2013 Kansas City Royals Repository Thread

[duncan_idaho]

Proposed 2013 Slogan: Tigers: They're what's for dinner
Actual 2013 Slogan: Come to Play
A better, more accurate, or alternative slogan: All in, no panic, we promise.

Dayton Moore has pushed all his chips in and is riding on King/Jack suited, hoping it comes together, he gets some good luck, and he hits the nuts by the river card. There's potential, oh yes, there's potential. There's also risk.

At the midway point, Dayton is left counting on the river card. The flop and turn didn't help him, and he's looking at the Tigers holding a pair of Queens and the Indians holding a pair of 9s. His 2013 plan hasn't failed - yet - but the odds are not in his favor.

Burning questions updates below.

Burning Questions for 2013:

1) Will the improve rotation be improved enough? Does James Shields pitch like a fringe No. 1 away from Tampa Bay? Does Ervin Santana pitch to his highest upside in his walk year? Can Jeremy Guthrie build on his strong performance as a Royal in 2012? Can Wade Davis bring his new mentality- and velocity - back to the rotation?

Midseason check-in: Yes, the rotation is certainly improved enough. Shields has pitched like a fringe No. 1 and Santana is having his best season. Guthrie has horrible peripherals but has continued to perform well at his home park and eat innings on the road. Davis brought neither his kick-ass mentality or improved velocity back to the rotation and is in Luke Hochevar/Hiram Davies territory.

2) When will Luke Hochevar be shown the door?
Midseason check-in: It appears, never, at this point. Hochevar has been solid in non-leverage situations, though pretty much every time he has been used with men on base in an inning, it has been a disaster.

3) Does Hosmer bounce back?
Midseason check-in: It took some time, but Hosmer's performance from June 1 on is probably the most encouraging thing about the 2013 season so far.
4) Can Moustakas hit for a whole season like he did in the first half of 2012?
Midseason check-in: Nope. Moustakas was god-awful, then great for about 3 weeks, then god-awful again. He has been better since he started working with Brett and Grafol but still has a long way to go.
5) Who regresses?
Midseason check-in: Welp, Alicides Escobar is not a surprising name here (though Yost's stubborn insistence on hitting him second is ridiculous). Billy Butler is a surprise. He isn't having a terrible year - still contributing a lot to the offense - but he's not hitting for the average or power he has displayed over the past several years.
6) Who plays 2B?
Midseason check-in: A whole bunch of people, and not that great. Gio is at least getting a shot, though he once again is not doing much with it.
7) Can Jeff Francoeur be at least replacement level, rather than epic horrible level?
Midseason check-in: Hahahahahahahahahahaha
8) Will Dayton Moore survive to see 2014?
Midseason check-in: Outlook uncertain. Probably still around, unless the team completely tanks in the second half and he does something foolish. My guess - he sacrifices Ned Yost this offseason and gets one more shot with a new manager in 2014.
9) Will Danny Duffy come back healthy? And if he does, is he the same, better or worse?
Midseason check-in: Yes. Velocity looks the same, and it looks likely he is the same guy as before.
10) And the big one: Has KC added enough to run down the big-money Detroit Tigers?
Midseason check-in: Doesn't look like it, does it?

[Deberg_1990]

Originally Posted by Dartgod

You do realize that there were strong thunderstorms forecast for the area and the game ended in a deluge of rain, no?

yes

[gblowfish]

Originally Posted by Deberg_1990

Nice list George. No Storm Davis?

I picked Mark Davis instead. In 1986 with had both Cy Young Winners (Sabes and Davis) on our pitching staff.

I remember this story because I was painting my house and was listening to the Royals. I think Hal McRae was manager. Anyway, we had a double header with Milwaukee. They send Mark Davis out to start. He gives up like six or seven runs in the first inning. McRae pulls him and tells him to get ready, because he's going to start game two of the double header because he only pitched an inning. Between games, Davis decides to shave off his beard and moustache. So in game two, a newly clean shaven Davis strides to the mound...

And proceeds to give up five runs in the first inning of the second game.

Gets bounced to the bullpen, and never starts again.

On a side note, I was at the game where Mazzaro gave up 13 runs to Cleveland in one inning. Kyle Davies started that game, btw....

[Chiefless]

Originally Posted by gblowfish

Well, you could pick an all-washed-up team. Players who came here on their last legs. That would include guys like Harmon Killebrew, Vida Blue, Chili Davis, Reggie Sanders, Miguel Tejada, etc etc etc. There's been a ton of those guys limp through here.

Kirk Gibson.

[Sully]

Remember when Posnanski was doing a town hall with Costas, and someone asked them why they thought run-scoring was up in MLB, and someone in the audience yelled, "Bottalico!!!"

[Deberg_1990]

Bob Hamelin was pretty awful except for that 1 year.

[Demonpenz]

All suck team for me would be

Shane Costa
Joey Gathright
Rick Ankiel

Doug Menkevich
Yuni betencourt
Tony Pena JR
Rueben Gotay

Kelly Stinnett

[Dartgod]

Originally Posted by gblowfish

I picked Mark Davis instead. In 1986 with had both Cy Young Winners (Sabes and Davis) on our pitching staff.

I remember this story because I was painting my house and was listening to the Royals. I think Hal McRae was manager. Anyway, we had a double header with Milwaukee. They send Mark Davis out to start. He gives up like six or seven runs in the first inning. McRae pulls him and tells him to get ready, because he's going to start game two of the double header because he only pitched an inning. Between games, Davis decides to shave off his beard and moustache. So in game two, a newly clean shaven Davis strides to the mound...

And proceeds to give up five runs in the first inning of the second game.

Gets bounced to the bullpen, and never starts again.

You sure about that? We signed Mark Davis after he won the Cy Young as the closer for San Diego for the same role here. Which he stunk at.

[Demonpenz]

Brandon Berger
Mike Aviles
Scott Podsednick

[gblowfish]

Originally Posted by Deberg_1990

Bob Hamelin was pretty awful except for that 1 year.

Well, he was American League Rookie of the Year. That's why I gave him a pass. Same reason I didn't consider Aw-Hell B-error-A.

[Dartgod]

Originally Posted by Dartgod

You sure about that? We signed Mark Davis after he won the Cy Young as the closer for San Diego for the same role here. Which he stunk at.

Or was that after he lost the closer role?

[gblowfish]

Originally Posted by Dartgod

You sure about that? We signed Mark Davis after he won the Cy Young as the closer for San Diego for the same role here. Which he stunk at.

Yes.

At that point, he had failed as a closer, so they were trying him in the rotation. Like Hoch now, they were paying him big bucks for the time, and wanted to find a use for him. After he failed as a starter, they put him in spot relief, but never as a closer again. When he got to KC, he was just a poster child for failure.

[Demonpenz]

Remember Kerry Robinson going back tooo the track climbing the fence and having the ball bounce on the warning track. Grimsley getting hit in the face by ken harvey throwing home. Sweeney getting hit in the back by a cutoff throw. Ken Harvey getting hit in the back by a cut off throw.

[Deberg_1990]

Jim Eisenreich kinda creeped me out......but he was an ok utility player.

[Demonpenz]

Eisenreich had Torets syndrome and had to tell the umpires that if he cussed at him it was because of his disease. He was a great ball player from the land of Minnisota.

[Deberg_1990]

heh, i remember telling friends "Jeremy Giambi" is gonna be huge!