*** Official 2019 Kansas City Royals Repository ***

[Mama Hip Rockets]

Get the offseason thread out of here. It's on!

Opening day roster:

Catchers (2): Cam Gallagher, Martin Maldonado

Infielders (7): Hunter Dozier, Lucas Duda, Whit Merrifield, Adalberto Mondesi, Ryan O’Hearn, Chris Owings, Frank Schwindel

Outfielders (4): Alex Gordon, Terrance Gore, Billy Hamilton, Jorge Soler

Starting pitchers (3): Jakob Junis, Brad Keller, Jorge Lopez

Relief pitchers (9): Scott Barlow, Brad Boxberger, Jake Diekman, Chris Ellis, Tim Hill, Ian Kennedy, Kevin McCarthy, Wily Peralta, Kyle Zimmer

Injured list: Danny Duffy, Brian Flynn, Jesse Hahn, Salvador Perez

Suspended: Eric Skoglund

[BlackHelicopters]

GDT?

[Prison Bitch]

Originally Posted by BlackHelicopters

GDT?

I thjnk everyone agrees this g*damn team is struggling.

[MAHOMO 4 LIFE!]

Originally Posted by Prison Bitch

I thjnk everyone agrees this g*damn team is struggling.

Until we get a win no GdT is going up

[MAHOMO 4 LIFE!]

Just think we’d be 8-4 with a decent bullpen

[PHOG]

Thank goodness Ned found a spot for fan favorite Chris Owings.

[zigbazah]

Can't wait to watch Owings put his gritty intangibles to good use in the outfield.

[BWillie]

Alex Gordon.

Current AL MVP.

[SPchief]

Originally Posted by Jerok

Going to the Royals game, it will be my 4 1/2 month old daughter's first Royals game. We'll be in aisle seats near home dugout. I fully expect a win today, damnit.

Why would you ever take a 4 1/2 month old to a game? This is just bizzare to me

[suzzer99]

I always felt like Gordon would have a resurgence. He just works too hard. We'll see how long it lasts.

If you're going to give anyone a long term contract imo it should be someone like that with work ethic coming out the wazoo.

[tk13]

Originally Posted by suzzer99

I always felt like Gordon would have a resurgence. He just works too hard. We'll see how long it lasts.

If you're going to give anyone a long term contract imo it should be someone like that with work ethic coming out the wazoo.

I'm pretty sure that was the thinking when they did it in the first place. The guy is probably going to be in better shape at 45 than most people at 35.

It's definitely helped him maintain as an elite defender, which is something the Royals obviously value more than most teams. It's not going to feel right when he's not the left fielder anymore.

[dlphg9]

Originally Posted by duncan_idaho

You appear to be placing NFL draft expectations on the MLB draft. That doesn’t work.

Moore’s draft success with 1st round picks, in totality, is pretty average for MLB GMs. As I’ve said before, a GM in KC needs to be better than average at drafting or the team will suffer.

Let’s start with the worst picks:
Colon, Starling, and Russell

Even in this triumvirate of suck, only one (Colon) was questionable at the time. Starling was expected to go 2nd overall until draft day and slipped to 5. He was a tremendous athlete who had success as part of the national team. And local. He has been a bust (this far, still sticking it out at Omaha and seeing some success). Russell was the top HS pitcher in his draft, who inexplicably lost it once a pro.

Zimmer: Just flat-out shitty luck he couldn’t stay healthy. The guy was exactly what they thought he could be (next Verlander) until his body fell apart. Still may get good value out of him out of the bullpen.

Finnegan, Manaea: Traded for key pieces in a WS winner. Who gives a **** what they did afterwards? They were cashed in for huge value.

Dozier was a top 10 pick, but only because of them taking a safer sign to save money for Manaea. That wasn’t a case of taking best player available. His value will always be tied to Manaea, so this is a + for me.

Chase Vallot, Foster Griffin, Nolan Watson:
All were comp picks at the end of the first round. The Royals swing big on projectable Hs arms and got burned with Griffin and Watson (and Russell, too).

The failures in 15 with Watson and Russell seem to have changed the Royals draft strategy. They’ve moved away from those projectable HS guys since, which is a good thing for hit rates.

It’s way too early to say anything about Prato, other than he was good last year and still on track to be a good player. He’s in the next 100-250 of prospect lists and could pop into the top 100 with a good season. His defensive position will always hurt him there.

What’s the point? You gotta apply MLB expectations and context.

The Royals have done really well in the past two drafts. They need a few more really good ones to get things built up. They need to nail this year’s pick and add some premium talent to the system. I think they’ll do that.

The system isn’t shitty. It’s a top 20ish system a year after being bottom 3, with the arrow pointed up and likely to add a top 100 player in the draft.

You can't tell me all of that about it being too early to judge and then tell me that they did really well in the last 2 drafts. I never really cared for Finnegan, but even if I thought he was great I wouldn't be upset because of what we got back for him. The one thing that really bothers me about those trades is that we kept Almonte over Manaea.

