*** Official 2015 Royals Repository ***

[duncan_idaho]

In this thread: All things related to the AL Champions.

Duncan's Official Team Record prediction: 90 wins
Duncan's Official Team MVP prediction: Eric Hosmer

I can't wait for this season to start. The AL Central should be a very entertaining race. I'll give brief thoughts on each team the Royals must contend with to make it back to the postseason - strengths and weaknesses.

Detroit Tigers:
Strength: The offense is still full of powerful hitters, and Miguel Cabrera may be healthier.
Weakness: Rotation is questionable after Price and Sanchez, bullpen continues to be horrible.

Cleveland Indians:
Strength: Great manager and a deep, versatile lineup.
Weakness: The rotation is a question mark past Corey Kluber, and even he has a few questions about him.

Chicago White Sox:
Strength: 1-2-3 combo of Sale, Quintana and Samardzija is pretty formidable. Offense is anchored by Jose Abreu, too.
Weakness: Defense still has major questions, and this team has 20 games to improve by if it really wants to make the playoffs.

The Royals will be a division winner IF ...
1) Ventura and Duffy combine for 375+ innings of high-quality work
2) Eric Hosmer delivers on his potential with a FULL season of success rather than bursts
3) The deeper bullpen lessens the critical load on Herrera, Davis and Holland
4) Lorenzo Cain stays healthy
5) Either Alex Rios or Kendrys Morales bounces back to 2013 form

Let's get this started!

[KChiefs1]

Originally Posted by SNR

Are the Twins not as bad as we all thought they were? Or is it just April and shit happens?

No...they are bad.

[WhawhaWhat]

Baltimore player signing autographs and taking applause from an empty stadium.

[KChiefs1]

Detroit up 8-7 now.

[duncan_idaho]

Originally Posted by KChiefs1

Ventura has earned it because of getting in Trout's face & staring him down. What was that all about?

Trout shouted "let's get this bitch" after getting up and clap his hands, reportedly. Ventura took exception.

Originally Posted by SNR

Are the Twins not as bad as we all thought they were? Or is it just April and shit happens?

The Twins were a very good offensive club in the second half last season with basically this cast of characters. Their defense and pitching staff are just as bad as we think, but they could hit well enough to struggle to 75 wins or so.

[RollChiefsRoll]

How we are 3-3 against the shitty Twins is beyond me.

[duncan_idaho]

Originally Posted by Hootie 2.0

I told 'Mother****erjones' (who won't show face anymore) that Samardzija is just a name (mostly because of football @ Notre Dame). He has never been even close to an ace. He's a really solid #3 and a so-so #2. He's also a headcase.

Maybe next year these projection systems will figure out what defense and bullpen mean.

I've never seen a guy get more play out of playing college football for a high profile team and putting together a few good half seasons here and there.

[Dartgod]

Miggy with a 2 run bomb.

10-7 Detroit.

[kcfanXIII]

Originally Posted by ChiefsCountry

It's essentially located in an industrial park. Not exactly what you are looking at if you are a developer for shops, restaurants, and hotels.

To the west is an industrial park. To the south is a shitty neighborhood (I speak from experience, I lived there for a couple years, and wouldn't leave the house without my pistol.) To the north and east there is some property that I'm surprised never got developed though. I guess since it is such a shady area there wouldn't be much traffic outside of gamedays.

[WhawhaWhat]

Gary Thorne calling an Adam Jones double like a golf announcer.

[Raiderhater]

After another player gets hit by a pitch, are Royals really the bad guys?

Originally Posted by Article

The Kansas City Royals, and Yordano Ventura? And mayhem? Again? Admittedly, some things seem to just keep coming up, but this time around, it didn't have anything to do with Ventura or anything he did, nor did it involve an angry opponent doing something particularly stupid. But when Indians flamethrower Danny Salazar hit Royals shortstop Alcides Escobar in the face with a 96 mph fastball in the fifth inning of the Tribe's 7-5 win Wednesday, it does get you to asking questions about how the next five months are going to play out as far as Royals-brand baseball.

Nobody seems to think Salazar hit Escobar on purpose. If anything, the young righty seemed visibly shaken in-game and contrite afterward, for as much as that means. Escobar left the game with a bruised cheek and was reportedly getting checked out for a concussion. For the Indians, the game delivered all sorts of happy tidbits: Salazar's third win in three starts, as well as Jason Kipnis' first home run of the season as the second baseman tries to get his career back on track after a disappointing 2014 season.

But for the Royals, it's cause for question about the price of all of this mayhem, and ultimately, if it's really something of their own doing or something that has grown out of a combination of things: winning a pennant, playing the game their way and apparently having too much fun doing it, and the way in which Ventura has become a lightning rod.

