Meh.

The Royals spent $20 million on several random vets in an attempt to get some assets they could flip for prospects.

That worked out with Diekman. Not so much with Boxberger or Hamilton. Duda was an asinine addition, any way you slice it, but the money was inconsequential.

Brett Phillips isn’t playing much at the MLB level but the team also is recovering Service time (if he stays down another month, +1 year). I’m with tk, also, in that sometimes it’s better to take it slow with players, let them force their way to the majors, and experience success before the call-up.

He and Starling have other factors in slow-playing their promotions beyond merely players in their way.

I think the speculation that this money prevented them from doing something with Ian Kennedy is a real stretch. The salary for this year was approved; contracts are guaranteed. That money is spent already.

More interesting topic:

The Braves released Luiz Gohara today, which means he cleared waivers. Lefty. Upper 90s fastball. Former top 100 prospect (pre-2018). Injuries and control problems took him out of Atlanta’s plan.

The Royals should be all over that. Get him to Omaha, see if you can fix him. Huge upside if you can...

ROFL

Honestly, they need to sink some money into the Maarten Gasparini rehabilitation project.

Bo Bichette. Bo Bichette! Where?

The Royals can't even keep themselves from ruining their own pitching prospects. How the hell are they going to fix anything.

Will we ever have a Royals draft pick just come in and dominate from the start. Witt Jr is hitting .256/.301 with a .627 OPS in rookie ball. Andrew Vaughn is already in A+ killing the ball. C.J. Abrams is hitting .399/.441 with a 1.093 OPS in rookie ball. Is anyone really surprised that the Royals draft pick (who is old for a high school pick already) is already struggling?

You've seen what teams have been getting in the trade market for pretty good players.

People are too desperate to get rid of Whit. He's a very good player under multiple years of control. You don't trade him away for jack shit just because you suck.

If the right offer comes along for him, then sure, send him away.

LOL

Perfect. They shroud themselves in total ignorance. How cute. Makes it even more satisfying that we crushed a WS dream that they thought was a total certainty

Football is a far better sport for you to focus your energies on...less frustrating when it comes to young talent. The above comment is using a football mentality with the game of baseball. It just doesn't work like that. Witt is fine and will be fine. Just enjoy the season for what it is! It's a transition year. Nobody expected Dozier or Soler to do what they're doing. Cuthbert is doing his best impression of a prospect again. Nobody ever had Whit on a serious top 100 list. Lots to enjoy. The pitching staff is terrible, overall. But our best prospects are pitchers...so yeah. Before we declare them busts, let's see what happens. And hopefully...all the bad press that the juiced ball has been getting as of late will translate into a more conventional ball going forward. Manfred has to act on that, right?

And to the rest of the negative nancies...it's like there's a renewed interest in the trading approach of Herk Robinson and Allard Baird. Unbelievable.

Gordon is a team HOFer having a productive if not outright good season. Not sure how many teams would bench a guy like that.

Yup

Zimmer just learned you don't throw Nelson Cruz a fastball over the plate.

Speaking of Phillips, he has hit another HR tonight. But I'm not sure if that's impressive or not. They're playing at Reno they're losing 20-8 in the 6th inning, so everyone is hitting. Omaha may have to go to their hurry up offense.

Sounds just like my crappy softball team

the only thing that matters in these lost years is player development. This is why shit like signing Duda and Hamilton is so frustrating.

You have enough actual potential big-leaguers to fill out your starting 8 along with some utility pieces.

Spend money on pitching and pitching only in free agency, with an emphasis on bullpen pieces.

quit spending good money on shit players.

You realize you can develop in the minors right? Club control is of vast importance to the Royals, so it makes sense to keep a guy a year too long at triple A vs bringing him up on a hopeless ballclub (who wont win for 2+ years)

That's one way to look at it, but I'd rather have our young guys get their ML struggles out of the way instead of bringing them up when we are supposed to be good and then we have to send them to AAA because they suck and we need them to produce. How often do we have prospects come up and produce? Only ones I can remember are Whit and Hosmer. Yeah it delays service time, but it also extends the amount of time it will take to become competitive. By the time our prospects come up to the bigs and then start to produce, the guys that are on the ML team are older or gone.