The Royals have ruined tons of talented pitching prospects. You'd think just pure luck would allow one pitcher to be good.

I think the farm system is definitely shitty. Our top prospect is someone that didn't even pitch an inning of pro baseball last year. With our track record of ruining pitchers im trying not to get too excited about Singer, although I do like him alot. It took us having the best farm system in all of baseball and one of the best bull pens ever to win a WS. I just don't see us having a farm system like that in the next 5 years. I can almost say im 100% positive we will never see a bullpen like that.

It just sucks because we are going to waste Whits best years and Mondesi is going to be signing a $300+ million contract with the Dodgers the first chance he gets. If im the Royals im offering him a 10 yr $150 million contract at the end of the year if he keeps this up. Lock him up for as long as possible lol.

[duncan_idaho]

Originally Posted by dlphg9

You can't tell me all of that about it being too early to judge and then tell me that they did really well in the last 2 drafts. I never really cared for Finnegan, but even if I thought he was great I wouldn't be upset because of what we got back for him. The one thing that really bothers me about those trades is that we kept Almonte over Manaea.

The Royals have ruined tons of talented pitching prospects. You'd think just pure luck would allow one pitcher to be good.

I think the farm system is definitely shitty. Our top prospect is someone that didn't even pitch an inning of pro baseball last year. With our track record of ruining pitchers im trying not to get too excited about Singer, although I do like him alot. It took us having the best farm system in all of baseball and one of the best bull pens ever to win a WS. I just don't see us having a farm system like that in the next 5 years. I can almost say im 100% positive we will never see a bullpen like that.

It just sucks because we are going to waste Whits best years and Mondesi is going to be signing a $300+ million contract with the Dodgers the first chance he gets. If im the Royals im offering him a 10 yr $150 million contract at the end of the year if he keeps this up. Lock him up for as long as possible lol.

I’d said it’s too early on Prato to say anything other than... early returns on those two drafts are really positive. It’s not too early to say that.

Singer didn’t pitch in pro ball last year because of his work load at UF as they drove through the college season. He threw a lot of innings last year and they rested him.

The concept of TINSTAAPP exists for a reason. You say the Royals have ruined a bunch of prospects. Like who? Let’s not act like they’ve had a series guys taken at the top end who were ready made and never panned out. HS pitchers bust at the highest rate because of how much development they have left. They have the highest upside for the same reason. KC has moved away from those types since the Watson/Griffin disaster draft.

They also have developed 3 good pitchers in Junis, Duffy, and Ventura. They haven’t developed a true ace, but that’s ****ing hard to do. The early work with Keller has been great, too.

Re: the system overall, I think you’re just way too pessimistic and not thinking about how great systems are built. It’s a top 20 system preseason with very few players who will graduate to the majors.theyre going to add a surefire top 100 player with one of Rutschman, Vaughn, or Witt in the draft and are positioned to add additional quality talent. Once IFA opens on July 2, they’re expected to sign one of the premium talents there as well. That’s two elite talents filtering in, which will raise the system ranking quite a bit. Add one more draft where they’re picking high in 2020, and by the 2021 preseason rankings, you’re looking at a system that will again have the depth and high end talent to be considered a top 5, elite system.

Will it hit the 2011 Royals system ranking. Maybe not, but it does t have to for them to compete again. Not all contenders have to be built based on “deepest system ever” starting blocks.

The 2011 Royals didn’t have a pair of young SPs with the combination of youth and early success as Junis and Keller, either, or a guy with budding superstar upside talent at SS.

[duncan_idaho]

I think someone a while back asked about 2020 draft prospects. It’s still way early, but there are several college pitchers who would be in contention for top 5 pick status, where the Royals will almost assuredly be picking. He’s an early breakdown, borrowing f from Fangraphs and PerfectGame:

HS guys

I won’t talk about arms right now because so much can change based on hs seasons, but OF Dylan Crews and Austin Hedrick look worthwhile to watch. Crews is considered a very advanced approach guy, perhaps the most advanced approach in the draft. When that’s said about a HS hitter, it’s worth paying attention to. Hendrik is a little older for the draft class but has the best power projection.

College guys
There’s not a Rutschman or Vaughn-look bat here (right now), but there are a pair of RHp at Georgia (Emerson Hancock and Cole Wilcox) who look like top 5-10 guys and fit KC’s profile.

I’ll probably be out most of the next 2-3 days. I’m in NYC with Mrs. Idaho for a kid-free get away. Let’s go Royals in the meantime...

[Demonpenz]

I like vaughn. Could be the next mike sweeney

[MAHOMO 4 LIFE!]

What do Mike Trout, Cody Bellinger, Anthony Rendon and Christian Yelich have in common? They’re the only position players in baseball with more fWAR than 35-year-old Alex Gordon.

How Gordon has turned back time: https://t.co/Q7siQN7OsU

— Rustin Dodd (@rustindodd) April 13, 2019