Interested in Happ for nothing?

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://t.co/fLzt3tiuRT">https://t.co/fLzt3tiuRT</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Yankees?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Yankees</a> are shopping Happ as a way to more comfortably fit Cole into luxury tax payroll if they are able to sign Cole.</p>&mdash; Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) <a href="https://twitter.com/Joelsherman1/status/1204233472107089920?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 10, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


They also need 40 man room because they want to make a few signings, Yankees are another good spot to look to grab some pieces without giving up much.

This would be smart... but DM has already said implicitly that we aren't open for business this offseason.

Wait around for the arms to arrive, lose 90+ games again. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Hmmmm....situational lefty brought in to get a lefty out.....gives up a dinger.

Does manager call for two intentional walks thereafter due to two tough righties coming up in the lineup?

What I think this means is that the situational lefty and situational righty are out of jobs from now on.

This is great news for left handed hitters. And great news for anyone who has been bored by the high strikeout numbers in late innings. Teams are going to have fewer opportunities to maximize reliever value. Relievers are going to have to be better at getting opposite-handed hitters out than in previous years.

The guys who can pitch to both are going to have added value and a guy like Tim Hill should be traded right now as his value drops a ton with this.

I know what I would do with him:
package him with Kennedy to the Padres for Myers and prospects.

I don’t know if they could pry The Arias kid away - he posted a strong OPS with strong SS defense - but that would be my first ask.

Myers, Edward Olivares, Anderson Espinoza and Buddy Reed would work for me.

It might be doable if you didn't make them take Kennedy's contract back and ate all of Myers deal.

They view Tatis and Abrams as their future MI.

I think a really interesting idea is to move Dozier.

Even without paying any of Kennedy’s deal, you’re clearing them of $50 million in contract on the swaps. And including a solid reliever with 4-5 years of cheap control.

That’s why I include Hill in the deal. Kennedy helps them this year, too.

Kennedy/Munoz/PomeranZ/Yates is an imposing back-end.

It's worth a shot the only issue is I doubt the Royals are going to be willing to do any of this shit when in reality it's what they should be doing.

Paying for prospects by taking on bad contracts while you suck isn't a horrible idea. But nah we're busy trying to keep the ghost of Alex Gordon.

Real question, do we think baseball will consider expanding again at some point?

The way they're flirting with Montreal makes it feel inevitable.

To be honest, the MLB has a much more legit reason to expand to Japan than the NFL does to London, but I doubt that would ever happen.

Baseball is also played by a much larger population so it does make me wonder if they think they can support some more markets.

Apparently Portland is trying hard to get a team also.

Pads GM is said to be on the hot seat if they don't make a legit post-season push this year.

That deal helps them win games in 2020 and would also give them long-term payroll flexibility.

I think they'd be smart to consider it.

Hey if you are a baseball video game fan....MLB the show will be on all platforms starting in 2021, so no more only playstation baseball.

Wil Myers is like the worst fit ever in SD.

Or another SD malcontent.....What about taking The Faux-Hawk back? Maybe he’s happier here? Maybe they could eat 50 of the 100 left and we are at a 6/50 type of deal. Idk just tossing out ideas, don’t hate me

I’d be open to that, and I expect Hosmer would, too. I’d rather have Myers committed for a shorter period of time, though.


****ing finally. It has been almost 10 years since there was a decent baseball game on Xbox platforms.

I’ll buy and spend way too much time on this.

That game has always been a big reason that I own a playstation.

It was just pointed out to me that John Mabry's role on the Royals is "Major League Coach".

Did Mike Matheny just invent a coaching job so that his slack-jawed buddy could hang out on the bench with him during the season?

I mean they didn't even TRY. Not gonna call him a quality control assistant or associate pitching coach. Just "Major League Coach". He is the NPC of major league baseball.

