'd rather Gordon get re-signed than hope that Lee can make the jump. I think he COULD make the jump and even win the job in ST...but it would be foolish to plan on it. If Starling stays healthy and maintains his current body of work or something close, CF would be his to lose under a scenario where we keep Gordo.

I could see the Royals and Gordon extending his contract two more years (20 and 21) and spreading the option money over that time period, or something like that. Maybe converting that 1/23 into 2/27 or something similar.

Looking to the 2019 MLB draft, most people have mocked Bobby Witt, SS, to us. Would be really take a star shortstop when we have a star shortstop? Or would be take a chance on a different position even if they are less valued?

If we take Witt, would he be trade fodder for when we become a contender?

Witt likely won't even be in the majors until 2023 or so, so the current roster matters little as a lot can change by then. You don't draft for need in MLB. I'd personally rather draft Vaughn or Rutschman if available as I think they are more likely to develop into decent pieces in our system, but that's just me.

And the Royals continue to **** things up in terms of roster construction.

Jesus, this is a joke.

You should never be concerned about a guy being blocked when you draft him. That’s how you end up taking Christian Colon because you already have enough LH starters (not the main reason they didn’t take Sale. They thought he was a reliever and would break down as a starter).

If Mondesi is still here when Witt is ready, Witt can play 3B or 2B or CF or RF.

Guys who can stick as plus defenders at SS can play anywhere

On the flip side, they didn't let Mark Teahen stop them from drafting Alex Gordon, and that worked out pretty well. You always take the best player.

Every time I watch Soler swing at a curve ball in the dirt, I hear Pedro Cerrano yell out "AAAYYYYYYYYYyyyyy!!!"

Good guys up 3-0 over the Rangers after 1.....

And ERMAGHHERRD - NERRRKY LOPERRZ WITH A SAERCREFERCE FLERRRR