*** Official 2018 Royals Repository ***

[duncan_idaho]

The season is upon us, even if spring is not.

2018 MLB Draft Picks
#18
#33 - Compensation (Eric Hosmer)
#34 - Compensation (Lorenzo Cain)
#40 (Competitive Balance Round A)

018 Draft Names to Watch

RHP Kumar Rocker, N Oconnee HS, Georgia.

Spoiler!

Possibly goes top 10 but is a big, physical SP with ace potential. Moore and co. will be all over him if he slips a bit and could offer top 10 money at No. 16

OF Jarred Kelenic, Waukasha West HS, WI

Spoiler!

Kelenic is the top prep bat, toolsy OF. Royals would be ecstatic to have shot at him.

1B Triston Casas, American Heritage HS (FL).

Spoiler!

Tremendous raw power, best in HS bats. Royals typically like HS arms or HS bats with "special" tools. He qualifies.

RHP Carter Stewart, Eau de Gallie HS (Ga).

Spoiler!

Another big, physical specimen with huge upside. More likely to be available mid-first than Rocker.

ANY Any, Any (Any). Any current top projected pick who slides for injury concerns. Includes current top prospect prospect SP Brady Singer, U of Florida.

Current Prospects to Watch:

OF Seuly Matias - Huge tools. Hit 2 HR in Lexington (A) season opener.

1B Nick Pratto - Top pick in 17 has advanced approach and good glove; needs to start tapping into power in first full year in minors. Also at Lexington.

OF Michael Gigliotti - Good defender in CF, good OBP skills, plus baserunner. Next mainstay in CF for KC, IMO. Advanced college bat also starting at Lexington.

OF Khalil Lee - Probably has highest upside in Royals' system. Could hit 30 HR in majors, could steal 30 bases. Plus defensive ability in RF. Nice test at Wilmington this year.

3B Emmanuel Rivera - Really nice approach and good contact skills. Power is still developing. Also getting a good test at Wilmington.

SP Foster Griffin - Made nice strides in 2017. Needs to continue to progress in 2018. Could be a lefty version of Jakob Junis (good breaking ball that he can really manipulate, OK fastball, good command).

1B Samir Duenez - Duenez still is intriguing, hoping for a step forward in his power production this year at Northwest Arkansas, which would turn him into a legit prospect.

Others to keep an eye on:
SP Gerson Garabito (Wilmington), OF Marten Gasparini (Lexington), C MJ Melendez (Lexington), RP Tyler Zuber (lexington), RP Richard Lovelady (Omaha), SP Dan Tillo (Lexington), SS Nicky Lopez (NWA), SP Scott Blewett (NWA), OF Brewer Hicklen (Idaho Falls),

In general, Lexington and Wilmington are the most interesting spots to watch. Nice depth and a lot of interesting pieces at both.

[Mecca]

Originally Posted by duncan_idaho

He was on a 30-pitch limit. Just a matter of getting him work. I wouldn’t read anything into what he does this year, especially coming off a mini-shutdown.




The only person who is going to get Hosmer to change his swing is his brother. We learned that in KC. I’ll be floored if he does anything differently, no matter how much trash talk he garners.

He’s stubborn enough about his approach that it got Kevin Seitzer fired and replaced with a pair of incompetent yes men (Jack Maloof and Andre David) who would let Hosmer do what he wanted and stop hounding him to make major changes.

Stuff like this is what I was referring to when I said I didn't think they did a great job of developing guys. Hosmer would be a much better player today had they worked that stubbornness out of him while he was in the minors. There was obviously some of the "hey these guys are top prospects we don't want to piss them off" to some of those calls I think...but at the same time Hosmers approach and refusal to make changes has hurt his career.

I think a lot of that is why it took Moustakas so long to be a good major leaguer.

[BWillie]

Originally Posted by siberian khatru

Poor Hosmer just keeps spiraling deeper into the black hole. He's at .250/.321/.396 on the season. Hitting .147/.190/.179 over the last month.

We've all seen that before. His slumps can be epic.

Hosmer is cool. He's old school like Ned. People tell him he has the worst launch angle in the league, but he's like nah, I trust my brother who works construction in Florida, as my swing coach. I like hitting 190 mph ground balls to infielders. That is the true meddle of a champion.

[Chiefspants]

Originally Posted by Mecca

Stuff like this is what I was referring to when I said I didn't think they did a great job of developing guys. Hosmer would be a much better player today had they worked that stubbornness out of him while he was in the minors. There was obviously some of the "hey these guys are top prospects we don't want to piss them off" to some of those calls I think...but at the same time Hosmers approach and refusal to make changes has hurt his career.

