2010 Kansas City Royals Repository thread

[SPchief]

All Royals All The Time!

After consultation with others who peruse the game threads we decided to create this as a repository for all things Royals. Minor league news, AL (ahem) Central (thanks Vonne) news and anything Royals can be found here.

alnorth, me and atleast 5 others will continue the game threads as usual. But if you locate something of interest.. ANYTHING.. deals on apparel, best ways in/out of the stadium, giveaways, great stories from this season or from seasons gone by, rumors, trades, anything.... feel free to post it here.

If a big story breaks, you can still start a thread about it. There is merely an all inclusive thread that will make a easy for us all to keep up with all things Royals.


Welcome! "Grab a Brew... don't cost nuthin"...[spills beer on feet]

[BWillie]

Originally Posted by CaliforniaChief

Good Lord Jesus, is this a misprint???

Omaha beat Round Rock 23-5 tonight.

Mike Moustakas was 4-6 with 3 HR's, a 2B, and 11 RBI tonight. He homered 2 times in the 3rd inning. The recap says that all 3 home runs were either to center or right center.

His batting average is now up to .297

Wow, what a bad ass. I doubt they bring Moustakas up this September though due to how well Betemit's been playing.

[CaliforniaChief]

Giavotella was 3-4 with another homer tonight.

11 RBI in one game? Nice work, Moose. See you soon.

[Pitt Gorilla]

Originally Posted by CaliforniaChief

Good Lord Jesus, is this a misprint???

Omaha beat Round Rock 23-5 tonight.

Mike Moustakas was 4-6 with 3 HR's, a 2B, and 11 RBI tonight. He homered 2 times in the 3rd inning. The recap says that all 3 home runs were either to center or right center.

His batting average is now up to .297

I heard that he is a bust.

[CoMoChief]

Originally Posted by DeezNutz

Kila has played a solid defensive game, too, and this highlights the obvious: Butler needs to be moved off the position.

I don't give a shit if an 11-HR player demands to be in the field; his glove doesn't play.

This made me laugh.......god the Royals suck.

[CaliforniaChief]

Originally Posted by Pitt Gorilla

I heard that he is a bust.

In 66 games at NW Arkansas, he hit .347 with 21 HR and 76 RBI.
In 37 games at Omaha, he is hitting .297 with 12 HR and 37 RBI.

That's fricking crazy.

[Reaper16]

Moose had 2 HR in the third inning alone. What a monster of a game for him and the rest of the O-Royals.

[CaliforniaChief]

Originally Posted by Reaper16

Moose had 2 HR in the third inning alone. What a monster of a game for him and the rest of the O-Royals.

That's 6 HR in 6 games. And yeah it's AAA, but they are in a tight race and there is some "pressure". I'm thoroughly impressed.

[duncan_idaho]

Moose clearly is a bust and simply a product of Arvest field.

If you had told me all three of the hitters would surpass the pitching as prospects before the season started, I would have said you were nuts.

[BigCatDaddy]

So what do we do with Betemit next year? I like having the switch hitting power in the line up. DH?

[siberian khatru]

Originally Posted by BigCatDaddy

So what do we do with Betemit next year? I like having the switch hitting power in the line up. DH?

http://www.ranyontheroyals.com/2010/...y-8302010.html

- I’m just going to throw this list out there:

Highest Single-Season OPS by a Royal (min: 200 PA)

1) George Brett, 1980, 1.118

2) George Brett, 1985, 1.022

3) Wilson Betemit, 2010, 1.001

4) Danny Tartabull, 1991, .990

5) Bob Hamelin, 1994, .987

Yes, I’m cheating a little bit. I set the minimum at 200 plate appearances, and Betemit just had his 200th plate appearance of the season yesterday.

But still.

If you look at the list of the top 30 OPS’s in Royals history, you’ll find that the list is basically the same whether the minimum is 200 plate appearances or 400 plate appearances. Aside from Betemit, the only players on the list who had fewer than 400 plate appearances were Hamelin (374 PA, but in a strike-shortened season) and Carlos Beltran in 2004, when he was traded in mid-season. There’s a good reason for this – it’s hard to sustain an OPS north of 900 for even 200 plate appearances, unless you’re actually a pretty damn good hitter.

If we look at the best seasons by a Royal hitter with between, say, 150 and 400 plate appearances, here’s what we get:

1) Wilson Betemit, 2010, 1.001

2) Bob Hamelin, 1994, .987

3) Carlos Beltran, 2004, .901

4) Tony Solaita, 1975, .884

5) Esteban German, 2006, .880

When you factor in the special circumstances that put Hamelin and Beltran on this list, then barring a collapse over the last month of the season, Betemit is going to finish with the greatest partial season in the history of the Royals.

(Tony Solaita had an awfully interesting tenure with the Royals. As a rookie in 1974, he hit .268/.361/.406, then hit .260/.369/.515 in 1975. In 1976 he started slow, batting .235/.286/.294 in just 68 plate appearances…and was promptly waived. Solaita, who was from American Samoa, serves as a reminder that the Royals’ reluctance to put faith in take-and-rake hitters from the Pacific islands is not new.)

