*** 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.

[DanT]

Originally Posted by GloryDayz

What happened? This time...

With 2 outs and the bases loaded in a tied ballgame, Royals reliever Brian Flynn got the Rays Kevin Kiermauer to hit a hard-hit grounder to first-baseman Ryan O'Hearn, who made a nice play to glove the ball, but he then got up and threw low and a little bit away from the plate to Salvy Perez, who was trying to get the force play at home and so was not able to keep the ball from clanging off his catcher's mitt while he stretched to catch the errant throw. So Rays win on a walk-off error.

[OKchiefs]

Originally Posted by suzzer99

The funny thing is you know whether we take first or second worst - we'll pick some shlub and the Orioles will pick another Machado/Sale. Then we'll commiserate about it for the next decade.

And certain members will give excuses for Dayton Moore no matter what about how the job is hard and the draft is a crapshoot.

[GloryDayz]

Originally Posted by DanT

With 2 outs and the bases loaded in a tied ballgame, Royals reliever Brian Flynn got the Rays Kevin Kiermauer to hit a hard-hit grounder to first-baseman Ryan O'Hearn, who made a nice play to glove the ball, but he then got up and threw low and a little bit away from the plate to Salvy Perez, who was trying to get the force play at home and so was not able to keep the ball from clanging off his catcher's mitt while he stretched to catch the errant throw. So Rays win on a walk-off error.

Ugh. A very Royals way to lose....

Welp, maybe it's a blessing if we get to pick #1...

[Pitt Gorilla]

Nice article in the athletic about newberry.

[Prison Bitch]

Originally Posted by OKchiefs

And certain members will give excuses for Dayton Moore no matter what about how the job is hard and the draft is a crapshoot.

He won the World Series

[OKchiefs]

Originally Posted by Prison Bitch

He won the World Series

So did Ned Yost, yet he gets shit on all the time. As the World Series gets further and further away and we continue to lose 100+ games it's going to be harder for anyone to defend him. Of course, there are plenty of sunshine pumpers who defend him no matter what. I give him credit for having a decent 2018 draft and making some halfway decent trades with what we had to work with. I also have no problem with criticizing him for doing almost nothing in the draft for the past half decade. I see no problem with criticizing him for coming up empty year after year in the international market. He's reached the point where he basically needs to hit on the majority of his moves, because he's been so miserable ever since the world series that his failures have directly led to us being the worst team in the majors.

[GloryDayz]

Originally Posted by OKchiefs

So did Ned Yost, yet he gets shit on all the time. As the World Series gets further and further away and we continue to lose 100+ games it's going to be harder for anyone to defend him. Of course, there are plenty of sunshine pumpers who defend him no matter what. I give him credit for having a decent 2018 draft and making some halfway decent trades with what we had to work with. I also have no problem with criticizing him for doing almost nothing in the draft for the past half decade. I see no problem with criticizing him for coming up empty year after year in the international market. He's reached the point where he basically needs to hit on the majority of his moves, because he's been so miserable ever since the world series that his failures have directly led to us being the worst team in the majors.

Meh, small market team. You build for once-every-six-year runs, and pray the system results in a WS appearance once every 25 years.

Sent from my 9+ using Tapatalk

[OKchiefs]

Originally Posted by GloryDayz

Meh, small market team. You build for once-every-six-year runs, and pray the system results in a WS appearance once every 25 years.

Sent from my 9+ using Tapatalk

The thing is, there are similar small market or limited budget franchises like Oakland, Tampa, Cleveland, etc. that just do it so much better. Now, we won the world series recently and none of them have, so of course I'll take the championship over merely being competitive. But there absolutely is a recipe for not having to tank this bad. I'm definitely going to enjoy the chance we have to get guaranteed top 5 draft picks the next several years, but I'm extremely skeptical that Moore will be able to capitalize.

[Prison Bitch]

Originally Posted by GloryDayz

Meh, small market team. You build for once-every-six-year runs, and pray the system results in a WS appearance once every 25 years.

Sent from my 9+ using Tapatalk

This^

[Al Bundy]

The Royals lost for the 90th time tonight, joining the Orioles who had already reached that mark.

According to @EliasSports, this is the 3rd season in MLB history - and the first since 1979 - with multiple 90-loss teams before the start of September. pic.twitter.com/TdWxP1yDCc

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) August 24, 2018

[duncan_idaho]

Originally Posted by OKchiefs

And certain members will give excuses for Dayton Moore no matter what about how the job is hard and the draft is a crapshoot.

Hey man: **** you.

I consistently have said they need to do better in the draft than they have, while consistently saying they’ve done an average job over the course of Moore’s tenure. Average isn’t good enough for KC. They need to be above-average, which they were not in too many years.

I mention the facts about draft bust rates and the difficulty of the MLb draft compared to the NFL because some of you consistently ignore those facts and try to look at the Royals’ draft performance through an NFL draft lens.

This latest garbage about the Royals never doing anything or finding players in the international market is just another example of ignoring facts.

The best young player on the Royals roster at the MLB level is an international signee. The best position player is an international signee. One of the best prospects, who was leading the minors in HR until he hurt his back, is a big dollar international signee from just three years ago. Some of the most important pitchers during the most recent run (Kelvin Herrera and Ventura) were international guys.

And they have some promising international signees on the farm, too.

Just because this is the first year you paid attention to the international market and they didn’t do anything splashy doesn’t make your narrative about the international market correct.

But if you want to just say negative, erroneous shit all the time, I’ll direct you to RoyalsReview.con. You’ll fit right in. They might even give you a job as a writer.

[GloryDayz]

Originally Posted by OKchiefs

The thing is, there are similar small market or limited budget franchises like Oakland, Tampa, Cleveland, etc. that just do it so much better. Now, we won the world series recently and none of them have, so of course I'll take the championship over merely being competitive. But there absolutely is a recipe for not having to tank this bad. I'm definitely going to enjoy the chance we have to get guaranteed top 5 draft picks the next several years, but I'm extremely skeptical that Moore will be able to capitalize.

I think in that case, sans SKC, the owners of the teams in KC don't harbor the same drive for winning that the owners of teams in those other cities. Perhaps because our city doesn't demand that they do.

[duncan_idaho]

Originally Posted by GloryDayz

I think in that case, sans SKC, the owners of the teams in KC don't harbor the same drive for winning that the owners of teams in those other cities. Perhaps because our city doesn't demand that they do.

The owners of the Rays and A’s are the two worst and cheapest owners in MLB. So this comparison/claim doesn’t hold up.

The A’s haven’t won a WS because ownership for years has refused to make big salary additions to add missing pieces. Same thing for the Rays.

David Glass was terrible for a long time but really operates like a model small market owner from the time he hired Moore on.

[Mecca]

Tampa was a model franchise when Andrew Friedman was there, when he took the Dodgers job that team cratered.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by Mecca

Tampa was a model franchise when Andrew Friedman was there, when he took the Dodgers job that team cratered.

Uh.

The Rays have the same record as Friedman's Dodgers with effectively a minor league payroll.

That's still an excellent organization with probably the best manager in baseball that nobody knows about.