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?

[Mother****erJones]

Would the royals really trade all their top prospects and sign Stanton to a massive contract when it's time?

[GloryDayz]

Originally Posted by Dartgod

Hey Prison Bitch. This one's attempting to take your title.

Hardly. Just dealing with reality. Once the stars see that they can't fix this team singlehandedly, it just gets harder and harder to care.

Or we'll just go with the "trying too hard" excuse. I'm adding it to the list of excuses my engineers can hand me when they don't get the work done. NOT!

[GloryDayz]

Originally Posted by Mother****erJones

Would the royals really trade all their top prospects and sign Stanton to a massive contract when it's time?

**** NO!!! We'll trade them all for a few minor league prospects to play in Single-A squad for five years, and tell the fans they're now targeting 2018 as "our year". They learned a few tricks from King Carl!

Look, the fact the general manager, the team manager, and Moose have survived this without so much as a public lashing has to tell you something.

What can I say, people like Cool-Aid, and we keep drinking it.

[WhawhaWhat]

Originally Posted by GloryDayz

**** NO!!! We'll trade them all for a few minor league prospects to play in Single-A squad for five years, and tell the fans they're now targeting 2018 as "our year". They learned a few tricks from King Carl!

Look, the fact the general manager, the team manager, and Moose have survived this without so much as a public lashing has to tell you something.

What can I say, people like Cool-Aid, and we keep drinking it.

The ownership couldn't care less as long as the money keeps rolling in.

[jbwm89]

Man this thread really went to hell.

[ShowtimeSBMVP]

Royals
35-38, third in AL Central, 6-1/2 games back

So much for the impact of George Brett as interim hitting coach.

The Royals are 14-9 since Brett and Pedro Grifol replaced Jack Maloof and Andre David as the team’s hitting instructors, as opposed to 21-29 before the change. But the team is actually scoring fewer runs, dropping from 3.98 to 3.74 per game.

Pitching and defense are the primary reasons the Royals are near .500. Yet, even the pitching is something of a mirage.

While the team leads the American League in ERA, it is only 11th in Fielding Independent Pitching, which measures the effectiveness of pitchers based on results that do not involve fielders. What’s more, the Royals’ pitchers have the league’s sixth lowest strikeout rate, and their opponents’ batting average on balls in play is the fifth lowest.

In other words, they’re getting lucky.

Some rival executives criticized the Royals’ blockbuster with the Rays as a reach, reasoning that the Royals were not good enough to sacrifice a prospect such as Wil Myers in a win-now deal.

I disagreed with that assessment initially, but not now. I’m skeptical that the Royals can catch the Indians, much less the Tigers.


http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/c...-season-062313

[Mother****erJones]

Originally Posted by ChiefsandO'sfan

Royals
35-38, third in AL Central, 6-1/2 games back

So much for the impact of George Brett as interim hitting coach.

The Royals are 14-9 since Brett and Pedro Grifol replaced Jack Maloof and Andre David as the team’s hitting instructors, as opposed to 21-29 before the change. But the team is actually scoring fewer runs, dropping from 3.98 to 3.74 per game.

Pitching and defense are the primary reasons the Royals are near .500. Yet, even the pitching is something of a mirage.

While the team leads the American League in ERA, it is only 11th in Fielding Independent Pitching, which measures the effectiveness of pitchers based on results that do not involve fielders. What’s more, the Royals’ pitchers have the league’s sixth lowest strikeout rate, and their opponents’ batting average on balls in play is the fifth lowest.

In other words, they’re getting lucky.

Some rival executives criticized the Royals’ blockbuster with the Rays as a reach, reasoning that the Royals were not good enough to sacrifice a prospect such as Wil Myers in a win-now deal.

I disagreed with that assessment initially, but not now. I’m skeptical that the Royals can catch the Indians, much less the Tigers.


http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/c...-season-062313

Damn. Harsh

[Chiefspants]

Originally Posted by Mother****erJones

Damn. Harsh

Can you two pump each other in the O's thread? Thanks.

[Prison Bitch]

Originally Posted by ChiefsandO'sfan

Royals
In other words, they’re getting lucky.

According to their Pythagorean data, the Royals are 2 games worse than their expected W/L record which should be 37-36. So in fact they are not getting "lucky", but rather they are 2 games unlucky.


Sorry to inject facts here.

[TambaBerry]

Is there anything more pathetic then those two? Why the **** are you obsessed with the royals?

[jbwm89]

Originally Posted by Prison Bitch

According to their Pythagorean data, the Royals are 2 games worse than their expected W/L record which should be 37-36. So in fact they are not getting "lucky", but rather they are 2 games unlucky.


Sorry to inject facts here.

The article is basically saying they are getting lucky to have the current Runs Scored and Runs Allowed numbers that they have. Pythagorean data says that given their RA and RS they are two games unlucky. Doesn't mean that they aren't getting "lucky" getting t their current numbers.

I would say the Royals are pretty lucky to be 6.5 back given how badly moose/hoz/butler have sucked, among others.

[Prison Bitch]

Originally Posted by jbwm89

The article is basically saying they are getting lucky to have the current Runs Scored and Runs Allowed numbers that they have. Pythagorean data says that given their RA and RS they are two games unlucky. Doesn't mean that they aren't getting "lucky" getting t their current numbers.

I would say the Royals are pretty lucky to be 6.5 back given how badly moose/hoz/butler have sucked, among others.

I understand perfectly what the article is trying to say. However, using FIP and BABIP here can make you say what you want it to. The Royals built a team around pitching and defense so it's quite expected that their ERA would out-do the typical team given their defenders. Maybe it's not the way to win in the AL (their hitting has suffered for it) but it explains the guy's points.



To put it another way: had we signed Melky types we'd be better offensively but worse defensively and we'd still probably wash out the same run differential.

[Ceej]

I find it incredibly funny and ironic an Orioles fan posts a link about a baseball team getting lucky.

Trolling at its finest.

[Al Bundy]

Originally Posted by ChiefsandO'sfan

Royals
35-38, third in AL Central, 6-1/2 games back

So much for the impact of George Brett as interim hitting coach.

The Royals are 14-9 since Brett and Pedro Grifol replaced Jack Maloof and Andre David as the team’s hitting instructors, as opposed to 21-29 before the change. But the team is actually scoring fewer runs, dropping from 3.98 to 3.74 per game.

Pitching and defense are the primary reasons the Royals are near .500. Yet, even the pitching is something of a mirage.

While the team leads the American League in ERA, it is only 11th in Fielding Independent Pitching, which measures the effectiveness of pitchers based on results that do not involve fielders. What’s more, the Royals’ pitchers have the league’s sixth lowest strikeout rate, and their opponents’ batting average on balls in play is the fifth lowest.

In other words, they’re getting lucky.

Some rival executives criticized the Royals’ blockbuster with the Rays as a reach, reasoning that the Royals were not good enough to sacrifice a prospect such as Wil Myers in a win-now deal.

I disagreed with that assessment initially, but not now. I’m skeptical that the Royals can catch the Indians, much less the Tigers.


http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/c...-season-062313

Hey.... go **** yourself.

[Mama Hip Rockets]

Originally Posted by ChiefsandO'sfan

While the team leads the American League in ERA, it is only 11th in Fielding Independent Pitching

Who cares where they rank in "Fielding Independent Pitching"? Talk about grasping at straws.