So bring up the young guys to take their lumps and failures, so that in a year or two they should be productive.

Except that you don't really know until they reach the major league level.

I understand the club control concept, and there's a balance to be achieved.

I still don't understand throwing money at Duda and Billy. It's dumb.

Soler just annihilated one into the upper deck in Minnesota. 465 feet. What a bomb.

Meanwhile the Twins are on pace to hit 12 homers tonight. You never would have guessed at the beginning of the season that this team would be the greatest home run hitting team of all time.

EDIT: Make that on pace for 16 homers tonight. I almost wonder if Duffy is tipping his pitches. They're sitting all over everything he throws.

Duffy looking at Ned right now...
https://media.tenor.com/images/eab0c...a72a/tenor.gif

Bubba has really cooled off since his hot start. Over the last week he's 3-22 with 0 walks and 12 strikeouts.

AKA, the real Bubba Starling

He's really struggling to deal with all the sliders teams are feeding him. He has a really hard time with quality sliders.

The defense and plate approach are solid. Just really struggles to do much with a good slider.

I agree on Duda. But Hamilton... they had a big black hole at CF. Starling had struggled mightily and Phillips was a bit of a stretch there.

People are mad Starling stayed down a month longer than they wanted, but what does that really hurt? We see him for 3 months instead of 4 at the major-league level.

There's a balance between getting guys to the major leagues and letting them work through struggles and making sure they're ready for the challenge. Some players need more seasoning and more of a background of success before they're promoted (because failure at the MLB level would break them). Some can go through the worst performances and come back from it. Just another challenging aspect of the process of player development.

It's not as easy as the Astros and Dodgers make it appear.

But Hamilton's a big black hole himself. We've used Whit in CF a fair amount to try to have some offense. If Starling stunk it up, at least you know he's not an answer.

I'd rather have spent that money on middle relief, knowing that your starting staff is somewhat shaky.

We went to two World Series with a mediocre starting staff, good defense, an excellent bullpen, and a fast, high contact offensive concept.

We got away from that. I still think that team design best fits our stadium and payroll limitations. Why spend on guys who have proven they're not any good?

If I’m running a team that I know has no chance to contend, I’m going to spend any FA money I spend either on:
1) long-term pieces that will be here once the rebuild switches to contention mode
2) pieces that don’t block a “ready-now” prospect, that I think I can move for something of value.

Due to his defense and speed, Hamilton was an Ok bet to me. It didn’t work out, because his bat continued to deteriorate.

I wouldn’t spend much of anything on middle relief unless I’m legitimately trying to win a lot. I don’t think the Royals are at that point yet.

I get what you mean, and it's conventional wisdom. I don't think 1) is ever really likely, we never do that unless it's taking a chance on a pitcher.
2) worked reasonably well the last couple years, but this year we whiffed.

I'll add that we're going to be renegotiating the TV deal soon, and we currently have the worst deal EVAH. It benefits the team long-term to at least be watchable enough to engage the public. Signing Lucas Dudas doesn't. Hamilton? I didn't like it, but I'll give Moore a mulligan.

A decent pen and this is not a terrible squad. I just think the approach has gotten away from how we won.

I was okay with the Hamilton signing, and did not like the Duda signing at all.

But to be fair, Duda honestly didn't hit any worse than O'Hearn has. Cuthbert's the one who came in and saved the day.

Sergio Romo just completely chewed him up with sliders. Now 3 for his last 25 with 13 K.

Doesn't take long for major leaguers to figure out where your weakness is and attack it.

Almost no sliders are thrown for strikes. Just learn to recognize them, and not swing at them. I know easier said than done.

O'Hearn's BABIP would indicate bad luck. He hits the ball hard, but often at people. In theory, that should drift back to some normality.

Cuthbert has been pretty okay, but I think he's a part-time player. Dozier I think plays better all-around when he's at 3rd. If you want to platoon O'Hearn and Cuthbert at 1st, with the occasional Dozier off-day at 3rd, I can see that.

Phillips in RF, Starling in CF, Gordon in LF might be the best defensive outfield in baseball. Seriously.

Lopez at SS until Mondesi's back and then utility guy after; and the starting 8 is a pretty nice mix of some veteran leadership at every level and young players with upside.

Bah. Whit's streak ends with a robbery in RF.

