2012 Kansas City Royals Repository Thread

[alnorth]

2012 Slogan: Our Time

A better, more accurate 2012 Slogan: It is Finally Next Year
(from Great Expectations)

An alternative slogan if you don't like that one: Someone has to win this crappy division
(from alnorth)

With the beginning of a new year, it is time for the 2012 version of the Royals Repository Thread. We've got Hosmer, we've got a 2011-dominating Gordon, we've got Moose, we've got hopefully a killer bullpen, we've got a stereotypical slow slugging DH, we've got easily one of the best defensive shortstops in the AL, we've got a promising catcher in Salvador Perez. Hell, we've got offense and promising prospects galore.

We do not have starting pitching.

Oh yeah, we've also got this:



Get ready for, (as of January 2012 anyway), one of the most confusing puzzles of a baseball season in recent Royals history. Will they suck? Maybe, I don't know. Will we be given a year of 0.500 baseball? Possibly, I don't know. Will they win the division and go to the playoffs for the first time in 27 years? For the first time in a long time, it could happen, I don't know. 92 losses, 92 wins, or anything in between would not surprise a lot of us.

Everything goes here except Gameday threads and really big news. If a giant story breaks, the Royals achieve some awesome milestone, or we sign/lose a highly significant player/coach/mascot/whatever, then it might also deserve its own thread. This being Chiefs Planet, please do not clutter the board with new threads about trivial Royals news or you will only annoy those who come here for just Chiefs football. If you aren't sure and its not a Gameday thread, it goes here.

What sort of stuff often goes here? SPchief explained it well, so I'll just copy that:

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.

[rageeumr]

Stole this picture from Facebook. It's probably been posted before, but it's a really good summary of how I feel right now.

[duncan_idaho]

Originally Posted by gblowfish

Chen currently has a 2.52 ERA, but that won't last. He'll be up in the low to mid 4's before the AS Break.

And he's O-2.

He's had a couple of good starts lately, but he's a career journeyman. The Royals are his 11th different team. He's a slighly over .500 pitcher in the NL and a below .500 pitcher in the AL with a career ERA around 5.

If you think he'd start for St. Louis, or the Yanks, or the Dodgers, or the Giants, or the Nats, or Philly, or a host of other teams, than you're the one that is an idiot.

Dude is a poor man's Jamie Moyer at best. He's OK as a #5 starter, but not much more than that.

Chen's numbers over the past two years (And start of this season) place him in the top 50 in ERA and BAA.

The Yankees are running out three pitchers who have been less successful in that time period. The Cardinals: Two (Lohse and Westbrook). The Dodgers: two (Capuano and Harang). The Giants: Two (Zito and Vogelsong). The Nats: Two (Edwin Jackson and Ross Detwiler). The Phillies: Two (Joe Blanton and Kyle Kendrick.

The statement that Chen would not start for 3/4 of MLB teams is absolutely ludicrous. He's a solid No. 3 starter over the past two years, by the numbers and ranked vs. his peers.

He definitely looks to be slotting into that crafty lefty territory, which is not unheard of for a pitcher in his early/middle 30s.

This season is tough to comment on. Combine a team that is snakebitten with a guy who is over-managing, and you get the unpretty results we've seen so far.

The losing streak pretty much puts to an end any talk of sticking around the Tigers (barring a Boston Braves 1914 miracle season), but there still is plenty of time to show improvement and continue moving towards the ultimate goal (winning something). I just hope they get on that path soon.

[gblowfish]

Originally Posted by duncan_idaho

Chen's numbers over the past two years (And start of this season) place him in the top 50 in ERA and BAA.

Where is he in wins?
How many All Star Appearances?

He has one opening day start.
One.

You guys sure know how to polish a turd, I'll say that!

Hey, I like Chen. He's one of the positives we've had in this crap fest month. Will he keep it up? His history says no. He's a journeyman, and he's been injury prone. He's just not the kind of guy you can build a contender on, and he certainly shouldn't be your #1. That should be Hoch, but Hoch is way too inconsistent.

