*** Official Royals Repository, Part 4 ***

[duncan_idaho]

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

Duncan's Official Team Record prediction: 90 wins
One month in: Looking strong
All Star Break: Looking strong, probably should adjust up to 93-94 wins.
Duncan's Official Team MVP prediction: Eric Hosmer
One month in: Upstaged by his best friend MIKE MOOTACOS, MAN. Tell us bout your hittin, bro!
All Star Break: Lorenzo Cain starting to run away with this one.

Division Preview
Clearly, overlooking the Twins was a mistake at this point. I still don't believe in that team long-term, but they're starting to get that Magic Season twinkle about them.

Detroit is toast. Garbage rotation beyond Price and Sanchez, Miggy out.

And Cleveland... Cleveland still is dangerous if it ever clicks offensively, because the starting pitching is good enough for them to real off a 15-5 stretch and get right back into the playoff picture.

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

The first of these is clearly not going to happen. The second looked good through the end of May but is now eating Cain's dust (Hosmer has still been improved this year, though, lessening his valley. If he has a really hot second half, he can get right back in it). Item three is definitely the case. Item four should probably be first at this point. And Morales has more than bounced back.

Duncan’s Top 20 for mid-season 2015:

Spoiler!

1. Raul Adalberto Mondesi, SS, BOTH: Tools, tools, tools. RA has tools galore. At his best, he’s an All-Star SS who plays elite D, hits 15-20 HR, swipes 40 bags, and is an ideal 1, 2 or 3 hitter. At his worst, I think he looks a lot like Alcides Escobar. Plate discipline is his biggest challenge at this point, but evaluators are confident that will come with time. Clear No. 1
2. Kyle Zimmer, RHP: He’s pitching again and staying healthy, which is nice. He’s pitcing out of the bullpen to build back his arm strength, which is less nice. But still has that high upside, just a lower floor now. Ideally, the team will use him as a bullpen weapon in September (because he has earned it) and then give him a chance to transition back to starting for 2016.
3. Miguel Almonte, RHP: Still love the body, FB/CH combo. Results aren’t eye popping, but he’s still low enough and early enough in the development to prize those things over performance. Still a solid No. 3 starter upside, and just a year and some change away from potentially being ready to contribute at the MLB level.
4. Jorge Bonifacio, RF, RH: Emilio’s little brother got off to a horrible start in 2015 but has heated up as the season went on. He also is translating BP power to game power for the first time, with 15 HR just past the mid-way point of his season. Despite his disappointing 2014, he has a chance to build his way back into legit prospect status – and still is only 22. Next challenge for him should be Omaha, but that may wait for the start of the 2014 season.
5. Scott Blewett, RHP: Blewett has a nice two –pitch mix already and is off to a strong start. With his size (6-6) and a good fastball/curveball combo, Blewett could eventually turn into a good No. 3 starter, with a MLB-average changeup.
6. Nolan Watson, RHP: The Royals’ 2015 sandwich pick is a polished prep arm who is adding velocity and explosiveness to a good, polished base. Likely to move quickly.
7. Ashe Russell, RHP: The 2015 top pick probably needs more work than Watson, but the upside is really nice. Again, advanced two-pitch mix that will depend on him adding a changeup. Could be a very good NO. 2 if it all adds up.

Spoiler!

8. Bubba Starling, CF, RH: Starling has been up and down this year but put himself back on the map by greatly improving his K rate while also improving across the slash line as a hitter. His defense and baserunning are MLB ready; if Starling can work himself into a league average hitter, he can be a solid MLB regular who plays great D in CF while hitting 15 HR and swiping 20 bags.
9. Balbino Fuenmayor, 1B/DH, RH: The Balbino came out of basically nowhere in 2015 to earn a Futures Game spot. Big power and an improved two-strike approach have turned the late bloomer into a legit prospect. He’s blocked at the MLB level currently by Eric Hosmer and Kendrys Morales, but Fuenmayor’s combination of power hitting and good average/strike zone control makes him intriguing.
10. Cheslor Cuthbert, 3B, RH: Cheslor probably is not going to be the star KC was hoping for when signing him out of Nicaragua, but he does look like he can be a solid reserve for an MLB club. Good defense at 3B paired with a solid plate approach and some gap power plays fine off the bench. He becomes a lot more interesting if they think he can stick as a 2B, which they have experimented with.
11. Chase Vallot, C/DH/1B: I really like Vallot’s power and plate discipline combo. His bat will probably force him from behind the plate, but he’s held his own despite being extremely young for every level he has faced.
12. Alfredo Escalera-Maldonado, OF, RH: Escalera-Maldonado earned a promotion to Wilmington at age 20, which is pretty advanced movement for that age. He’s an athletic outfielder who has shown some plate discipline at an early age, which is encouraging. Doesn’t sound like he can stick in CF long term for KC, but his bat has become one to watch.
13. Pedro Fernandez, RHP: I haven’t seen much of him, but like the reports I’ve heard on his fastball and general makeup. Could become the next Almonte/Mondesi, though he’s more likely to land in the pen than either of them.
14. Elier Hernandez, OF, RH: Elier Hernanez teamed with Escalera-Maldonado in breaking out at Low-A and earning a promotion to Wilmington. It’s still early for this guy – he is just 20 years old – but he doesn’t take walks and hasn’t developed the prodigious power many thought he had the potential for. Still worth watching.
15. Hunter Dozier, 3B, RH: Dozier is reworking his swing mid-season, which generally will cause production to do what his has done: Nose dive. The changes he made entering the season (seemingly geared towards increasing his power production) were a disaster, and now he’s trying to get back to what he used to be. Still looks great and checks most of the scouting boxes, but the performance hasn’t matched, and it almost knocked him out of the list.
16. Christian Binford, RHP: After a breakthrough 2014, Binford struggled mightily at AAA and suffered a demotion. His upside remains similar – a back-end starter who can eat innings – but Binford’s lack of velocity and reliance on command have caught up to him so far.
17. Marten Gasparini, OF, SH: Gasparini is intriguing because of his speed and athleticism. He’s a LOOOOONG ways from the majors and young for his level, but reports on his bat speed, swing, and speed remain positive enough to keep him on the bubble.

