I love Salvy so much:

Nope. It's really infante that should be out.

Next 7 games vs Pittsburgh, @ St. Louis (1 game), vs Houston

Lets ****ing do this.

Where do you get this data? This information pleasures me.

I'm not a huge fan of the Zobrist idea. I feel like Zobrist's value is inflated because of his position versatility, and I don't think the Royals have a huge need for his versatility.

I'm definitely in the minority, but I'm 100% fine Infante at 2B. Infante has been excellent defensively and adequate enough at the plate in recent months. That's really all that I ask out of a middle infielder.

Don't get me wrong, Zobrist's versatility would be nice. But, I don't think it's needed.

Couldn't guys like Reddick (maybe), Parra, or Bruce be had for cheaper?

Based on what I have read, the biggest factor is altitude. Next would be the usual prevailing winds, and then way way down the list is humidity and temperature. I don't know much about how the winds typical blow at the K compared to Cincy, but I would think that if anything it's more humid and hotter here, so both of those enable the ball to fly a little further. But it's such a small difference compared to altitude I don't know if it really makes a difference.

This is fascinating. I think the biggest factor in park size for HRs is the RF and LF fences. Most people don't hit homers to dead CF where some parks are bigger than Kaufman. But Kaufman is HUGE 15 feet in from the line in the LF and RF.

Eric Hosmer might want to look at going to LA. He tends to hit his home runs to center and they have a pretty small fence in center and left and right center compared to most places.

I just went thru each overlay on top of Kaufman. Kaufman definitely is the largest stadium and best at keeping balls in play in the MLB (as we well know). It appeared Turner Field in Atlanta was also pretty big as well as Chase Field, still smaller than the K. Target Field was smaller than I thought. Coors Field appeared one of the Top 10 biggest, but altitude obviously really plays a role there. Yankee Stadium didn't look as bad as I thought it would be with the exception being the RF wall.

I hear ya. I have spent way too much time simply comparing dimensions between parks and what parks some homers are out at as opposed to others.

He most definitely could have been there...

Reddick and Bruce come with several years of control. Of that groups, I'd expect cost to rank (highest to lowest):

Reddick
Bruce
Zobrist
Parra

Infante is a -WAR player. Zobrist could play outfield until Gordon gets back and then move to 2B.

Who's taking tonight's GDT?

Ok, he's been called up, and I'm okay if they want to ease him back in and all. What makes zero sense would be keeping him working out of the pen. We've already got that part covered.

I want to see this as part of our rotation!

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It probably wouldn't work, but come playoff time, why couldn't the Royals shift to a 4 man rotation and bump the #5 along with Medlan and Finnegan into middle relief?

With the schedule for playoff baseball, you could essentially let the back end of the rotation only have to pitch at most twice through the lineup. Any of the guys mentioned above can easily do 2 to 3 innings along with Hoch. Madson can easily get through 2, and Blanton might, depending on the matchup.

If you can get a solid 6 innings out of 2 guys from Ventura, Volquez, Duffy, Young, Vargas, or Guthrie in a 4 man rotation, there's plenty of arms to let guys be way more aggressive and worry way less about needing to extend keeping your arm fresh for a higher pitch count.

I don't think it's crazy to think it's possible, and plenty of mediocre starting pitchers could be damn effective outta the pen.

Perfect example of why you seize the opportunity when you get the chance. Of course no one wants to squander talented prospects, but fortune favors the bold. We know how THIS team is playing and how real their chance of winning a WS is. Next year is an uncertain guess filled with tons of variables seen and unseen.