[Nightfyre]

Originally Posted by gblowfish

Where is he in wins?
How many All Star Appearances?

I stopped and mocked you thoroughly in my mind before ignoring the rest of an undoubtedly shitty post.

[gblowfish]

Originally Posted by Nightfyre

I stopped and mocked you thoroughly in my mind before ignoring the rest of an undoubtedly shitty post.

Yeah, facts will do that to you.

[Nightfyre]

Originally Posted by gblowfish

Yeah, facts will do that to you.

Come at me bro. You believe pitching wins and all-star appearances are meaningful stats.

[gblowfish]

If you guys think Chen is that valuable, considering this season is already in the toilet, we should trade him to a contender (while you think somebody would actually want him) for a second base prospect and bring up Montgomery and let him start learning how to get major leaguers out. If you don't like that, let's bring back Kyle Davies and plug him into the rotation! Maybe DM wasn't wrong about him after all! Trot him out there for another ten or twelve starts. Most of your starters have an ERA over 5 anyway, so what do you have to lose? This season we're already buried in the cellar, so why not build for 2013? Yesterday DM said this is a one to three year window, right? Clearly we have three years to sort all this out.

Oh and I forgot, the Royals are the only team in MLB that don't look at wins and losses.
Standings, and stats, that's all trivial pursuits.

[Ebolapox]

hmmmm, who'd have thought that george blowfish wasn't into sabremetrics?

[Chiefspants]

Originally Posted by gblowfish

Where is he in wins?
How many All Star Appearances?

So, by those standards, I suppose Greinke was undeserving of his Cy Young Selection?

[gblowfish]

Hey man, I'm just sayin Bruce Chen ain't Justin Verlander. He's been good this month. He won't have an under 3 ERA by the All Star Break. He's not the problem.

These guys have buried themselves. And they'll probably play much better ball in the next week or two. They might even play close to .500 the rest of the year. Then we'll all look back at this month and say "What if?" It's sad, really.

Getting Cain back will help. Getting Perez back will help, mostly because it will get Pena out from behind the plate calling games and playing defense.

Alice has been killing this team. It'll be a scream when he comes back for his Kauffman Stadium gold glove ceremony hitting a buck eighty.

I'm just glad the NFL draft is Thursday so we can go back to talking football.

[gblowfish]

Originally Posted by Chiefspants

So, by those standards, I suppose Greinke was undeserving of his Cy Young Selection?

Who needs Cy Young Winners? We trade them away or let them walk. Ask Greinke, Sabes and Cone.

[gblowfish]

Aw hell, maybe we'll win tonight!

Who wants me to start the game thread???

[lewdog]

Originally Posted by gblowfish

Aw hell, maybe we'll win tonight!

Who wants me to start the game thread???

I should get to start it.

Also in honor of our soon to be win tonight, I am doing the Cleveland steamer.

[gblowfish]

Originally Posted by lewdog

I should get to start it.

Also in honor of our soon to be win tonight, I am doing the Cleveland steamer.

Go for it dude,
The thread, I mean....

[duncan_idaho]

Wins and All-Star appearances. Two things the starting pitcher has almost zero control over. Absolutely antiquated way to look at a player's value (just like the guys who will take a .300 hitter who rarely walks and therefore has an OBP of around .330 over a .260 hitter who walks 100 times and has an OBP in the .350-375 range). Kind of like the guys who think bunting (in any situation other than tied/one-run 7th inning or later) is a good strategy in the AL.

Not saying Chen can be built around or is a true ace. Just that he has, as dozens of lefthanded pitchers before him have, become a pretty solid starter in his early/middle 30s by relying on craft and experience.

The statement that he wouldn't even start for 3/4 of the teams in MLB (or the several teams mentioned and rebutted) is just silly.

The Royals luck is going to normalize. They're going to rebound and play to their true talent level. As Rany said, it is still possible to take a ton of positives away from this year. But it needs to start happening soon.