He’s not on the 40-man, so they’d have to add him to that. He passed through waivers last year and we re-signed, so I believe they have full options on him and complete control, just have re-set the clock on it. I’ll dig into that later today if I have time.

You can consider him house money, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t still have a development curve that should be observed. If they think he’s close to ready and needs to progress in a few areas, it makes sense to me to wait a little longer.

He’s not hitting for much power at present and last year’s sample was really small. We’re talking about 200 ABs, basically.

So, if they brought up Starling, do they send Gore back down? Do we still have options left with Gore? I don't see them cutting Hamilton. He's insurance if Starling whiffs with his tryout. Your thoughts?

Would essentially have to dfa or waive someone to bring bubba up.

The easier approach (if they're sticking to their guns on being a speed team) would be to keep Gore and Hamilton and deep six Owings, send Gutierrez back down and then release Duda once he's re-activated. That frees up two spots on both the 25/40 man. Lopez and Starling are free to be promoted at that point.

Question is, who? Gore?

Interesting, but you think they are going to keep 5+ OF's on the 25-Man, especially when you consider the fact that Whit will most likely be moving to RF?

I'm not necessarily confident this is what they will do...but rather what they could do. They've kept 5 OF's before. Again...if they're keeping their philosophy of speed, it's less about a guy like Gore being a 5th outfielder and more about him being a specialty player that pinch runs. Hamilton would be the 4th OF and Soler is mainly a DH at that point. As it is, Soler is a RF/DH and Gore is the 4th outfielder. I like my approach better because it makes a more flexible roster. w/ less "suck" at the bottom of the lineup. Plus, Duda, Gore and Gallagher is spectacularly inflexible as a bench.

Starling's not on your 40 man, is he?

You can't bring him up unless you're extra, super sure that he's ready. Because to do so you'd have to put him back on the 40. And if you do that, he's out of options so if he's not ready to go, you've got to outright him off the roster again to try to sneak him back down.

The Royals are working without a net on Starling at this point.

And while the reduced K rate is nice - what is it you're actually seeing with Bubba right now? His power appears to have just evaporated so he's clearly made an approach change where he's traded power for contact. That's not a bad idea in his case but then again, his walk rate is merely adequate and he's always been a solid but unspectacular threat on the bases.

So you're seeing a low power, BABIP dependent offensive approach with nominal contributions on the basepaths by a guy who's taking his fourth shot at AAA and is overaged. And that BABIP is an absurd .460ish right now. Let's give him a 'good speed' BABIP of .330 and suddenly he's sporting a .270 BA with an OBP around .315 and a SLG% of .370. That's good for an OPS of .685 for a player with a career AAA OPS of .655. It's also exactly the OPS he put up in his last extended run in AAA.

I mean, I was a huge fan of Bubba and wanted to see him do well for you guys because his story is a great one going all the way back to when he was drafted. But this is EXCLUSIVELY a BABIP binge. Most everything else looks damn near identical to his 2017 season in Omaha.

I think you need to see quite a bit more before you add him to the 40. There are too many alarm bells here, IMO.

Ah, it appears you answered my question.

I don't think you can 're-set' option years. My recollection is that once they're gone, they're gone. But if you DO have options on him, that makes the decision quite a bit easier.

There's always a spot or two on a 40 man; they're never as packed as GM's trying to manipulate service time would have you believe. So getting him a 40 man spot (after Lopez, who's far more deserving) should be easy. If he fails and you can option him back down, so be it.

I am also scared shitless that this organization will send Gutierrez back down once Duda comes back. Duda needs to be sent his walking papers. Owings needs to be DFA in June or whenever Nicky Lopez service time is accrued so he can come up. And Hamilton needs to be traded for whatever the **** you can get by middle summer.

There is also no reason Gore should being paid to play baseball except on a contending team, with expanded rosters to steal bases ONLY.

That AAA juiced ball is fun!

It's right up there with Brett's smash off Gossage in 1980

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According to roster resource, Starling has no options, which means he would have to pass through waivers again to be retained if they call him up and it doesn’t work.

All the more reason to keep him down longer.

Re: what he brings to the table, you’re talking about a 60-65 glove (have repeatedly been told he is a better version of Lorenzo Cain defensively) and someone who has the speed and baserunning ability to nab 20+ bags. He adds some value with his legs.

I haven’t seen him enough to break down swing/approach changes, and I don’t think any scouts have been published on that. His problem has always been with breaking balls, and it wasn’t just trying to do too much with them. It was inability to recognize, lay-off, or handle them.

If he’s changed swing plane or setup or something to better handle them, some of the XB pop could return as he becomes more comfortable there.

Or, as DJ points out, it could just be a BABIP-driven mirage that will stabilize and regress to norm.

All reasons to give it more time.

For me Watson first, then George. Being baseball he can have George's spot if he gets 2 championships.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Bryce Harper spotting at Q39</p>&mdash; Awful AnnouncingKC (@awfulannouncKC) <a href="https://twitter.com/awfulannouncKC/status/1126653624640081921?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 10, 2019</a></blockquote>
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