This is what Mondesi is on pace for after the game

20 HR 180 hits 35 2B 25 3B 135 RBI 50 SB 35 BBs

He only needs 4 more walks to tie the amount of walks he had last year. He's increased his walk rate from 4.0% of his ABs to 5.2% of his ABs.

Also I bet we see his power numbers go up once the weather starts to warm up. He could legit have 30 HRs, 30 Doubles, 25 Triples, and 50-60 SBs. That's never been done before, hell 30 HR/50 SB has only been done twice, Barry Bonds 1990 and Eric Davis 1987. So if Mondesi pulls that kinda year he will win MVP right? I'm so glad I invested in some of his rookie and 1st Bowman cards before the season started.

Bullpen has gotten better. Kennedy is actually a better reliever then Davis was lol

No he's not

I mean stats don’t lie

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Wade Davis&#39; ERA for the Royals as a reliever: 1.17<br><br>Ian Kennedy&#39;s ERA for the Royals as a reliever: 1.15</p>&mdash; Rany Jazayerli (@jazayerli) <a href="https://twitter.com/jazayerli/status/1123685302026014720?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 1, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

You're right, so that must mean Kelvin GutIerrez is better than George Brett!

Gutierrez BA - .333 OPS - .868
George Brett BA - .305 OPS - .857

KG will be a HoF! He already has a better BA and OPS than the Royals best player of all time! Well 2nd best player now!

Man if Gutierrez can be a HOF that’s a steal but somehow Owings will still play everyday

There's no way you actually believe this.

Rays dumped Evan Longoria before his age 33 season to SF. He was owed 5/89 on his deal. He has been replacement level in SF and might just be done, batting .244 last year and .206 this year. That’s how you run small market teams.


Instead, we ate monster contracts of Alex, Duffy, Kennedy, etc. and I’ve already mentioned the wasted cash on other retreads the last 5 years (Chris Young, Hammel, on and on)

I think he might actually believe it.

DM isn't very good at this GM thing. He caught lightning in a bottle and now everyone just loves the guy.

God Bless Chris Young and Gordo for their roles in our World Series win though.

Because of the family mentality here that outweighs everything else. I'm sure the 5 Rays fans in existence threw a fit when Longoria was traded but it's the right move.

The biggest difference between the two is Tampa has succeeded in building a consistently productive farm system. They’re really peerless when it comes to developing pitchers.

The salary dump of Longoria was effective in freeing up payroll but that’s really all I see there. Arroyo is a meh prospect and the other two players were fillers. Don’t see a comparable to the Royals players you mention, really.

Duffy was a pending FA with one year of control they were able to nab for 13 million/year for ages 28-32. That’s traditionally been the prime production for many SP, and he was coming off a 3-year run where he averaged more than 3 wins a year (or about twice the Free Market value he received in AAV).

Gordon and Kennedy were signed to try to extend the window. Those moves failed but are very philosophically different than trading Longoria.

The Rays are incredibly well-run, no doubt it.

They also haven’t had a GM who was been wiling or able to go get a piece or two to complete their roster for a playoff run when needed.

This year, will they have the ability to use a Libertore or Nate Lowe to go get a missing piece if they need it?

Will they hang on to players to maximize contention windows, or continue to move them a year or two before FA?

It is a funny thing with the Royals fan base and where it stands now. It seems like there's a large group who thinks Glass is cheap and doesn't spend money and another group who thinks the team has been financially irresponsible and spent too much money and needs to be operated like a small market team.

I actually don't think the family thing is as big of a deal as recent history. Dayton was well aware of the Royals reputation before he came on board of how you can't root for this team because they don't sign any of their players, and he's probably paid for that. Even when they were winning he'd mention that in interviews. There would have been outrage if we didn't sign our All Star LF right after two straight World Series appearances, for instance.

I don't believe the Rays have ever had anywhere near a $100 million payroll though, let alone $150 million, so it's hard to compare them to the Royals. If they actually had money to spend it's entirely possible they would have given out a couple bad contracts if they were allowed to sign free agents. We just don't know. Dayton has had much more money to spend and as a result, he has made a few signings that didn't pan out. He made a bet to try and win in a certain window. When we look back you might make the argument that he should have just tried to sign Hosmer, Moose and Cain and tried to build around that with young guys and inexpensive free agents. It might have not helped in 2016-17 but maybe would have kept us competitive in the long run. It also could have kept us in .500 purgatory too though. The biggest difference between Dayton and teams like Pittsburgh and Tampa is when Dayton has had a shot he really went for it.

If we win this one, it would be called a "winning streak" . It has happened before.