Betemit, who was signed to a minor-league contract over the winter, is pretty clearly the greatest free talent acquisition by Dayton Moore since Joakim Soria. Moore has actually quietly had a terrific season in terms of picking up contributors out of the pool of unwanted free agents. Along with Betemit, he re-signed Bruce Chen to another minor-league deal. Chen leads the team in wins with nine; more meaningfully, with a 4.76 ERA in 102 innings, he’s been the second-best starter on the team this year.

Kanekoa Texeira, who was claimed off waivers from Seattle, had a 4.64 ERA out of the bullpen before he went on the DL; despite his lack of a strikeout pitch, his extreme groundball tendencies make him a nice guy to bring in with men on base in the middle innings. And hey, Bryan Bullington did pitch the game of his life against the Yankees.

While the pickups of Betemit and Chen have made a big impact this year, it’s not like they are rookies who are under contract for the next six years. Chen is a free agent after the season; while he’s re-established himself as a major leaguer, I don’t expect teams to be beating down the door to sign him. I could see the Royals offering him a one-year, $1-1.5 million contract to return as a stopgap next season, and I could see Chen accepting the offer.

Betemit, if I understand his service time correctly, would be a free agent after next season. This makes for a very difficult decision for the Royals. If you think Betemit’s season is a fluke, then you’ll either him trade him this winter or bring him back next year to babysit third base until Mike Moustakas is ready, but with the plan to trade Betemit to a contender if he’s still hitting well.

But what if it’s not a fluke? What’s so striking about Betemit’s numbers is that they don’t look like a fluke. Yes, his batting average on balls in play (BABIP) is .405, which is unsustainably high. Betemit is hitting .331 overall, and there’s no way that can last. If his BABIP drops into the .330 range, which is realistic, then his “true” batting average is closer to .280.

But even if he hits .280, he can be a heck of a hitter. While batting average is subject to a lot of fluctuation, power and plate discipline are not. Betemit has 27 walks in just 172 at-bats – that’s not a fluke. He has 13 doubles and 10 homers – that’s not a fluke.

(By the way, with 10 homers, Betemit is just three behind Yuniesky Betancourt for the active team lead. Last week I was on with Soren Petro, and he asked me who I thought would finish with the team lead in homers. Billy Butler was the obvious choice, but I thought Betemit was a heck of a sleeper pick. Well, I’m changing my tune – Betemit isn’t a sleeper anymore. I honestly think he’s the favorite to hold the team’s homer title at season’s end.)

So even if you knock 50 points off his batting average, his numbers this season would be .281/.370/.531. Now, I doubt he’s even that good. He spent a month in Omaha and hit just .265/.358/.407 earlier this year; last year, he hit .241/.294/.441 in Triple-A Charlotte. But at the same time, Betemit was once one of the best prospects in all of baseball, and from 2005 to 2007, when he was 23-25 years old, he hit .265/.337/.455 in nearly a thousand plate appearances in the major leagues. He’s only 28; maybe he’s just figuring things out. It bears mentioning that, according to Fangraphs, Betemit is hitting fly balls at the highest rate of his career.

If he is, then he has to factor into the team’s future. Even if Moustakas takes over at third base sometime next year, Betemit has the bat to play somewhere else. We’re talking about a guy who played shortstop in the majors as recently as two years ago, so he should have the athletic ability to play any corner position. First base and DH are filled, but the Royals are still weak in outfield prospects. Betemit could play third base the first half of next season, then move to right field if and when David DeJesus gets traded.

So the Royals have a decision to make. If they think his numbers are for real, then they may have a chance to sign him to a long-term deal this winter at a huge discount relative to what he would get the following year on the free market if he continues to hit. Is it crazy to suggest that the Royals should offer Wilson Betemit a 3-year, $12 million contract this winter? Maybe. But it’s not any more crazy than suggesting in April that Wilson Betemit would be the best hitter on the Royals this season.

[eazyb81]

What a monster game for Moose.

It's going to be awesome talking about the #1 farm system in MLB all offseason. We'll have no less than 7 top 100 overall prospects - my guess is 8 (Moose, Hosmer, Myers, Montgomery, Lamb, Dwyer, Duffy, Colon).

Tampa had the #1 system in 3 of the last 4 years - Texas had the #1 system the other year.

The future is very bright for the Royals.

[CaliforniaChief]

I like Betemit. I'm not sure Kila's sewn much up, so 1B and DH might not both be filled.

[ChiTown]

Is there any chance that Sean O'Sullivan won't suck? He just ****ing looks so gawdamn mediocre, I feel like I've seen this kid in Kyle Davies body before.............

[ChiTown]

Originally Posted by ChiTown

Is there any chance that Sean O'Sullivan won't suck? He just ****ing looks so gawdamn mediocre, I feel like I've seen this kid in Kyle Davies body before.............

Oh, and Jesse Chavez, please die in a fire. Thanks.

[DeezNutz]

Davies is a frustrating piece, that's for sure, but he really shouldn't be put in the same category as Bannister and O'Sullivan. The latter two don't have nearly the "stuff" that Davies possesses.

People often claim that Hochevar would thrive under Duncan, but I think Davies is the one who could really turn the corner, since his stuff is even better than that worthless poor man's Kevin Brown.