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?

[WhawhaWhat]

Originally Posted by Nzoner

Loving the callers on 610 this morning,KC Royals passion is alive and well!!

I haven't listened to 610 as much, but I like when the hosts of the shows shut down the morons.

[ChiTown]

Originally Posted by Nzoner

Loving the callers on 610 this morning,KC Royals passion is alive and well!!

People don't understand how passionate this City is about baseball. They just want a reason to care. The fact that so many people are upset about yesterday's game shows you that people have bought in, and want to step behind this Team. It also shows how sensitive the fan base is to failure. They have seen so much of it over the last 3 decades that they are sensitive to the fact that when it gets bad, it goes South very quickly here in KC.

[Nzoner]

Originally Posted by ChiTown

People don't understand how passionate this City is about baseball. They just want a reason to care. The fact that so many people are upset about yesterday's game shows you that people have bought in, and want to step behind this Team. It also shows how sensitive the fan base is to failure. They have seen so much of it over the last 3 decades that they are sensitive to the fact that when it gets bad, it goes South very quickly here in KC.

Still remember back in the late 70's to mid 80's when Royals Stadium would sell out on weeknights.

[duncan_idaho]

Originally Posted by Prison Bitch

Anyway back to reality. By my calcs Moose has to hit .361 the rest of the way to finish at .300. Obv wont happen but if he hits .300 from here out he can finish at .250. (That's how buried he already is)

I thought you DIDN'T make up stats?

[WhawhaWhat]

Originally Posted by Nzoner

Still remember back in the late 70's to mid 80's when Royals Stadium would sell out on weeknights.

I think cautious optimism is the mood of most of the fan base right now. The fans have always been there but have had nothing to root for. 2003 was a punch to the gut and they don't want that to happen again.

Hopefully once the summer starts the ballpark will start to fill up and David Glass can stuff his pockets with all that beer and hotdog money.

[SPATCH]

Originally Posted by Prison Bitch

Anyway back to reality. By my calcs Moose has to hit .361 the rest of the way to finish at .300. Obv wont happen but if he hits .300 from here out he can finish at .250. (That's how buried he already is)

These projections have already been disproven, but there is another failure in logic here that I would like to point out:

If Moose were to hit .300 the rest of the way, the extra offense he provided would obviously be a great benefit to the team. Why would it matter that he finished the season with a .250 avg (again, the math is off, but I don't care about that)?

It wouldn't matter. So give it a rest, man.

I like sabermetrics/numbers/splits/all of that shit.. but it seems like a few people are getting a little smug with their (perceived) sabermetric superiority.

[duncan_idaho]

And here are the facts, Prison Bitch:

Since you went pissy-pants bitching about how Moose needed to be sent down to "send him a message" that his struggles "would not be tolerated," he has shown real signs of life and started to play and hit much better.

He's coming off of an 8-game stretch in a week in which he has posted a triple slash of .320/.414/.480

He's not likely to maintain that for the rest of the season, but IF he did, his final line would look like this:

.300/.393/.483 (.876 OPS)
20 HR | 43 2B | 86 BB

Your thoughts at the time were an overreaction, as many pointed out here (I remember Al and I saying he should be given through the Cleveland series to start showing improvement). You continue banging that drum - I can only guess because you like being right - even though Moustakas has picked it up significantly, starting with that series.

Oh, and here's the last fact I'll point out to you: You just joined CoMO Chief on my ignore list. Congrats.

[Fansy the Famous Bard]

Prison bitch doesn't believe the stuff he posts... He's angling simply to get rises out of people.

[Prison Bitch]

Originally Posted by duncan_idaho

And here are the facts, Prison Bitch:

Since you went pissy-pants bitching about how Moose needed to be sent down to "send him a message" that his struggles "would not be tolerated," he has shown real signs of life and started to play and hit much better.

He's coming off of an 8-game stretch in a week in which he has posted a triple slash of .320/.414/.480

He's not likely to maintain that for the rest of the season, but IF he did, his final line would look like this:

.300/.393/.483 (.876 OPS)
20 HR | 43 2B | 86 BB

Your thoughts at the time were an overreaction, as many pointed out here (I remember Al and I saying he should be given through the Cleveland series to start showing improvement). You continue banging that drum - I can only guess because you like being right - even though Moustakas has picked it up significantly, starting with that series.

Oh, and here's the last fact I'll point out to you: You just joined CoMO Chief on my ignore list. Congrats.

Good work, Rex.

[Prison Bitch]

Originally Posted by Zeke

Prison bitch doesn't believe the stuff he posts... He's angling simply to get rises out of people.

It's true that we have posters who don't believe the stats. It is a conspiracy of MLB to manipulate their numbers. And I'm in on it.

[KevB]

You send a guy down "to show them you're serious" when they don't take a professional approach to their craft and/or they aren't putting in the work. I've only ever heard the opposite of these two. Hard workers, team leaders, etc. IF you decided to send them down, it's because you want to give them a mental break or you have some adjustments you'd like them to work on away from major league pitching.

As has been stated, both guys have had better at bats the last week or so. When we decided to go young, there's a level of patience that must be demonstrated. We want to win now, but we all understand that to do that, these young guys have to hit. They know that more than anyone, and their own futures depend on it. I don't think they need to be reminded how serious this is.

I wish they were Ryan Braun/Mike Trout/Evan Longoria types that came up and immediately raked. But, that's not the case. Let's hope they improve, and if they do, we'll have a really good time watching that happen.

[Dartgod]

Originally Posted by Prison Bitch

It's true that we have posters who don't believe the stats. It is a conspiracy of MLB to manipulate their numbers. And I'm in on it.

Please tell me how you came up with .361 for Moose to reach .300 at the end off the year.

[Prison Bitch]

Originally Posted by Dartgod

Please tell me how you came up with .361 for Moose to reach .300 at the end off the year.

Yeah if we assume he does play nearly every game you would be right he'd end at .282. I assumed he'd only get 4 months but you are probably right that he's here to stay for good hell or high water.

[Prison Bitch]

Originally Posted by KevB

You send a guy down "to show them you're serious" when they don't take a professional approach to their craft and/or they aren't putting in the work. I've only ever heard the opposite of these two. Hard workers, team leaders, etc. IF you decided to send them down, it's because you want to give them a mental break or you have some adjustments you'd like them to work on away from major league pitching.

As has been stated, both guys have had better at bats the last week or so. When we decided to go young, there's a level of patience that must be demonstrated. We want to win now, but we all understand that to do that, these young guys have to hit. They know that more than anyone, and their own futures depend on it. I don't think they need to be reminded how serious this is.

I wish they were Ryan Braun/Mike Trout/Evan Longoria types that came up and immediately raked. But, that's not the case. Let's hope they improve, and if they do, we'll have a really good time watching that happen.

Neither of us know if the duo is being professional or not and I'm not taking a position on that today because it doesn't really matter. They are bad players right now, they are not improving, an their slumps are not confined to this year. I don't know why they are this bad.

I wonder if its a hitting coach deal or poor development or what but it has to alarm te front office as this drags on endlessly. We have produced one outstanding bat since Beltran and another good one. Who took 5 years to click. Other teams produce good bat consistently. Questions need to be asked.

[alnorth]

Originally Posted by Prison Bitch

Yeah if we assume he does play nearly every game you would be right he'd end at .282. I assumed he'd only get 4 months but you are probably right that he's here to stay for good hell or high water.

I don't mean to pile on, but if he's hitting at a .360-something clip for longer than a week, he's not going to be sent down no matter what his season averages say. The Royals would go "Eureka! He's turned the corner!"