The first of those three things is entirely the Royals fault. They won, it was fun and now they're top dogs until something takes them down a peg. And the way they play doesn't really seem like that big a deal. That seems like an understandable symptom of a clubhouse peopled with guys still under age 30 who've been playing together for four or more years in the majors and who finally delivered on big expectations and won something. It's more fun to watch that than someone like Jeff Kent mechanically going through the motions and then telling you he hates his job. If you don't like watching the Royals play and win their way, there's a reliable antidote: Beat them and let them mope about it.

As for the Ventura phenomenon, he doesn't even lead his league in hit batsmen. He's tied for second with three HBPs, tied with Drew Hutchison of the Blue Jays, Kendall Graveman of the A's, Felix Hernandez of the Mariners, Wei-Yin Chen of the Orioles and Mike Pelfrey of the Twins. They're all behind Angels reliever Jose Alvarez. You haven't heard about the game's huge Jose Alvarez problem yet, have you? Yeah, I expect that we won't, not anytime soon.

It's worth noting that while Ventura is on that leader board, he's also responsible for half of the Royals' six total hit batters, while the league has pegged 20 of K.C.'s men. That's a total that ties the Texas Rangers for total guys pelted at the plate and net hit batsmen suffered versus inflicted. At minus-14, the Royals have been on the receiving end of this kind of thing far more often than they've dished it out. But sure, #YordanVentura. Putting all of that on him certainly seems like a steep price to pay for one talented, emotional and perhaps immature kid. Is that about the Royals or Ventura, or is that about everyone else?

I ask because another question is this: Now that the Royals have become a topic of this kind of conversation, because of Ventura's trio of on-field spats and because the Royals play the game their way and maybe simply because opponents don't like the cut of their jib, Kansas City has its stack of suspensions to deal with. However long it takes to sort those out, pending appeals, can the Royals really protect themselves on the field in the meantime? Whether that's chin music and purpose pitches or flat-out beanings, can the Royals respond in kind, or do they have to hold back?

Which brings up an even broader question here: Do umps have to come into every game with a clean slate, no matter who's playing or who is on the mound? Should they? Is this really just about the Royals, or about everyone else and how they play? At what point is it the responsibility of umpires and of the industry as a whole to look at whether or not people are going after Royals?

Either way, player safety is paramount, and what we have is the appearance of disproportionate response. The Royals are beating people and beating them their way, and it certainly seems as if the game's collective answer has been to beat them up.

And I'll say this, because baseball is an entertainment and a game and a sport and a business all wrapped up in one: The Royals are fun and fun to watch. If the reaction formation of the game's competitive makeup is to try to sand that down -- and maybe make losing to the Royals just a little more palatable to the loser -- that's one thing. But if people are getting hurt, that's another, and it's something that takes away from the game itself. There are only so many Royals players.

We should all want to see the Royals triumph or get taken down a peg because of what happens on the field playing baseball, not because people get deleted by mayhem and injury from the proposition that the Royals might just be this good. If they win and celebrate it because you've got a stack of guys under 30 just flat-out enjoying that they're good enough to win, it's on everyone else to beat them if they don't like it.

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/po...y-the-bad-guys

[Fansy the Famous Bard]

At what point do we start getting worried about the starting pitching?

[ChiTown]

Originally Posted by Zeke

At what point do we start getting worried about the starting pitching?

When we start losing more games than we are winning?

Seriously though, I'm somewhat encouraged. I mean, we are 14-7 and our top 2 pitchers have been extremely meh, and our 4 and 5's have been worse than meh. When this Staff starts getting their shit together, just think how good we can be?

#glasshalffull

[Archie F. Swin]

stumbled onto this website today

http://mlb-teams.pointafter.com/l/2/Kansas-City-Royals

I love how the information is presented. Nice and clean, easy on the eyes. Interactive too!

[mikeyis4dcats.]

Originally Posted by Raiderhader

After another player gets hit by a pitch, are Royals really the bad guys?



http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/po...y-the-bad-guys

[duncan_idaho]

Originally Posted by Zeke

At what point do we start getting worried about the starting pitching?

Deeper in the year, but you can have slight concerns now, too. You really need more than 4-5 starts to get a good trend on things.

Volquez has definitely been better than expected. Ventura and Duffy have scuffled a bit but also have each had a few starts like you'd expect.

I know many are concerned about Vargas and Guthrie, and I don't think those concerns can be completely discounted... but they are what they are... guys who soak up innings at the back of the rotation and keep you in games. There are worse things to have back there than that.

Guthrie has seemed to be a slow starter each of the past two years, saving his best pitching for a second-half surge. Hopefully, that's the case again this year. He's a good for whom location is essential, and his location has been spotty so far this year.

Vargas is the same - struggles with location - and has been BABIPed to death in a few starts to boot (especially the one against the Twins).

The nice thing about this is the Royals depth... if those two don't improve, I think Chris Young quickly gets a shot in the rotation. Medlen might be able to contribute something in August/September (which works basically the same as a deadline trade). And a few prospects still loom.