John Mabry is Lt. Weinberg from A Few Good Men:

https://y.yarn.co/0f0cd869-08be-4c65...d364a_text.gif

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Whoa, the Angels give up their 1st round pick in last year’s draft as part of getting Cozart off the books and clearing salary <a href="https://t.co/eP638xtvMb">https://t.co/eP638xtvMb</a></p>&mdash; Greg Beacham (@gregbeacham) <a href="https://twitter.com/gregbeacham/status/1204529918601678848?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 10, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

That is a deal the Royals should have been looking at...

Dayton Moore is lounging at the pool. Unless he can add a Hamilton or Owings type he isn't going to be doing anything of significance.

How could we NOT take a flier on a guy named “Will Wilson”

Pretty insane to think if you were willing to take on Myers and Cozart you could basically buy players that would be top 10 prospects in this organization but no we're busy trying to keep Gordon.

Not sure how anyone can still defend Dayton Moore at this point. He is not exceptional or great in any way.

Oh this is great ****ing news!!

LOT of Whit Merrifield/Padres chatter tonight on Twitter.

Loaded system. GM on hot seat. Good opportunity to extra a return that would actually make them pull the trigger on Merrifield.

DM is saying he's not interested in breaking up the core. Perhaps just GM speak, but who knows.

Only hope there is the Padres seem desperate and they definitely have prospects.

I've thought all along there's about an 85% chance people who have been banging the drum to trade Whit are going to be disappointed once we do though. I'm just worried with the way teams hoard prospects that no one is going to give up the kind of deal Royals need to get.

You know a dipshit like kcchiefsus will bitch about it either way

It’s sad that GMDM thinks what he has is a Core.

Hosmer has a full no trade clause for this season. But Hosmer and prospects for Whit and Kennedy would be something I would talk about it. Hosmer would sell some tickets.

Yikes.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Breaking: Gerrit Cole to Yankees. 9 years. 36M per. 324M total.</p>&mdash; Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) <a href="https://twitter.com/JonHeyman/status/1204626053278289920?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 11, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

That was a 1 team race, incredible. There isn’t a dollar value that the Yankees wouldn’t have matched.

Flanny asked DM about Holland returning....he didn’t dismiss it. Back to the future.

Insane

More people going to be buying Padres tickets now that he would be gone?

Why would you ever want Hosmer back while giving up someone like Merrifield in the deal no matter what prospects are coming back?

Hosmer is a career 9.9 WAR player in 9 seasons with 10.6 of that WAR coming in 3 seasons... you do the math on the remaining 6 years. He's ****ing trash.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I&#39;d have liked Gausman in KC, so basically the Giants made two deals in the last hour that I would have been thrilled with if the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Royals?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Royals</a> did them.</p>&mdash; David Lesky (@DBLesky) <a href="https://twitter.com/DBLesky/status/1204533254797303810?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 10, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


Royals standing there with their dicks in their hands.

“Cheese and Rice! Im getting dern sick and tired of all the complaining. Aw shucks when the development is dern good and ready, we’ll adjust our payroll accordingly. Shut the front door!”

DM

The more this plays out the more I think DM is a bumbling stooge that lucked into a championship because he had years of high picks from unintentionally tanking.

The lack of urgency to up grade the major league team that lost 100 + games two years in a row is malpractice. This idea that it's acceptable to bottom out the way they have is dumb... look at the Rays... the sustained consistency of success and player development... that should be us.

It's simple. DM knows his job is 100% secure, so why make any risky moves when he can take the slow and steady approach and still keep his job almost no matter what? We could lose 100+ for another 2 years and Moore would still not feel the heat. Apparently a single world series wins him a lifetime of goodwill. Meanwhile teams like Boston and Chicago (Cubs) have fired managers or executives soon after championships for not continuing with the same excellence.

And bottoming out intentionally would be fined if we coupled it with trading anyone with value and stockpiling talent like Houston did. But Dayton Moore still refuses to fully commit to the rebuild and ignorantly wants to hold on to the "core" of a 100 loss team.

