Most of the rule V draft is now complete.

In the MLB phase, the Royals took Nathan Adcock from the Pirates. Very young player, 22 years old, he finished last season in advanced single-A. He struggled as a starter his first 2 years, but had a breakout season last year with a 3.38 ERA, 113 K, 38 BB, ~3 K/BB, 0.5 HR/9, 1.196 WHIP.

There is no way in hell this kid is ready to start in the majors, but the Royals probably think they can hide him in the bullpen all year, then I assume send him back down to the high minors to see if his future is as a starter or relief.

The Royals lost no one in the MLB phase.

In the AAA phase, the Royals took Heath Rollins from Tampa Bay and lost Rowdy Hardy. Its not hard to keep a kid in AAA all year, so Hardy is basically gone, which is fine because he was a very marginal prospect.

Rollins is a AAA relief pitcher who has been throwing about a 4-5 ERA, and his K/BB ratio is not good. He has bounced around the minors for 5 years, and his stats have never been remotely good enough to break through to the majors. Not sure what the Royals see in him, but what the hell, its just a AAA spot.

He's mediocre and always has been. Do we really need to see a 600 AB season for him at 29 years old to conclude that he's not that good?

And don't get me wrong, I'm not expecting an All Star game appearance for Cabrera this season. But I think his upside and ability to play all three OF positions makes him demonstrably better than Maier.

I bet we'll try to work out a deal with Pittsburgh to keep him and send him to the minors for cash.

I'm not overrating Maier (that's DeezNutz's job :D ). In my mind he's a 4th or 5th OF.

As for WAR, someone correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that affected by playing time? So you're comparing Melky's 500+ at bats a year to Maier's 400.

I look at the percentages and I see similar players -- nearly identical OBP, and Cabrera has a small edge in power. But that's very relative, considering that Melky doesn't really have much power. It's like saying Maier has more power than Blanco.

Furthermore, given the most at-bats he's had so far, Maier last year put up an OPS+ of 94, which is right in line with Melky's career bests of 93 and 95.

If you want to argue that Melky is better than Maier, fine. But my response is: Shrug. So what? It's marginal. I don't see much upside in a guy who's spent 5 full seasons in the bigs doing the same thing year after year. Sure, he COULD break out. If you throw enough shit against the wall, something is bound to stick at some point.

So in that sense, I'll fall back to my original position: I don't see this as a move that hurts the Royals, I just don't see it helping. I see it as redundant. And I'll reiterate, it's not because I value Maier, it's because I just don't see much in Melky.

Given his performance in CF, I think he would offer the club above-average defense in RF and adequate (though definitely well below expectations for a corner outfielder) production at the plate.

In short, I think he'd be better than Frenchy.

Edit: And I agree with siberian. DM seems to go out of his way to find players who replicate what we already have (or in some cases, Kendall, are worse).

From Royals Review:

http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/8417/daytmoorequis.png

Maier is pretty ****ing bad. I'd rather we had Emil back, than any of our current OF's.
Posted via Mobile Device

We'll give you Brendan Ryan for him....

I'm with sk on this one.

I don't have a major problem with either signing. I just don't get why we need either one of those two. We have plenty of crappy OF's in our system already. Why sign two more of the same shit? Seriously, Moore looks completely reeruned as it relates to FA acquisitions. For the most part, I have no issue with his drafting or development of prospects. However, he has been absolutely abysmal at Free Agency.

What has he done in his minor league career to warrant a full-time starting job?

You say he hasn't gotten a shot, but look at his track record. The guy has gotten far more ABs and a far stronger shot at a job than most anyone I can think of with as mediocre a minor league career as he's had.

And with that pedigree, he needed to go out there and sieze his opportunities. He hasn't done that. He's been the same middling player that he's always been. If the guy is playing to his projections in limited use, and those projections aren't very good, why does he deserve greater exposure?

Maier got a shot. He got a far better shot than most will ever get and he simply didn't do anything with it.

Melky's a more talented player. He's younger and he has a far better track record. Like it or not, your OF is much improved over where it was 36 hours ago. And even if both Frenchy and Melky suck, you're not out anything other than the chance to throw another 300 ABs at a guy that's both older and less accomplished than either of those players.

Eazyb is right - if Maier is released by the Royals, he'll never get another ML at bat.

What's it hurt to sign a couple of 26 year olds who have had some major league success to one year deals? Maybe one of them turns into Carlos Pena, as someone mentioned earlier. These aren't "losing" free agent moves. I like both of these better than Matt Diaz for 2 years at $8M. There isn't much out there in the bargain bin; we signed two 26 year olds with some semblance of upside for one year. If neither work out, no big deal, move on to the prospects in our system.