Bahhh that sucked. Thought he had a hit for sure there.

This weekend was one of the most gutless performances I've seen

Danny Duffy is a joke

Another wonderful contract given out by Moore to a mental midget.

Reeling in the O’s.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...a91d2b9980.jpg

Duffy was well worth that contract. No one thought he was going to turn into the shitty pitcher he is today. I think DM is pretty damn incompetent, but I'm not going to criticize him for the Duffy contract.

Duffy to be honest, is the same guy he's always been, a talented pitcher that is wildly inconsistent.

1-9 last 10. Boy they sure are playing well since the break.

Damn we might get the 2nd overall pick again. Let's suck to a 2025 World Series

I'd be fine with just making the playoffs for a few years. Winning the world series is incredibly hard for a small market team, so a world series every 30 years isn't bad at all. What's not excusable is just years and years of losing with no postseason. I'd be fine with a Cleveland Indians type of run with several years of contending without winning it all. Of course I want another championship, but I'm trying to be realistic.

Solidly back in the running for a Top 3 pick.

We were veering off course there for a little while after the ASB . . . . . . .

DM and Yost need to go after the season, DM won’t but he should.

Won't happen, although I see no reason to expect anything other than another 100 loss season in 2020. No GM should survive three straight 100 loss seasons.

Jeffrey Lundhow (Astros GM) did. 2011-2013

I'd say that worked out pretty well for him/them.


Not saying DM is Lundhow, just pointing out that sometimes you need to bottom out for a while to successfully rebuild, especially for small market teams.

The issue with the Royals has been mainly scouting and development (and a little bit of bad luck). Obviously, Houston has been better with those. But the Royals last 2 drafts have looked pretty solid. Will see how that plays out in the next couple years . . . . .

That isn't the same situation though, Lundhow literally tanked on purpose by selling anything and everything of value. He tanked on purpose to get high picks, Moore if he were Lundhow would have dealt off Perez and Merrifield now.

True, it's a big gamble during the playoffs, winning the division a couple times is the real goal. The Royals making the World Series the only 2 years they made the playoffs in my lifetime is remarkable.

Perez's trade value went down after they re-negotiated his bargain basement contract, though. Between that and Yost running him into the ground, don't think he would have provided much of a return in 2018. And people weren't willing to pay much (reportedly) for Merrifield this year. So, yeah, you could have traded Perez last year and Merrifield this year for some lotto tickets, but then you'd have people bitching about us being (last year and this year) a 110 loss team, instead of a 100 loss team, and no Whit or Salvy on the team and the whole 'same ol Royals' mantra from the early 2000's.

And would trading them have netted a little better picks in the drafts? Maybe. I mean, they got Singer in 2018, who was widely considered one of the top players in the draft and most thought would go Top 5, he just happened to fall to 17. And this year, they got Witt Jr., who many consider the best overall prospect in this draft. And based on how things are going this year, they look like they're well on their way to another Top 3 pick, regardless of whether Whit was or wasn't on the team. So I don't know that they've really missed out on a ton in drafting potential elite players.

The Royals haven't done a good job the last several years with scouting and development (and have had some really shitty luck, as well), but DM really is in a no-win situation with the fanbase right now.

He could have done just what you suggested and just as many people (probably more) would be bitching about it.

I'm just telling you Lundhow literally traded every piece with any value and tanked on purpose.

It's also a bad comparison because Houston hit on a ton of picks, managed to make trades and win while keeping a highly rated farm system.

Had Moore done those things the Royals would still be good.

DM has made nothing but awful contracts.

1. Gordon 4-72. He will get back <1/2 value
2. Kennedy 5-70 lol
3. Duff-man 5-60 lol
4. Chris Young 2-11 lol
5. The “garbage pail kids” from this winter 1-20 mega lol



Frankly this asshole shouldn’t be given the checkbook any longer. We could add reading Salvy for 5-50 and Starling 1-7.5 for that disaster pick. Real folks......what am I missing?

Houston didn't start "hitting on a ton of picks" until they went into 100 loss mode, circa 2011. While Houston was stocking their farm system, the Royals were competing for playoff spots and eventually getting to two World Series. Now, the difference has been scouting and development between KC and Houston, as the Royals were not doing a good job of that with their lower first round picks after they started to win a little. That's obviously on Moore. He's in charge. And he tried to extend the winning window a little bit in 2016 & 2017 and made some questionable trades and FA signings. That's on him as well.

