I agree and hope like heck something like that doesn't happen. I love me some Salvador Perez!

We have Shields for a couple more years, correct? Some of the earlier posts in this thread caused me some concern since they gave up so much for him.

He's a FA after 2014.

This is Shields last year, its why we've been talking about how we went all-in for 2013-14.

As far as I'm concerned, if we miss the playoffs this year, then we lost the Wil Myers trade.

The Royals exercised their club option for him for 2014, but he's a free agent afterward. Unlikely that we're able to re-sign him.

How about the Royals offseason grade Duncan?

Are the Royals done until spring training?

We might sign a lower-tier SP for depth. Maybe to compete for #5 in a minor league contract with an invite to spring training. We could probably use a little more injury insurance for our rotation. There's always the chance for a surprise extension of one of our young players, too.

Aside from that though, (given we won't drop huge coin for a #2), I can't think of anything the Royals even need to do, much less can do.

I would give Dayton a B+ for this off season. With potential to bump up if they add another veteran starting pitcher or wisely trade one of Hochevar or Davis.

If we don't make the playoffs this year, its a failure. No way around it.

The twins just signed Kurt Suzuki.

No kidding, I am pissed now. For some reason I though it was a three year deal.

Yep, that was an all-in bet to mortgage the future (Meyer) for now (Shields). 2014 or bust.

So the Royals have Aoki in RF this season...and then he's a FA right? Either way, I would assume that they aren't as worried about Myers because they think Bonifacio might be ready in 2015?

You forget that in a little way, we've already won the World Series.

Yes,that's right.

I could see an extension for Aoki for a year or two. Wouldn't be too expensive, and he's a good player.

I think Bonifacio needs at least two more years. But we will see. Depends on how he starts 2014. If he quickly movess to AAA, he might be ready by 2015.

This is a pretty critical year for Bonifacio.

Hey, if you are all-in then F it, you're all-in. I think its why a lot of us didn't complain about getting only one year of Aoki, whether you agree with it or not, the plan is 2014 or bust.

We'll need to fill RF again in 2015.

If anyone still wants to spend time hatching trade scenarios while we wait the miserable winter out, I've been reminded that we have a high-30's or low-40's draft pick in 2014 that we could trade. Anyone's guess what that is worth. (the new "competitive balance" draft picks in MLB can be traded, and we got one of them in the lottery)

edit: If anyone's wondering, we did well enough last year that the odds we'll get a type-A competitive balance pick in 2015 are going to be very, very low but we'll still have at least some numbers in the lotto simply because we're tiny little Kansas City.

Given the following players are pretty much set in stone:
C Perez
1B Hoz
2B Infante
LF Gordon
CF Cain
DH Butler

You are looking at maybe a corner outfielder, shortstop or third baseman to add a bat to the lineup. You could also look to add a pitcher, but I kind of hope we take a stab at Santana on a one-year deal assuming he doesn't find a suitable suitor.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>A true blue fan &amp; STH for 30+ years has passed away. We thank &quot;Front Row&quot; Dave for his commitment to the <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Royals&amp;src=hash">#Royals</a>. He will truly be missed!</p>&mdash; Kansas City Royals (@Royals) <a href="https://twitter.com/Royals/statuses/414123118924288000">December 20, 2013</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


Pretty sad news today, the Royals have lost one of their most loyal, longtime fans. I don't know if anyone here had personally met him or not, but from the looks of the comments on the Royals facebook page he was an amazing person.

I took a trip down to KC for my first 2 Royals games @ The K this past June. During the second game I see an usher or someone pushing this guy in a wheelchair down the aisle right in front of me, and the friendly, elderly usher who had been talking to me throughout the game looks over to me and mentions how big of a fan this man was. Tells me all about how he had been a season ticket holder for years and years and tells me how he hadn't missed a home game in that time.

RIP Dave
http://scontent-b-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/h...74918601_n.jpg

Sucks to see that guy go. Always saw him at the games, great fan

I'm in, it's the most fun the Royals have been in decades, here's to the WS!

As far as a grade, power hitter, -, rf, +, 2B, =, 3B, =, 1B, =, CF, =, LF,C,=,so, let's talk shortstop...trade material..bring in the perrenial All-Star!

I'm feeling the fever for this year!

Ordered up some Spring Training tickets last night.

Its our year!

Our Time?

Bout time!