I think a lot of that is why it took Moustakas so long to be a good major leaguer.

I get that, but on the flip side, the Royals also showed what happens when you do try to work players natural style out of them - they just did it on the pitching front.

Forcing pitchers out of the long-toss and away from the Slider was an organization philosophy for far too long - and surprise! Avoiding drafting pitchers from their pitch selection or moving them away from their strengths has backfired in more ways than one. In fact, forcing Duffy and Collins to change their delivery/pitches didn't prevent a torn UCL, and only had the effect of impacting their development.

A lot of people say the Royals missed out on an ace when they didn't draft Chris Sale, but idk, if they "cleaned up" his delivery and commandeered his pitch selection, it's quite possible his first six years in the majors would have been somewhat similar to Duffy's (after we took away Danny's out pitch).

Not that the Royals shouldn't have been more forceful with their hitters, but there is a fine line, and it seems the Royals took a while before finding it with their pitchers.

[duncan_idaho]

There was a lot of chatter about some things Myers had to fix as a hitter when he got to Tampa, so I think there’s something to that.

That turd Jack Maloof was the minor league hitting instructor for a long time before his disastrous stint as hitting coach in 2013, so I don’t think it’s a coincidence.

They were old school for too long, and the outcomes of that were overcoaching pitchers and forcing them into a specific box, and not coaching hitters enough as long as they were succeeding.

I think it has improved.

Re: Hosmer and his swing, maybe another org could have broken his bad habits... but not sure how many could have.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by duncan_idaho

There was a lot of chatter about some things Myers had to fix as a hitter when he got to Tampa, so I think there’s something to that.

That turd Jack Maloof was the minor league hitting instructor for a long time before his disastrous stint as hitting coach in 2013, so I don’t think it’s a coincidence.

They were old school for too long, and the outcomes of that were overcoaching pitchers and forcing them into a specific box, and not coaching hitters enough as long as they were succeeding.

I think it has improved.

Re: Hosmer and his swing, maybe another org could have broken his bad habits... but not sure how many could have.

Hosmer's a guy that has been seen as difficult to coach for awhile; very headstrong. And I just don't know if there's an easy fix (or one that can be made over a reasonable timeline) for a guy with that much noise in his swing.

You really are talking about the kind of 2 year, tear apart and re-build kind of process that Heyward's going through right now that may or may not be actually bearing fruit.

"Why didn't they fix Hosmer?" is so much easier asked than answered. There wasn't just one little hitch in there - his swing and his approach sure look to be bad habits built on bad habits.

[Chris Meck]

when you think about it, the back to back WS were really an aberration. NONE of our blue chip guys from the "BEST FARM SYSTEM IN BASEBALL" really became stars. Hosmer has never become what he was projected to be. Moose finally did, sort of, last year. I mean, Salvy is a fantastic defensive catcher with some power, but has never hit for average. Duffy has not been the frontline ace he was expected to be. Ventura was, well, Ventura, and maybe he would've put it together, maybe not. None of the other pitchers developed. None. We've not really truly developed anyone in a very, very long time. They were good enough AS A TEAM, along with Cain, Gordon, and the bullpen, which was freakishly good, but comprised largely of failed starters that converted well to relief.

[Prison Bitch]

Hoz was 3rd in AL in OBP last year.

Ops of 1.000 after April.

He doesn't have "noise".


He has a downward plane swing that drives ball into ground. Nuff said

[gblowfish]

If you look at Hosmer's career, his batting average has jumped around quite a bit. He's a streak hitter. When he's hot he's hot. When he's not, he's not. Too streaky for $23 million a year, that's for sure.

[BWillie]

Originally Posted by Chris Meck

when you think about it, the back to back WS were really an aberration. NONE of our blue chip guys from the "BEST FARM SYSTEM IN BASEBALL" really became stars. Hosmer has never become what he was projected to be. Moose finally did, sort of, last year. I mean, Salvy is a fantastic defensive catcher with some power, but has never hit for average. Duffy has not been the frontline ace he was expected to be. Ventura was, well, Ventura, and maybe he would've put it together, maybe not. None of the other pitchers developed. None. We've not really truly developed anyone in a very, very long time. They were good enough AS A TEAM, along with Cain, Gordon, and the bullpen, which was freakishly good, but comprised largely of failed starters that converted well to relief.

They juiced the ball. Which neutered our fly ball pitching, speedy OF defense, and ball contact MO. That is literally what happened and why our strategy became much more ineffective.

[Mecca]

Cain is the guy who did develop into what he was supposed to be..and he was largely developed by another organization.