Boras gets around 5% of that.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Boras offseason scorecard: <br><br>Cole: $324M.<br>Strasburg: $245M<br>Moustakas: $64M.<br><br>Total: $633M.<br><br>Still to come: Rendon, Ryu, Castellanos, Keuchel.</p>&mdash; Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) <a href="https://twitter.com/Ken_Rosenthal/status/1204629107683676160?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 11, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

That right there is a ton of my issue, they are literally choosing to do nothing. It's ****ing ridiculous.

Slow clap. Exactly right.

They aren't making moves for young players, they aren't improving their team and we got DM saying core like the team is good, dude is not good at this job anymore.

Haven't we known that for a while? The Championship required an incredible amount of luck, especially with the pitching.

Of course it was luck. Sorta.

I mean he had a super bullpen before super bullpens were cool. And then teams went about trying to purchase or even trade for pieces to build super bullpens of their own.

But you CAN'T. You just kinda fall into stuff like that because reliever volatility makes that sort of thing impossible. The idea that there is any amount of money or trade capital you can throw at the market to get a bullpen that pitched like that set of !@#$ing cyborgs pitched for a couple of years is laughable.

Just as laughable as the notion that DM set out to build a bullpen like that. It just sorta happened when a 10th round pick, a cheap international flier and a failed starter went OFF for 24 months. The bullpen was a happy accident. Most truly excellent bullpens are. Because there's just so little consistency/predictability in bullpen performance.

Now where he does deserve a ton of credit was his realization in '14 and '15 that he HAD a super bullpen and he needs to do things to capitalize on that. Y'all don't win the championship without Cueto and Zobrist; Moore deserves a ton of credit for those decisions.

It's amazing to me that there are still "Cueto deniers" among the Royals fandom, rather, folks who say Cueto wasn't necessary to the Royals 2015 title. They used to say the trade was "too expensive." Now that everyone involved in that trade has more or less burned out, they say things like "well the Royals scored 7 runs both games he started lel" as justification that the trade wasn't worth it.

The dude pitched two two hitters in the postseason. Cueto was gold, and if Chris Young got jumped for 5 runs against the Stros in Game 5, we wouldn't have had a chance to score 7 runs if Hinch doesn't pull McHugh too early (someone who probably mastered the Royals style better than any other pitcher that postseason).

You don’t luck into a title in any sport. Period. That should end the argument.

You don’t luck into playing for the title in back to back years in any sport. Period.

You don’t luck into leading your league in wins over a 3-year period in any sport. Period.

You could do that for any team who’s ever won a title.

Well some strategies are a lot more repeatable than others. I mean lets be real even the awesome sauce farm system he built didn't develop any superstars.

Little bit, sure.

But nothings less predictable in baseball than bullpen performance. And the Royals won consecutive AL Pennants on the back of a bullpen that was dominant for 2 seasons and HISTORICALLY so for one of them.

You can put an element of luck on any championship, yes. But when you build a team around the one thing that's essentially impossible to count on in that sport AND in the process you get a performance that's not just unexpected and not just great, but almost certainly better than any team in baseball history has ever had while committing a paucity of resources to it....well there's more luck there than most.

There are things that can be consistent, for example the Cubs drafted a bunch of hitters with their high picks because they're easier to predict. That's a strategy not lucking into something.

No, not a little bit. Fully. MLB is easily the hardest to do it in anyway given the (1) massive payroll disparity and (2) long lead time of personnel coming they the development pipeline.


Who said it was “on the back of a bullpen”? We won 89 and 95 games in the AL (!) becasue of a bullpen? Sounds like bull-shit, bro.

The Royals 3 were dominant for several years so the whole Blake Treinen types of comparisons won’t work. They went 22-9 in those playoff runs too, so they dominated the best teams. They very easily could’ve won both WS.