[KC_Connection]

Always better to not have to play your way in, but if I’m Houston, I’m happier to be going to KC than Toronto right about now.

— David Cameron (@DCameronFG) October 7, 2015

More fuel being added to the Dave Cameron hating fire for you guys.

[KChiefs1]

http://mweb.cbssports.com/mlb/writer...its-no-contest

NEW YORK -- A pitcher named Dallas on a team from Houston who was born in Oklahoma and went to Arkansas shut down the Yankees. Maybe the Yankees were simply confused.

More likely, Astros lefthander Dallas Keuchel was simply too good for the former Bronx Bombers.

As you watched the Astros’ 3-0 defeat of the Yankees on these hallowed grounds of Yankee Stadium in the new-fangled one-game Wild Card elimination game, you got the feeling you were watching a team of the future pound a team of the past.

The Yankees, whose season ended with a thud in front of a crowd that started raucous but turned ugly, were fortunate to have the home-field advantage, such as it was. But that’s about all they had going for them.

Toward the end of the game, Yankees fans began to boo as the weak groundouts and strikeouts piled up. They finished with only three hits, all against Keuchel in his six impressive innings.

Really, the Astros, who moved on to face the Royals, last year's upstart team, deserve cheers. Their mix of computer geeks, power hitters and youth looks mighty potent at the moment, and should be for years to come.

Oh, at Yankee Stadium they kept playing highlight reels from days gone by on the big scoreboard here, stuff from the seventies, the sixties and fifties -- you know, way before any of these Astros graced this Earth. If it was an attempt to unnerve any of the young upstarts, well, it didn’t work, put it that way.

The kid Keuchel, who hasn’t been to arbitration yet, or even a barber for that beard apparently, put up nothing but zeroes for the third time in three starts against America’s most storied franchise. He’s now up to 22 straight scoreless innings against the Yankees this season, the first pitcher ever to do that. The previous record of 18 was performed by the White Sox’s Joel Horlen in 1965, one of the early Horace Clarke years in the Bronx.

Keuchel begged to start this game on three days’ rest. And Astros manager A.J. Hinch, a Manager of the Year candidate, didn’t consider for a second anyone else. Before the game, Hinch said he wouldn’t have been able to sleep had he saved a better-rested Keuchel for the next round and the Astros lost.

After the game, a scout who watched Keuchel serve up his brand of high 80s fastballs and sharp breaking stuff, noted that he had “Big (stones).”

Indeed, he does.

The Astros, who finished buried badly in the basement two straight years and only moved out last year because the Rangers were transferred to an infirmary, are a surprise playoff entrant, by nearly everyone’s account. But maybe they shouldn’t be.

They have a very nice collection of very young stars. And as Astros owner Jim Crane said before the game, there’s more where that came from. Or words to that effect.

The Yankees, meantime, seemed to be a fortunate playoff entrant. While their record was actually one game better than that of the Astros, Houston had by far the more impressive season based on run differential and other measures. The Astros were second in the AL with a plus-111 run differential, while the Yankees a plus-66 mark.

The Yankees also came into the game with half their lineup in horrendous second-half slumps, and even more if one counts Jacoby Ellsbury, the $153-million star who was strangely benched by hunch-playing manager Joe Girardi. Girardi, who does deserve credit for getting these Yankees to October, explained that he wanted to get righthanded backup outfielder Chris Young in the game, and that made some sense, though not at the expense of Ellsbury. Brett Gardner, who played over Ellsbury, went 0 for 3 with three strikeouts against Keuchel (and 0 for 4 overall), continuing his lifetime collar against Keuchel.

