Does that mean Ibanez will be playing left field Friday evening?

HIDE YO KIDS, HIDE YO WIFE

He's a streaky player, two weeks ago he was the hottest player on the team. I bet in 2 weeks he will be again.

This exact point has to be made multiple times each year since people don't understand how payrolls work.

Cole Manbeck ‏@Cole_Manbeck 1m
Billy Butler has a .338 slugging % over his last 425 at bats. Only 2 qualified hitters in the American League had a lower slugging % in 2013

Yikes

With country fat-ass OPSing under .700 it's time to consider a platoon at DH with Raul. While fattys split is identical this year, it's .903 vs .780 career so clearly he hits LH better. Raul is .826 vs .730 so it makes all the sense in the world.

Of course he would throw a tantrum so management may be too afraid to make a move on him. Our inmates do run our asylum, however even Moose finally had to face reality.

Billy's last year as a Royal?

I'd say probably, given the GM tried to trade him each of the past 2 years.

Because he knows he has zero power.

Billy Butler would have to go through a legendary tear for the ages over the last 3 months for the Royals to pick up that huge option.

edit: and I predict that a bunch of dumb casual fans who aren't paying attention will howl in protest and say we're being cheap after the Royals cut him.

Duncan insinuated that Dozier might make it to KC next year. If that's the case, they'd be replacing a left handed bat (Moose) with a right handed bat (Dozier). To offset that, they would replace a right handed bat (Butler) with a left handed bat (Ibanez). That whole lefty/righty thing would even out.

This is all assuming Dozier makes it to KC and Ibanez can still play at 42/43. He would still be faster on the bases than Butler and can play the OF and 1st.

See below

No doubt on all points. He'd need to hit 20 HR in the second half to even have a CHANCE to have it picked up, and even then I don't know that I'd trust him to keep it going.


I doubt Ibanez is in their long-term plans at DH, and I doubt they plan to bring in another full-time DH. I'd expect that position/that cash to be used to rest players and perhaps bring in a RF that would break the bank.

Someone like Marlon Byrd would be a great, low-cost option to slide between DH and RF.

Sal Perez gets 45-50 games as the DH next year. The 110 would be up for grabs. Someone like Byrd could grab about 1/2 of the remaining DH starts, with the rest being used for every day players.

Dozier fits in if Moustakas continues to suck. I could see him being a June call-up if Moustakas is again terrible.

If Moustakas starts hitting, I imagine the plan would be to use Moustakas at DH some once Dozier makes the big club.

I'd rather not have a full-time DH. Sure, maybe we can have a good bat off the bench who DH's a lot, but we should be embracing this new trend in the AL, where you use that spot to give guys a half-day off. It would also let us bat Salvy a lot of games.

A full-time DH only makes sense when you have an intimidating beast of a hitter who can't play the field. A few years ago we thought Butler might become that, but he didn't.

The big debate today on the other board is whether or not the Royals should fly a flag if they get a wild card but don't win the ALCS. Uhhh... yeah, lets get there first. I'm not even sure if we're making the playoffs at all yet.

(for the record, the correct answer is no. Flags are for Division, League, or World Championships)

Where's Hal MCrae when you need him?