I guess the Meche disaster means that we are back to signing the chuch knoblochs of the world

rule V draft is done. We did not select anyone else other than those two pitchers this morning. In the AAA phase we also lost a pitcher I never heard of (Starling De La Rosa) to Texas.

Zack Greinke-S- Royals Dec. 9 - 3:57 pm et


Jon Heyman of SI.com reports that the Royals are trying to involve the Yankees in talks for Zack Greinke.
Meanwhile, the Yankees are hesitant to risk having him in New York City. Greinke has struggled with anxiety issues in the past and had the Yankees on his no-trade list this past season. According to Heyman, the Rangers, Brewers, Nationals, Dodgers and Blue Jays are currently "deep in the mix" for the ace-right-hander.
Source: Jon Heyman on Twitter
Related: Yankees

If true, we obviously covet Jesus Montero (the Yankees 5-star catching prospect)

If the reports were true, I would have moved Soria last season for Montero and another piece or two.

FYP

Honestly Montero is a great hitting prospect but I'm not sure where he fits in on our squad.

I know you mainly want to acquire top talent and let it all work out but I'm not sure that is the best strategy considering how advanced our top hitting prospects are.

Assuming he stays at C. The Yankees are talking about letting him challenge for the starting job in the spring, but who knows how much of that is legit and how much might be propaganda to boost his trade value in the offseason?

His bat is supposed to be SO good, though, I ask the board: Does it matter to you? Would you acquire him just for the bat, and if he can't hack it at C just shift him to 1B/DH?

While they're great prospects, there is still too much unknown about all of them. Anyone going to bet on the ML success of Moose? After watching Gordon destroy AA and AAA (and with Moose's inability to walk), I'm not.

Frenchy and Melky were signed pretty cheap. Hell the Royals have been trying to get Melky for sometime. Bannister and I think Reggie Sanders were offered for him at one point.

Look at what the NY hype machine has made of Derek Jeter.

Hell, look at what it made of Melky Cabrera.

It is not exclusive to their major league roster. Yankees prospects are just as hyped as their major league counterparts - remember when Ian Kennedy was so good that he couldn't be traded for Johan Santana?

Be very VERY cautious when trading for Yankee or Bosox prospects.

You didn't even mention Joba Chamberlain.

What is the best prospect from the teams after Greinke? Drabek?

Hurry up and sign Lee

interesting report from Jason Stark. (in his "winners and losers" section)

No way we should get undercut on ANY deal...id rather tell MLB to **** off and take the draft picks if we dont get an absolute killer deal

I fail to see how Mitch Maier is any worse than Melky Cabrera. Milk-E has to be good because he played for the Yankees! ZOMG's!!!

There's too much interest in Greinke, we've got Atlanta, Toronto, Tampa Bay, Texas, the Yankees to start. We've even apparently got offers from the Dodgers and Brewers.

There is such a barren wasteland of pitching talent available right now that Greinke's value has probably been artificially raised too high to the point where we ought to win this deal if we dont screw it up.

Man, the Royals are going to suck so fucking bad next year. It's not even funny. And if we get rid of Greinke that is another 100 loss season baby.

Who gives a shit....the following year will make things way more interesting and zack getting traded

Exactly...this is the highest trade value he will have as a royal

You think it's possible that we could **** this up? How?

http://www.millerparkdrunk.com/wp-co...l-756x1024.jpg

No way they can **** this up, it would be a fireable offense

My primary fear is obviously that we'll screw this up. That fear is a *LOT* less now than it was a week ago due to the sheer interest in and perceived value of Greinke. We'll probably do well whether we know what we are doing or not because a half-dozen teams are competing for him. They probably cant play around and try to low-ball us or they may get topped by one of the other 4 or 5 teams.

My secondary fear probably doesn't really matter because like with Cassel, what the fans think is irrelevant as long as you are correct and start winning. I am afraid that when the deal is announced we'll have this pre-conceived notion of some mammoth return for Greinke and find some excuse to be disappointed, even if its a nice deal where we'd say the team trading Greinke won if we were just outside observers who weren't Royals fans.

Assuming that the trade doesn't look absurd, I'm going to try to do my best to give DM the benefit of the doubt, even though he's been pretty damn bad at evaluating ML talent.

He's been, obviously, solid at establishing the farm system, and I'm hopeful that he'll have more success dealing with prospects.

There's not going to be much to motivate people to go out to the park next year.. besides beer, and women. Last year there was beer, women, and Greinke. Oh well.

That's the truth. I haven't been to many non-Greinke games in the last couple years.

