Quote:
Originally Posted by duncan_idaho
Oh my word. Where to start...
First: If top draft picks were all it took to turn a team around, why do teams get stuck in perpetual cycles of suck? It happens.
The MLB draft is a bigger crapshoot than the NFL or NBA. By far. You don’t have very many known quantities.
And the Royals system wasn’t just built on #1 picks. You can’t build a system that way. It was built with good top picks, by nabbing a lot of talent in the later rounds by paying big bonuses to guys drafted later, by bringing in talent from Latin America, and by making good trades.
It also should be noted that he was able to turn that into two WS appearances and a WS title for a small market team. Many GMs have not been able to close the deal on that. He deserves credit for it.
Second (from a previous post of yours)
You can’t say “the Royals haven’t developed any starting pitchers” when Duffy, Ventura and Junis are around. If you want to say they haven’t developed enough of them or high enough quality, OK. But you can’t sum it at zero. It’s inaccurate.
Third:
When the team is not good, it’s going to sign cheap, stop-gap veterans to fill the major league roster. Those guys are going to play a lot and be not good. That’s how it works. And it’s better than short-changing the development frame of players.
People freaked out about Escobar last year. He was signed because they wanted Mondesi to earn the job by actually improving in some areas (health, consistency, approach at plate). All have happened. He’s a better player for having had to return to Omaha and improve.
I’ll close with this:
Moore deserves criticism in some arenas. He hasn’t been perfect. The Infante contract blew up on him. Alex Gordon fell off a cliff 2-3 years before anyone expected it. Ian Kennedy has been a real disaster.
His faith and loyalty to players and staff is a weakness at times (and a strength at others). It’s an issue when it blocks legitimate players they need to play, who are ready (like Dozier and O’Hearn). It’s been an asset many times, too (with Zack Greinke, with Moustakas, Homer, Cain, and Gordon)
The farm system is pointed up. The Royals have moved from a bottom 5 system at this time last year to a top half system that will improve.
And it’s not being done just through big ticket expenses at the top of the draft. It’s being done by changing the profile of guys the Royals go after (they seem to have learned their lesson on the volatile HS pitchers they spent much of the first half of this decade burning draft capital on) and finding more players late in the draft.
This year’s major league team isn’t going to be good. It never was.
A better bullpen and Nicky Lopez might make it a 75 win team instead of a 65-win team. But who cares?
Clearly not many Royals fans, who want to limit conversation to 2014 and 2015 and not talk about the winning season in 2013, and the competitive seasons in 2017 and 2016, in which the team had a chance late.
There are things to watch and want to see happen. Merrifield. Mondesi. Soler. Keller. Junis. Jorge Lopez. The young relievers, when they come up, later.
,
The rest of it really doesn’t matter. F
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You got my 3 cheers but soon the Drama Queen fans and kneejerkers will be here to tell us how much we are wrong!
You are Oh so spot on about the draft, to the uninformed all of our #1's and #2's should be in the majors in 2 years! Boy I wish they could mature and prosper that quick.
Again, props on trying to help explain this to them!