Perez in a lot of ways should be considered a bonus, I don't ever remember him being on a top 100 list, he was never thought of the same way the other guys were around baseball. Hosmer, Moose and Myers were suppose to be stars. Duffy was supposed to be an ace...hell Mike Montgomery and John Lamb were suppose to be somebodies.

I won't go any further into pitching there really isn't an argument, they flat out sucked balls at developing pitchers. I do think their hitting approach like duncan said of "if they are producing leave them alone" led to a lot of big league struggles for those guys.

If a lot of bad habits had been broken early on in the organization it may have taken a bit longer for them to get here but we may have seen better players or some guys make it that didn't.

[Mecca]

To add on the guy they drafted in the 2nd round last year, a lefty pitcher Evan Steele hasn't even thrown a pitch this year as he has shoulder problems..I don't think he's thrown a pitch for the Royals organization yet.

[OmahaChief]

Originally Posted by duncan_idaho

He was on a 30-pitch limit. Just a matter of getting him work. I wouldn’t read anything into what he does this year, especially coming off a mini-shutdown.

Glad to see he was on a limit. They threw those Florida guys a lot of innings so was hoping for the best. Would have loved to see him get a couple more guys out though.

[Ebolapox]

Originally Posted by Mecca

...

Perez in a lot of ways should be considered a bonus, I don't ever remember him being on a top 100 list, he was never thought of the same way the other guys were around baseball. Hosmer, Moose and Myers were suppose to be stars. Duffy was supposed to be an ace...hell Mike Montgomery and John Lamb were suppose to be somebodies.

...

perez and yordano ventura were both bonuses--hell, every team has random guys come up and shock after being afterthoughts on draft day. the cardinals have yadi molina (lolz overused catchers, let's not ruin salvy before we're good again) and albert pujols.

the problem is partially that you're comparing apples to oranges. mecca, man, you were all about the nfl draft back in the day. and while nfl prospects may be 'hit or miss,' you're ignoring the major issue--mlb prospects don't have that extra 3-4 years of development that nfl prospects do, there isn't as much tape, and scouting is so freaking subjective unfortunately.

we got really lucky to do what we did in 2014-15, though you can't say we didn't stockpile talent... what we did with that talent, the bad luck/bad scouting in drafting hasn't helped, but you can look at every team in the league and wonder why so-and-so didn't develop... where the hell is travis lee right now? where the hell is erubial durazo (lol old, busted top prospects that never were). I can keep going. shall I keep going with busted prospects from every team? I can go with any team you want. and their bust list will be way more expansive than the bust list of the chiefs.

[Ebolapox]

Originally Posted by Ebolapox

perez and yordano ventura were both bonuses--hell, every team has random guys come up and shock after being afterthoughts on draft day. the cardinals have yadi molina (lolz overused catchers, let's not ruin salvy before we're good again) and albert pujols.

the problem is partially that you're comparing apples to oranges. mecca, man, you were all about the nfl draft back in the day. and while nfl prospects may be 'hit or miss,' you're ignoring the major issue--mlb prospects don't have that extra 3-4 years of development that nfl prospects do, there isn't as much tape, and scouting is so freaking subjective unfortunately.

we got really lucky to do what we did in 2014-15, though you can't say we didn't stockpile talent... what we did with that talent, the bad luck/bad scouting in drafting hasn't helped, but you can look at every team in the league and wonder why so-and-so didn't develop... where the hell is travis lee right now? where the hell is erubial durazo (lol old, busted top prospects that never were). I can keep going. shall I keep going with busted prospects from every team? I can go with any team you want. and their bust list will be way more expansive than the bust list of the chiefs.

I mean, fuck... the bust rate of top ten mlb prospects is way higher than top ten nfl prospects. I'll try to see if I can back that up with research later, but I know % success rate for mlb prospects is available, as I'm sure it is for nfl prospects (% that made it to mlb, all star game, regular starter, star, and the nfl equivilent)

[duncan_idaho]

Originally Posted by Mecca

To add on the guy they drafted in the 2nd round last year, a lefty pitcher Evan Steele hasn't even thrown a pitch this year as he has shoulder problems..I don't think he's thrown a pitch for the Royals organization yet.

Steele had light duty last year after being drafted and was impressive. Good stuff.

His mechanics left something to be desired - very funky and rough, leading to those shoulder problems. Believe he’s reworking his mechanics to smooth things out.

He was their third or fourth pick in the draft, forget which. It was purely an upside play. He was headed to auburn after pitching at the leading juco and committing to vandy out of HS. Big upside, which is why they took the chance.

He’s a guy who could take a similar jump as we saw from Cody Reed in his third year in the org.