I assume Moose will be up by june or july

What about ... watching the debuts of Mike Moustakas and some of the other youngsters? That's something I'm definitely excited about. I'd say Danny Duffy and maybe Montgomery and/or Dwyer also make debuts at some point.

And then there's the guys they get in return for Greinke. I'd guess at least a few of those guys are going to be up this year.

Greinke, or free tickets are pretty much the only time I'll go out to a weeknight game. I usually go to 10-15 games a year, but that will drop by a couple I'm sure. That said, if it's best for the team, then we have to get what we can.

Can we PLEASE just not trade Soria ever!?! Damnit, if he goes I'll be really bummed, like when callaspo was traded, but worse.

Look on the bright side:
Which means the Royals will have the top pick in the draft in 2012...more talent on the way!

I only went to 2 games last year, lowest total ever for me in a season.

and he's not that old. i feel this would be the best time for any other team to get him. He's still got at least 7 more good years left in him, possibly more because his delivery doesnt throw a lot of torque on his body like tim lincecum(i probably spelled that wrong)

Don't get me wrong, I will probably shed a tear if we trade him away, but if we get super badass talent for him, then do it. out of all the players we've traded away, greinke by far would be the best we've traded

For me, one of the bright spots is that we're not going to be trading him because we can't afford him.

Sadly, this is progress.

Same for me. I'm normally a ~20 games a year guy, but the last few years I just haven't went out when Zack wasn't pitching and even last year I just didn't go watch much. I'll go to check out some of the prospects when they are called up this year though.

no kidding. If Greinke returned to Cy Young form and wanted to stay, I have no doubt we would have eventually handed him a massive contract.

I know that in a perfect world we'd have 100% revenue sharing and a salary cap, but things HAVE improved dramatically from the 90's and early 2000's. The Royals are now getting something north of 30 million in revenue sharing every year. Sure the new stadium helps, but this enhanced revenue sharing is the primary reason why the Forbes valuation of the team has almost quadrupled since David Glass bought the Royals (this has got to be the best investment he has made in his life. He may not be getting much of a dividend, but he'll be paid if he ever sells)

We used to have a payroll 8 or 9 times less than the top 2 or 3 teams, now they are merely double or triple, and we're pretty close to league average payroll. Heck, even the Rangers spent a lot less money than us last year.

I sincerely appreciate the optimism of some of you guys.

LMAOLMAOLMAOLMAOLMAO

First, the four worst hitters hitters (by wOBA) among qualified players from 2008-2010.

127. Pedro Feliz, .284 wOBA
126. Jason Kendall, .288 wOBA
125. Yuniesky Betancourt, .291 wOBA
124. Jeff Francoeur, .298 wOBA

Now, the least valuable three (qualified) position players by FanGraphs WAR, 2008-2010:

127. Jose Guillen, -1.1 WAR
126. Yuniesky Betancourt, -0.8 WAR
125. Jeff Francoeur, 0.0 WAR

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index...-contest-over/

Mother****. Did we just acquire Pedro Feliz?

Oh, but Frenchy has upside!! Laughable. Same with Melky. The only reason why we're not the laughingstock of baseball is because the contracts are minimal in terms of dollars and years. But make no mistake, our outfield is not improved. Stagnant? Perhaps. Improved? Not even ****ing close.

No. They had to go 4 places instead of 3 since the bottom was not a royal

Anything that gets Mitch Meier's worthless ass out of the lineup is an improvement.

Francouer and Cabrera are exactly the type of guys you take fliers on. Rays fans hated obtaining Carlos Pena at the time of that deal. He was of a similar age and pedigree to Francouer and Cabrera.

I went to three, I paid zero money to the Royals organization though this much I assure you. I make sure when I go tickets are either given to me or a friend takes me. I don't even buy a dollar hot dog. Piss on them. Put something on the field. On the bright side, buddy of mine bet me $200 that the Royals go to the playoffs before the Chiefs. This was during the Herm Edwards era. That is the one thing I thank Herm for...making this franchise appear completely hopeless.

All that is fine and dandy but Pena can at least hit home runs and get on base a little bit. Mitch Meier isn't significantly better or worse than Cabrera and Francouer. Our shit better work out for DeJesus or this is fucking stupid. DeJesus would have been cheap. He was a great guy around town...should have tried to keep him IMO.

How did Pena's OBP (prior to Tampa) compare to Melky's?

Royals Baseball: Where future Yankees rise and former Yankees fall.

But, but..., the minors are loaded!! Just wait!

Signed, 1987, 1990, 1992, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2002, 2004, 2006, and 2009

bullcrap. The main reason why we've sucked for 20 years is because our minors have NEVER been loaded, not since I've been paying attention in the early 90's anyway. The farm system spit out a good player every 4 or 5 years and not much else, we drafted crap either because we were stupid, we were too cheap to pay bonuses, or both.

