ETA on Ventura's TJ surgery: Spring 2014

Wherever he is, I doubt he's walking much.

No, it will happen midseason. That's the way these things go for the Royals.

JJ Cooper tweeted a bit last night about the Royals' cookie cutter approach to SPs. Trying to rubber stamp that fastball/curveball/changeup/clean mechanics look.

I think that's why guys like Crow and now - apparently - Zimmer have struggled with deception so much. Both have great stuff, throw hard, have GREAT secondary pitches (not exaggerating - Zimmer's curve and Crow's slider were both PLUS major league pitches when they were drafted) and K rates, but get hit so often.

This organization is clearly behind the times when it comes to the way it develops its players. Which really shouldn't surprise me, considering that they're behind the times on everything else.

I think they do a good job identifying talent and scouting. But the development guys have failed, en masse.

What it creates? Minor league prospects that scouts love, but who have trouble translating their tools to MLB success.

They "cleaned up" Tim Collins, and he's gone from nearly unhittable to average. Part of his success was the unorthodox nature of his mechanics; he hid the ball incredibly well before they changed him.

edit: so what I wrote above was my perception of his performance so far this year, but looking at the numbers......he's been about the same as usual. One noticeable difference is his K rate, which I'd still argue has dropped because he's lost some deception.

There's irony, too, in the "clean mechanics" approach not helping prevent Tommy John surgery in guys like Duffy and Lamb.

Part of the issue with Collins is that Ned Yost doesn't know how to use him.

Yost looks at him and sees a LHP with good stuff. What he doesn't see is that Collins is more effective against RHPs in his career than against LHPs. Better strikeout rate, fewer walks, better BAA, lower OPS.

Collins DID have some mechanical issues that needed work. THe extreme leg kick made it hard for him to repeat mechanics. They managed to reduce it without reducing his deception.

I know Eiland isn't against stuff like that. Look at the slight trunk rotation he had guthrie adopt when he got here, which increased his deception factor.

And organizationally, Zack Greinke adopted the same thing (on his own, I assume) shortly before he took off as a strikeout pitcher.

Yes. Those guys were probably destined for TJ regardless of what the Royals did... but both are more natural slider throwers, IMO. Sometimes, an arm that can take throwing sliders can't take throwing curveballs (And vice versa). That's why cookie cutter is bad...

Dayton spent $30 million buying the top 3 o his rotation from others. Wow what a talented scout he must be to do that!!!! If he hadn't they would probably be headed for 95 losses again since he developed nobody on his own.


But he did buy pitching. If only Baird was allowed to cover his failures like Dayton is.

Can you please elaborate a little further on this? First I've heard of it

Just eight clubs have failed to make the playoffs since he was hired in May 2006, and the Royals are the lone team in the group that hasn’t made a GM change.

If Kansas City fails to advance to the postseason in 2013, Moore will have one of the five longest GM tenures without a playoff appearance in the last two decades. Former Royals GM Herk Robinson leads that list with nine playoff-less seasons.


http://www.baseballamerica.com/minor...ospects-14339/

I still think Baird was a decent baseball man.

Smarter people than David Glass have trusted him. Glass just gave him absolutely no chance to succeed.

It's looking now like that's precisely the case.

I threw in the towel last week. I'm sure I will be waiting until hell freezes over, but I won't get back to being the same fan I used to be until the Glass Family sells the Franchise to an Owner that actually gives a flip about winning.

It sucks. I have 2 Son's that have NO INTEREST in the Royals. NONE. I have tried to get them into this team, but they've been an absolute joke their entire lives. Makes me sick to think that I couldn't find a shred of a silver lining for them to hang on to. :deevee:

Did not know Francoeur helped get Seitzer fired. Is this true?

It's based off of radio interviews with Seitzer and Moore right after they fired him.

Moore cited Seitzer's inability to get Hosmer and Francoeur going as reasons for the move.

Seitzer also provided some hilarious insight on "Team leader" Jeff Francoeur throwing him and Billy Butler under the bus.