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]

[tk13]

Lots of Twins news today. Nathan is officially out for the year, big hole for them to fill. And then they go out and cover up that depressing news by signing Mauer to an 8 year, $184 million extension. Plus a full no-trade clause.

[DeezNutz]

23 per. Wonder if the Royals would ever step up like that?

Again, I'd like to dangle Soria to the Twins to gauge the return...

[alnorth]

Originally Posted by DeezNutz

23 per. Wonder if the Royals would ever step up like that?

Good God, I hope not. This deal is idiotic. The fans may be happy, but this makes little sabermetric sense.

Given a smart GM (I know, hypothetical situation, pretend DM is brilliant), yes he's a great player, but you can do a whole hell of a lot more with $23M than a year of Mauer. This deal might be appropriate, MAYBE for a healthy young middle infielder with an OPS well over 1.000. He's the AL MVP, but he isn't THAT good. He just had a career year, who knows if this was a fluke and he'll regress back to being just "pretty good"? It'll get worse if his knees give out and they have to move him to a non-premium position.

The fact that its for 8 years with a total no-trade is borderline baseball malpractice.

[DeezNutz]

I don't disagree that $23M can be spent in many different ways, but, at some point, you have to locate a foundational player or two.

We're going to have to agree to disagree, it seems, because I believe he is THAT good. If you look at his career numbers, he's been pretty damn consistent.

If his health holds--admittedly a HUGE "if"--he'll likely be considered the greatest catcher to have ever played the game.

[alnorth]

Originally Posted by DeezNutz

I don't disagree that $23M can be spent in many different ways, but, at some point, you have to locate a foundational player or two.

We're going to have to agree to disagree, it seems, because I believe he is THAT good. If you look at his career numbers, he's been pretty damn consistent.

If his health holds--admittedly a HUGE "if"--he'll likely be considered the greatest catcher to have ever played the game.

I think it was the 8 years that jumped out at me more than anything.

If this was, say a 3-year deal for $25M per, with option years I'd have fewer problems with it. This has the potential of working for a few years, and then crippling the organization for the remaining years. I'd be more inclined to lock up a superstar for 4-ish years, and gamble that his value may rise.

The risk of having to "settle" for a merely good player after a standard contract expires is outweighed by the risk of spending 1/4 of your payroll on nothing because of injury. The Twins already got screwed by Joe Nathan, the next two years they will be flushing around $20M down the toilet, I'm amazed they didn't learn from that. If by some amazing catastrophe Mauer suffers a career ending injury this year, the Twins would be screwed for years and years.

It has been done before, but if he stays healthy and can continue to catch for 8 years (rather than have to move to 1B) it will be a minor miracle. Not to mention that the last four years will be in his 30's, when he'll probably be on the decline. What is so valuable about a 33-34 year old 7-8 years from now right after he had his one and only terrific year of his career?

[DeezNutz]

Originally Posted by alnorth

I think it was the 8 years that jumped out at me more than anything.

If this was, say a 3-year deal for $25M per, with option years I'd have fewer problems with it. This has the potential of working for a few years, and then crippling the organization for the remaining years. I'd be more inclined to lock up a superstar for 4-ish years, and gamble that his value may rise.

The risk of having to "settle" for a merely good player after a standard contract expires is outweighed by the risk of spending 1/4 of your payroll on nothing because of injury. The Twins already got screwed by Joe Nathan, the next two years they will be flushing around $20M down the toilet, I'm amazed they didn't learn from that. If by some amazing catastrophe Mauer suffers a career ending injury this year, the Twins would be screwed for years and years.

It has been done before, but if he stays healthy and can continue to catch for 8 years (rather than have to move to 1B) it will be a minor miracle. Not to mention that the last four years will be in his 30's, when he'll probably be on the decline. What is so valuable about a 33-34 year old 7-8 years from now right after he had his one and only terrific year of his career?

As always, you make good points, but I'll offer these:

1. He's had phenomenal years in '06, '08, and '09.
2. We always talk about power being the last attribute to develop, and this may well be the case here, which further changes our perception of an already HOF-level player.
3. As Royals fans, I think we've been far too conditioned to worry about player salary. Given revenue sharing, this should not be a contract that cripples any franchise. That said, we know this will be the excuse from ownership if the deal turns to shit.

[SnakeXJones]

Originally Posted by DeezNutz

I don't disagree that $23M can be spent in many different ways, but, at some point, you have to locate a foundational player or two.

We're going to have to agree to disagree, it seems, because I believe he is THAT good. If you look at his career numbers, he's been pretty damn consistent.

If his health holds--admittedly a HUGE "if"--he'll likely be considered the greatest catcher to have ever played the game.

Thats "if" he doesnt get injured down the line to be even consider the greatest that a big steep right now and "if" he does get injured down the road which he will his only position will be DH

[DeezNutz]

He's a great athlete, so he could easily transition to a corner infield position.

[SnakeXJones]

Originally Posted by DeezNutz

He's a great athlete, so he could easily transition to a corner infield position.

I have no doubt he could be a gold glover other than catcher like Biggio

[alnorth]

Anyway, all that said, this isnt on the level of "Jason Kendall instead of Buck" stupidity, because it does have a chance of working.

If Mauer can continue to catch effectively all 8 years (or at least 6.5 or so), and if last year was a forshadowing of a remarkably long period of great .925+ OPS production, and if he can play around 135 games a season for the whole contract, then yes, I'd reluctantly admit 8 years from now that this turned out to be a great contract.

Despite the fact that its Mauer, offering this contract takes a lot of balls, though. This is a very high-risk pretty-good-reward move by this organization.

[DeezNutz]

We're #1!

[BWillie]

Let's go Royals here we go!

[KChiefs1]

When is Ankiel supposed to get back in the lineup?

[jbwm89]

he was scheduled to play today but I am not sure if that happened, he may have played in the "simulated game" Greinke played in today. The ankle scares me a little

[Silock]

So, just how bad are we? The only thing I've really seen is the asswhooping we put on the DBags.