If you want to talk luck here’s my advice: the 14 wild card game and 15 Alds 4

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Sent this last night:<br><br>The tax threshold was $170M in 2010, and $197M in 2018, a jump of 16%. MLB revenue jumped from $6.1B in 2010 to $10.3B in 2018. That’s a 69% jump. If the threshold had moved with revenues, it would have been more than $250M two years ago, and higher today.</p>&mdash; Joe Sheehan (@joe_sheehan) <a href="https://twitter.com/joe_sheehan/status/1204804088455671809?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 11, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The '14 team has a TON of luck in it. A) 89 wins ain't shit in an environment where far too many teams don't even try anymore. B) You said it yourself, the play-in game.

And surely you'll recognize how the Royals style of play could've only worked when they knew full well that the opponent wasn't scoring past the 6th. You give either of those teams merely a GOOD bullpen and they don't win a championship. The '14 team likely doesn't even make the playoffs.

The Royals could be patient and play for 1 run at a time with their low power, low OBP, high speed and high contact offense because they knew in the late innings they were shooting at a fixed target. Whatever number of runs the opponent had, that's how many they were gonna get. The stress that put on teams (who KNEW they had to start hot) and the confidence that gave the Royals (who knew they could just keep chippin' away) was unreal.

That's why the Royals kept breaking prediction models - because nobody had a good way to account for the fundamental ways that their insane bullpen changed the way those games were played. They simply went off script.

And regarding the extended duration - I agree that the Big 3 weren't a Blake Treinen situation, but they also weren't guys who anyone had pegged as studs BEFORE the 2014 season. Nobody was reasonably relying on those 3 guys to set records. Their ascension came from left field and was the central component to both of those pennants.

Or they could just stop ****ing around with all this nonsense and put in hard caps and floors, tie spending to revenue and quit bitching.

I'm just beyond tired of listening to sportwriters carp about the raw deal the players are getting. You have a problem with it, come correct to the negotiating table next time and/or insist on better leadership.

Oh, or be demonstrably BETTER than dudes that cost 1/3 of what you do. Still can't believe I saw someone on Twitter bemoaning the injustice of Kevin Pillar NOT getting $9 million this season.

Any organization that gives Kevin Pillar guaranteed money deserves to be pilloried by baseball Twitter, not saluted. That dude's an out machine and a non-roster invite waiting to happen.

Teams weren’t tanking then. I reject that argument. We have the 3-year win total for the Royals > any other AL team so competitive environment is 100% irrelevant anyway.

The Royals bullpen was T-3 in 2014 in fWAR. 5.6. The other playoff teams were largely in the 4.0+ range. Therefore by math, the Royals picked up 1-2 games on the field that season. Big whoop.

In the playoffs. Not during the season, too many games. And in 14 we had too much garbage like Aaron Crow and Louis Coleman and Tim Collins putting in 100 IP of negative WAR.


If the Big 3 lifted us to 89 wins the Little 3 dragged us from reaching 91.

There are multiple theories on why they beat projections and bullpen over performance is just one of many. And is not conclusively accepted by aabermetricians anyway.


Not to quibble but Holland saved 48 games in 13 and Herrera and Davis were both top rated prospects in their systems that reached mlb quickly and never left.

This deserves bonus points.

I am just tired of listening to teams cry poor, this shit of the Red Sox acting like they can't pay Betts is the most ludicrous shit ever. You are probably turning a 450 million dollar profit every year and you are owned by a billionaire stop trying to convince me you're broke or owning a baseball team is a bad investment, no one believes this bullshit.

The Betts thing is a complete mind-****.

You HAVE to pay that guy. You just have to. He's still plenty young with a profile that should age well and a park perfectly suited to both his strengths and weaknesses. He's on a HoF pace, he's come up through your system, AND YOU'RE LOADED.

And you're gonna tell me that JD Martinez choosing not to opt out (when you could easily eat 20% of his deal and move him) is the reason you can't bring Betts back?