The Royals can still screw this up, but dont pretend that this time isnt different.

I just hope we don't get fleeced if we decide to trade Grienke. Down here people are pretty much resigned to the Rangers losing Cliff Lee but they don't want to give up top prospects to get Grienke. They point out last season and say he's not as good as Coby Lewis. IMO a motivated Grienke returns to Cy Young form, the dude straight up quit last year down the stretch.

If the Rangers get him, those fans need to be prepared for major disappointment if they think it wont take much. Greinke is being given a mulligan by other teams for last year for lack of motivation. On top of that, his value has been artificially inflated due to the unusual lack of pitching available and there are at least 5 teams who are serious.

Anyone that seriously thinks Colby f'n Lewis is better than Zack Greinke is absolutely clueless about baseball.

On a side note I had completely forgotten until now that we signed that 19 year old Cuban pitcher Arguelles and Jeff Bianchi was out all year with an injury. It will be great to see these youngsters do their thing in Spring Training this year.

Figure I should put this up before anyone freaks, a few gullible people in the media already bit on it. Someone tweeted a fake (and ridiculous) trade using a very clever fake twitter account using a weird ascii character instead of a capital "I".

This:

is not real.

awesome.

wouldn't surprise me, well, it would... but not really.

LMAO@ Ross Gload

Gload Reminded me alot of ichiro...Ichigload

Anyone who believed that should get out of the profession. Good Lord.

You are seriously misinformed because we could have won a shit ton of games with 53 Ross Gloads.

yeah, but can gload pitch? I doubt it.

Locked and Gloaded

Sounds like Greinke wont have to worry about converting Canadian dollars to American dollars.

Good, that would be a terrible deal for them. I don't see any reason to trade Travis Snider at this point.

And I'm not even sure why Greinke would want to play for the Jays next year...they are a 85 win team in a division where you need at least 95 wins.

There is very good reason to believe that this will be a down year for the AL East. If the Blue Jays EVER want to make a run at the division, they arguably have to go for it now.

A down year, haha? What makes you think the Yankees and Red Sox aren't going to win 95+ games next year?

The Jays need to go for it when their top prospects are in their primes and when the wealthiest ownership in baseball is prepared to put money into the team, and neither of those things will happen before next season. Considering they just traded one of their best pitchers for a 20 year old prospect, contending in 2011 obviously isn't in the plans.

Also, how exactly is Greinke's presence supposed to turn a 85 win team into a 95 win team? Talk about your futile trades.

If the Blue Jays do nothing, they likely hand the division over to the Red Sox, but this is a winnable division. I dispute the argument that the AL East will obviously require 95 wins next year. Maybe it will, but its not obvious, and Greinke can certainly turn them into a 90-win team. Once you are there, a little bit of luck to slightly outperform your pythag is all you need.

The reason why Tampa Bay will fall back is obvious. The Yankee lineup is getting seriously old at this point, and Petitte will likely retire. If the Blue Jays dont think they can match the Red Sox, thats fine but I would be pissed as a Blue Jay fan. It makes sense for the Royals to hoard their prospects and not care about 2011, but when you do get within striking distance you have to go for it.

As the old saying goes, "prospects are nice, but flags fly forever."

It's required 95+ wins every year for the past decade. That isn't going to change in a year where Boston just loaded up with Gonzalez and Crawford and the Yankees being the Yankees.

Toronto's team just isn't built to contend right now in the way that those teams are. It makes far more sense for Greinke to go somewhere that can actually benefit from his presence in 2011 like Texas.

If the Jays had any intention of spending money and contending, they would have simply kept Halladay, Rios, and Rolen in 2010 and built around them. But they don't. They are fine with waiting in mediocrity while making a steady profit.

And I'm always pissed as a Jays fan, but I resided myself that Rogers isn't prepared to seriously contend for a while. The Marcum deal should be a sign that the window for contention is more like 2013 and beyond.

2.0 and -1.0

Me thinks you're overvaluing Snider a bit. If you could get Greinke for Drabek and Snider, the only people who should be pissed are Royals fans.

"the window for contention is more like 2013 and beyond"?

Didn't know you were a Royals fan, too. Welcome aboard.

And I think you are underrating Snider and overrating Greinke. Funny how that works, eh?


Jays fans should always have less hope than Royals fans, simply because of the division they are in.

And the numbers support the inversion. Wait.

They do. Greinke's 2009 season looks entirely like an aberration and Snider is undoubtedly one of the top young outfielders in baseball. What would possibly compel the Jays to trade someone like that for a pitcher (something they already have in incredible excess)?