[SithCeNtZ]

Originally Posted by KChiefs1

If anyone was paying attention, you just saw a team that did something similar to what the Royals are doing play in the World Series. They did it through their farm system and trades (with the Braves no less). The Texas Rangers had the best farm system in the majors. They made trades (Cliff Lee) and build up their team.

The Royals are doing it the right way under a small market style. The Royals have a Who's who of minor league players at almost every position in the Minors. They have the best 3rd base prospect (Moose Tacos). They have 3 of the best pitching prospects. However, these kids are 2 years away from being stars. Baseball America is considering 11 players for minor league player of the year and four of them were Royals. It used to be that the Royals had 1 or 2 big time prospects in the minors, now they have 9 big time prospects. They have those Moos, Hosmer, Colon, Duffy, Lamb, Montgomery, Will Myers (maybe the best prospect, better numbers at C position than Joe Mauer and Buster Posey in minors and is only 19).

Most of these players spent last year in the A/AA league. They will need another year in AA/AAA before they jump to the Majors, but don't let that fool you, scouts are gushing over some of these propects. The Royals will try to get all of them in the Majors for a couple years together.

My last point, it seems like Greinke would be gone or in the last year of his contract when these kids make it to the bigs, so the Royals are looking to shop him.

If you are a Royals fan, here is what you want:
You want Cliff Lee to go to the Yankees. The teams that want Greinke are the Colorado Rockies and the Texas Rangers. The Rangers have exceptional prospects.

The Royals would want 2 top shelf prospects and a Major League ready player. The Rangers would supposedly look to offer Derek Holland (LH pitcher) and 2 of their top prospects (1 is Tanner Scheppers RH fireballer, who the Royals want). The Royals are in a really good position, it will just take a couple years to get there.

As for the extra money saved by the Royals, I want them to sign one player to a longer term contract and I am thinking to keep him for 7-9 more years. He is the best at his position in the Major Leagues, the Mexicutioner Joakim Soria.

I'm sorry but the Rangers being the #1 system in the minors has almost zero to do with their success. Feliz was good and Andrus is a good SS defensively but pretty bad offensively, but that's about it from their farm system other than an aging Young and Kinsler who had just ok seasons(neither had an OPS above .800). In reality, the Rangers got extremely lucky that Wilson and Lewis turned out to be solid if unspectacular, Hamilton became an MVP, Nelson Cruz hits .318/.374/.576 and hits 55 HR's in 2 years despite hitting a combined 22 in his first 4 years in the majors and never being considered a good prospect, they got one more year out of an aging superstar who probably won't last through next year(Vlad), and they played in a division where the A's and Mariners weren't anything special and the Angels had a down year.