GTFOH with that nonsense.

Betts is the kind of guy you pay. He's a force multiplier who you know works well in your park/system and who has plenty of good baseball ahead of him.

Betts situation = luxury tax driven

The way the richest teams act like the luxury tax is a crippled is just ****ing stupid. And honestly insulting.

You’re the Boston Red Sox. You can’t find ways to cover the luxury tax cost of having one of the five best position players in baseball?

Get the **** out of here.

I haven't followed the Betts situation all that much but I thought the story was that Betts himself had zero interest in discussing an extension and was 100% set on testing the free agent market.

I am not disagreeing. Only adding that it isn’t because they dont think he’s worth it, because it’s highly likely they do.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Anthony Rendon got seven years and $245 million from the Angels, source tells ESPN.</p>&mdash; Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) <a href="https://twitter.com/JeffPassan/status/1204969148448727042?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 12, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

@JeffPassan: Monday: Stephen Strasburg gets $245 million from the Nationals.

Tuesday: Gerrit Cole gets $324 million from the Yankees.

Wednesday: Anthony Rendon gets $245 million from the Angels.

Over three days, Scott Boras negotiated $814 million worth of deals.

Small potatoes compared to the above contracts but Mike Moustakas just got a 4 year $64 M contract too as a client of Scott Boras.

Scott Boras gets 5% of these contracts.

In 2017 and 2018 Boras negotiated $1.88 Billion in contracts for his clients.

Angels prob feel good about Houston losing Cole and asking around about Correa, plus Ver and Greinke are aging. Still, Steamer says adding Rendon makes them only a .500 team

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The game of third base musical chairs shrinks. TEX, ATL, PHI, LAD among the teams in play; Josh Donaldson, Kris Bryant available, with Nolan Arenado a wildcard. Some teams are concerned about Bryant acquisition cost and his arbitration-driven salary next two years -- maybe $45m.</p>&mdash; Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) <a href="https://twitter.com/Buster_ESPN/status/1205099459174109184?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 12, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


And this is why the Royals should be exploring what Doziers value is.

Fascinating to see the about face he pulled this year.

After a decade of slow-playing the hell out of the market, he gets the three biggest deals of the season done before the winter meetings are out. Granted, all 3 are borderline 'Godfather' Deals but still...I think in years past he may have still stretched it out to try to get the Dodgers or Phillies in the mix.

The Strasburg and Cole deals still blow my mind. The Nats just have no reason at all to have made that deal having won their championship and the Yankees were bidding against themselves. Though credit to Boras in one regard, but keeping Rendon on the market he at least left the appearance that Anaheim was in play for Cole and by getting that Strasburg deal done first he bumped the Cole market by probably $50 million.

Still blows my mind how poorly they've operated that squad during Trout's career.

They can't even really blame bad luck - they've just done a shitty job building around the greatest player of the last 50 years or so. It's pretty unbelievable.

Cole got that deal because if you look at the following years of FA there isn't any pitcher like him coming, he may be the last real ace to touch FA for about a 5 year span.

So the White Sox made a deal for Nomar Mazara apparently they're attempting to compete now.

At least we have Detroit to look pathetic with us in the AL Central, although my money is on the Tigers returning to competitive baseball before KC does.

Royals select Stephen Woods Jr. RHP Tampa Bay Triple A
in the rule 5 draft.

I liked Sterling Sharp and thought he might make it to you guys at 4. Marlins snatching him up right ahead of you at 3 is a sneaky good move in an increasingly interesting offseason (for a team that's probably still gonna lose 95+ games)

Figured someone would've grabbed Zach Brown from the Brewers by now. Those starters with some rough edges who have a nice pitch or two and can be tossed into a bullpen role for a season always seem to fly off the board.

I don't get into all the analytical stuff some of you guys do but, in AAA in 2019, he was 9 - 3 with a 1.88 ERA. I like him just for that.