See post #9

http://www.chiefsplanet.com/BB/showp...41&postcount=9

Let's play the speculation game for a minute and assess the possibilities the Blue Jays present:

Lawrie would be my favorite target. But you could also have Bautista, Rasmus or Dickey in there. Maybe AJ Jiminez as a backup to Salvy-type option.... Assess the possiblities - go.

This time?

About time.

Vader time!

Choo signed with the Rangers for 7/130.

On the surface, it looks like Boras cost his client 10 million (Yankees offered 7/140 before signing Beltran), but it might be fine if they really believed the Yankees weren't going to be very good, while the Rangers are clearly going to be competitive.

edit: having half his games in Texas instead of New York could make it equal value though, due to state income taxes.

18.5/year for 7 years seems like a lot for Choo. I know he is consistent and is a good fielder, and he will be playing in that ballpark, but it just seems like they overpaid. I could just be out of touch with what players are worth now.

I'd much rather have Choo at that contract than what the Yankees gave Ellsbury.

He'll be really productive in Texas.

Choo will be a great add in that lineup an ballpark.

Like di said, rather that than ellsbury

Dude walked 112 times last year... and was beaned 26 times. He had a .423 OBP. That's ridiculously good.... 20/20 player with great defense... a career .853 OPS guy. I don't think that's overpaying him at all.

He's pretty solid.

He's really good against righties, but not too good against lefties.

He OPS'ing 1.011 against righties, but only a .612 against lefties.

Mike Moustakas is doing better in winter ball - .288 avg, 15 games, 59 AB, 3 HRs, .525 SLG, .884 OPS.

Seriously, if Moose can just be respectable at the plate and Butler hits as he did before last year, I see no reason we won't win the AL Central this year.

Salvador Perez - .305 AVG, 27 games, 118 AB, 1 HR, .415 SLG, .754 OPS.
Emilio Bonifacio - .277 AVG, 16 games, 65 AB, 0 HR, .323 SLG, .652 OPS, 4 SB.
Christian Colon - .284 AVG, 22 games, 88 AB, 1 HR, .386 SLG, .713 OPS, 3 SB.
Francisco Pena - .242 AVG, 35 games, 91 AB, 2 HR, .385 SLG, .658 OPS.

I think Pena and Pina will be the catchers in Omaha and Brett Hayes is the backup in KC.


http://mlb.mlb.com/milb/stats/org.jsp?id=kc&y=2013

Some of the pitching stats are interesting…
They have Francisley Bueno starting. Ryan Verdugo has done pretty well with 4 -1 record, 40 innings and 3.32 ERA.

Who is Spencer Patton for KC? 25 innings, 10 saves, 0.72 ERA, 32 Ks. That seems impressive even for winter ball.

Looked up Spencer Patton and found the story below.

For the Naturals, Spencer had a 1.50 ERA in 12 games, 18 innings with 27 SO.

After that weekend, I'm really looking forward to some baseball.

Come on fast spring training.

At this point, if we make no other moves then our opening day payroll will be about $94,150,000.

Last year it was a little under 82MM. So, as expected, DM's comment that our 2014 payroll would be about the same as last year was a bunch of hogwash.

Yeah. I was surprised that Guthrie was the 2nd highest contract for the Royals. That made me cringe a little, but on the other hand, Guthrie has been a solid pitcher, so it's a wash.

It will be interesting to see how the Royals will handle the arbitration eligible players.

That's just because they backloaded his deal. You have to look at contracts from an aav lens.

Looking forward to meeting up with some CPers at some games. :thumb:

Spring Training?!!!

FANTASY CAMP!

ROFL

I suspect that the market for starting pitchers will now be figured out, as Tanaka is being posted to the MLB clubs.

Read more here at http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/10...baseball-teams

I think I told you this -- but, my fiancée mentioned something about wanting to go to spring training and it was out of nowhere.

So, we will definitely be doing that one year for sure.

So now that posting is capped at 20M, would it be worth it to take a stab at a guy like tanaka? I mean, 6/56+20M seems pretty good if you get a guy like Darvish.

I mean, just for arguments sake, let's say that it happened. You've basically just improved the window for 2014 and extended it through 2020.

2014
Shields
Tanaka
Guthrie
Vargas
Duffy

2015
Tanaka
Guthrie
Vargas
Duffy
Ventura

2016-2019
Tanaka
Ventura
Duffy (FA in 2018)
Zimmer
Vargas (FA in 2018)

Looks like he'll get much more/year than that.

But he probably is worth the money.

Can the Royals spend more money ?