But since the Royals have gone into 100 loss mode, they've drafted Singer and Witt and had two pretty damn good drafts in 2018 and 2019. Now will that translate later down the road? Remains to be seen.

If the Royals are still a giant pile of suckage in 2022 with elite draft picks failing to advance and make an impact on the big league level, then I'll be in line with everyone else in asking him to be removed.

But cut the guy a little slack. He helped lead one of the smallest markets in baseball to back to back World Series and a title. That's a damn near miracle in today's climate. It's like everyone has already forgotten about 2014 and 2015 after a couple shitty seasons . . . . .

Was 2019 a great draft though? Obviously still extremely early, but after taking the obvious pick in Witt Jr the rest of the draft was pretty meh by everything I've seen.

It's hard to find too many draft grades, among picks after the 1st and 2nd round, but here is one. This guy has some good insights:

https://www.fantasypros.com/2019/06/...t-team-grades/

Obviously, it's early and we won't really know how good the 2019 draft was till the next year plus some . . . . . .

That’s a good resource. I’m definitely guilty of forgetting about hooper.

McConnell definitely is a huge potential guy. I still think he ends up in CF.

Bubba with a Green Monster shot.

That was a pretty bad call to end the game, but we are right there for the 2nd pick overall.

1-10 stretch

“The royals have been playing good baseball since the break” - Rex Hudler

Initially, they were. 9-3 immediately following the ASB, including a sweep of the Braves in Atlanta.

Since then, the aforementioned 1-10 stretch.


Back to working on getting that Top 3 pick . . . . . .

This year has probably been a blessing in disguise. We've found out that Dozier is a real player. We already know Mondesi is the real deal. Soler has shown he's a big bopper. We know Nicky Lopez might not be the answer, at least as a starter. Brad Keller is a #3 pitcher. Junis probably is going to end up being one of our next kick ass relievers. Eventually if you see a bullpen of Staumont, Lovelady & Junis that is going to be scary.

We just need to make sure we unload Duffy, Merrifield, and GASP!!! maybe even Salvy next year to maximize a return.

They won't do it.....those guys are going to continue to be here because Moore is married to guys.

That's prison douche being his normal idiot self.

Alex is 2-29 stretch. -53 wRC+ In AUG, going 1-16 with a single. Since May 1 he’s been a below replacement player even incl his vaunted defense. It’s indiaputably time to pull the plug this winter.

Astros get sucked off a lot and for good reason but they also had two major busts from #1 position.

I’m not giving up on the first overall pick.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...147fbfdf92.jpg

I don’t think they’ll pass Detroit but they might pass Baltimore.

Picking second behind Detroit might work out nicely. That’s one team that might not all in on Emerson Hancock since they already have a P-heavy system.

I could see Detroit jumping on Torkelson instead.

Emerson Hancock to KC, barring an injury or a major step back, would be really huge for the rebuild.

He has been bad recently. I think he’ll retire and it will all be a moot point.

I said in April or May or whatever that if he continues to play well it might be worth bringing him back on a cheap, short-term deal. But he hasn’t continued to play well, and Brett Phillips put himself back in the conversation, too.

Let’s see Bret. We already know he’s an elite defender. And elite is the word, no exaggeration.

In 3-4 weeks, once I’ve regained another year of control, I’m all over that.

Ah. I see.


Last year in the game action I saw I was blown away by his defensive ability. Couldn’t hit for shit tho. Couldn’t make contact, very Owings like.

He made a major adjustment to the way he held his hands in April or May. His white hot June and July resulted.

His K rate is also down 5 percent over that time span, with his walk rate spiking 5 percent, too.

There’s definitely reason to be optimistic. He could be a Joc Peterson-type player for KC.

How the hell do you already know about 2020 MLB draft prospects? :clap:

I have this sickness, you see?

I’m a corporate stooge by day and a baseball writer by night and in my heart.

Do you write for Royals Review or who do you write for?

Soler just hit one out of Fenway

He sure did , you beat me to the post.:clap:

That was crushed.