Anyway, it’s just a little embarrassing that the Yankees’ best player is the middle-aged Alex Rodriguez, who himself slumped in the second half but still got the cleanup spot in a Girardi lineup that hinted of desperation. While that was mostly by default, A-Rod was truly one of the best things to happen to the Yankees this year. He came into spring training just hoping to make the team, and maybe win back one or two converts, and he became the toast of the town -- at least the section of town that didn’t notice the younger, more interesting Mets had taken over.

What a great thing that Rodriguez can still hit, as his contract goes practically until it’s time to pick up the AARP card. But A-Rod, frankly, is old enough to be some of the Astros’ fathers, including the one they sometimes call the next A-Rod, Carlos Correa, a lanky young shortstop with the once-in-a-generation ability that A-Rod once was, oh, about a generation ago.

The Yankees still have some nice names in their lineup, and even a little youth (the three under-30 players batted seventh, eighth and ninth) sprinkled in the Yankees’ ill-advised lineup, which led off with Girardi personal favorite Gardner, who did look like he could hit Keuchel if he was brandishing a guitar. But it was a lineup dominated by thirtysomethings, and thirtysomethings in hellacious slumps. Their only hot veteran, Carlos Beltran, batted third. And my how things have turned around for Beltran, as he was the one given in an outfield with issues, quite a comeback considering his awful start to the season.

The Astros’ lineup has some similarities to the Yankees (both the historical and current Yankees) in that it relies on the long ball. The difference was, they delivered.

The Astros, who trailed the MLB homer leaders Toronto by only two home runs, didn’t need much to back Keuchel. Colby Rasmus and Carlos Gomez, who were acquired by free agency and trade, respectively, provided the first runs of the game with legit homers. Rasmus’ was an absolute bomb to right field, just to the left of the second deck. And he punctuated it with a bat flip that’s not part of the Yankees’ game.

Gomez relished his drive, deep into the Yankees’ bullpen in left-center field, though not enough to upset the Yankees’ traditionalist catcher Brian McCann, who previously took issue with some Gomez hot-dogging when Gomez was a Brewers and McCann a Brave.

If the Astros enjoyed themselves a little too much at times, there was no way to blame them. They hadn’t been to the postseason since 2005, when they went to the World Series as the National League entrant, thanks largely to the presence of two Yankees on their pitching staff -- Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte.

That was many years ago, before the Astros refashioned their front office around computer aficionados who know the game. The Astros have youth, power and pitching on their side, and they seem to be well ahead of schedule. Who knows? Maybe they even beat the Sports Illustrated prediction that they win the World Series in 2017.

[AJKCFAN]

Duncan_idaho

It's time to crank up Part 5 of the Royals Repository

Make it happen!

[tk13]

The best part of that Dave Cameron tweet is the guy arguing in the replies that there are better ways to measure performance than wins.

[Prison Bitch]

Wild Card winner is 3-3 in ALDS. So who knows

[suzzer99]

Thank goodness we only have to face Kuechel once. Then again I said that about facing Bumfarter twice.

[cosmo20002]

Originally Posted by suzzer99

Thank goodness we only have to face Kuechel once. Then again I said that about facing Bumfarter twice.

Maybe he'll Bumgarner us and go games 3 and 5

[Lex Luthor]

Originally Posted by cosmo20002

Maybe he'll Bumgarner us and go games 3 and 5

Nah. I read in this thread that Aces don't matter.

[ChiTown]

Originally Posted by suzzer99

Thank goodness we only have to face Kuechel once. Then again I said that about facing Bumfarter twice.

I don't see Keuchel pitching 3 times in 8 days

[Lex Luthor]

Did you see Bumgarner pitching effectively in Game 7 on 2 days rest?

[ChiTown]

Originally Posted by Brainiac

Did you see Bumgarner pitching effectively in Game 7 on 2 days rest?

no, I completely missed the WS last year. What happened?

[Lex Luthor]

Originally Posted by ChiTown

no, I completely missed the WS last year. What happened?

I believe what happened is you just dodged my question.

[Why Not?]

The difference, of course, is there is no tomorrow after the WS, especially game 7. If Keuchel went games 3 and 5 on us, his availability and at some point effectiveness is severely limited in the ALCS(if they got past us)

[Lex Luthor]

Originally Posted by Why Not?

The difference, of course, is there is no tomorrow after the WS, especially game 7. If Keuchel went games 3 and 5 on us, his availability and at some point effectiveness is severely limited in the ALCS(if they got past us)

Completely agree. I was wondering if ChiTown would think to post that.

The thing is, I don't see Keuchel pitching 3 times in 8 days either. I'm just hesitant to boldly state that it can't happen after what Bumgarner did to us last year.

[WhawhaWhat]