Can they? Yes. Will they? They will try their best not to. ;)

As a fan, I don't give a shit if they go bankrupt. Look how that turned out for the dodgers.

Sure they can. But CPers know how to spend other peoples money the best.

Glass claimed his break-even point was $70 million in 2013. Which was ludicrously low. But if you're working with those figures, They have "spent" the extra TV money already (as they're at $92 million, likely, after arbitration).

However, it's likely the true break even point in 2013 for the MLB club is in the range of $80-85 million. If that's true, then they could conceivably make a play for Tanaka. But that play is also extremely risky for a small market club. You'd have to be pretty damn certain he was going to translate his success as well as Yu Darvish. Handing out a 15-18 million/year contract would be a disaster if Tanaka translates more along the Daisuke Matsuzaka lines than Darvish lines.

I was just looking at Darvish and figuring the deal would be similar. However, thinking economically, you are probably correct in that now, instead of that extra ~30M going to post, it will probably go to the player.

The 1969 highlight movie for the Royals -their first year- is on You Tube. Cool!
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/V54PyKTjM-o" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

So this guy could get 6/90 if the extra posting money goes to the player?

Olney has the Royals offense rated the 9th best in 2014.

in MLB or in the AL?

Link? ESPNinsider?

Fun to watch.

I would love it if the Royals took a shot at Tanaka.

Some GMs seem to think he'll get $100 million or more.

The limit of $20 million isn't the only change to the posting system. Teams now can negotiate with players before paying the posting fee.

So, basically, you negotiate with him like he's a free agent, with the understanding that you will owe his old team $20 million if he signs with you.

In the old system, team submitted silent posting bids, and the winning team has exclusive negotiating rights. LImited the market and the cost for the player.

So in theory, we could negotiate with him.

It would be awesome if they did somehow land him. He's only 25, so a six year deal takes him straight through his prime. Plus he's on the backside of the injury apex. However, his arm has been abused, so maybe his value will depend on the credence given to pitch counts and their relationship to injury.

From ESPN Insider

9th in all of baseball


9. Kansas City Royals

Their window to win is right now, and GM Dayton Moore augmented his lineup in two troublesome spots. He paid top-of-the-market dollars to sign Omar Infante to fill in at second base and traded for Norichika Aoki to be the leadoff man, which allows Ned Yost to move Alex Gordon to somewhere in the middle of the lineup.

This could be a dynamic lineup, with power and speed and depth, but so much of the Royals’ season will depend on the development of their best young players -- like the 24-year-old Eric Hosmer, who had a very good second half in 2013, and third baseman Mike Moustakas, who enters an extremely important year in his career after posting an OPS of .651 last season. Salvador Perez has a unique ability to square up a ball, but needs patience; last year, he had 41 extra-base hits, 21 walks and just 63 strikeouts in 526 plate appearances. This is a big year too for Billy Butler, one of baseball’s last full-time DHs; he hit into a league-high 28 double plays last season, while his slugging percentage dropped about 100 points.

My guess is that the improved depth of the lineup helps all of them, and the Royals become a strong offensive team. But that’s hardly a sure thing.

Here's another one.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/0VJWW7qK-aI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

More fun to watch. Thanks.

But 7th in the AL. He's also got the Tigers and Indians ranked ahead of the Royals.

Alnorth and duncan - weigh in: Is tanaka worth the risk?

Yes, but he's going to get overpaid to the point that teams like KC will not stand a chance.

I just watched a youtube clip... While his fastball does have some run to it, if he tries to put it in the upper part of the zone over here, I suspect he will get shelled. But his splitter is bananas. He also appears to be able to throw a nice slider.

For KC?

I don't think so. The guy is going to get paid. 6-7 years, $100+ million, plus an additional $20 million to his NBL team. The Angels, Yankees are both heavily involved in bidding, apparently.

He might very well be worth that sort of contract. But KC can't afford to take that sort of albatross risk.

Tanaka is just average height (Likely 6-0 or 6-1) and isn't a huge velocity guy (sits around 91). He DOES have a very nice slider and a great splitter.

I'm just not as convinced his success translates to the big leagues. I see a lot more Daisuke Matsuzaka (control guy who throws a lot of pitches but doesn't haven't dynamite stuff) than Yu Darvish.

Tanaka's posting could help the Royals indirectly.

I would assume that his entrance into the MLB FA market knocks all the other starters...Garza, Santana down a notch.

And with Santana coming with draft pick compensation, the odds of him settling for less go up. Slightly.