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?

[tk13]

Plus I think most people would rather see us save that money and try to re-sign Shields. As many others have noted, Santana has a history of being inconsistent from year to year. Plus Shields is a fastball/changeup guy, might have more miles left on his arm... plus his bulldog mentality is a great example for the younger pitchers. He doesn't panic and fall apart under pressure situations.

Plus it'd be nice if he could be there if (knock on wood, lots of wood) guys like Zimmer and Ventura can make their way up in the next 2-3 years.

[58kcfan89]

Originally Posted by WhawhaWhat

Probably have to commit to around 3 years/$45 mil. You still want to make that offer?

If the owner wasn't a piece of trash who would use it to cut costs elsewhere, I might...

Originally Posted by lewdog

In what world would the Royals be paying a guy 10+M a year...likely near 13-15M? You can't take the chance that you will be able to resign him IMO. I just don't see that happening in any world from the small market Royals. He won't be looking for a one year deal but rather a multi-year contract which is much too risky for a team like the Royals to lock up that much money in one SP.

Fair enough. I don't know enough about what he would command & what we can afford. I just know that we have no problem overpaying crapsacks like Hoch, Frenchy, etc. and it might not be the worst thing in the world to overpay a good player, especially considering how "close" we're supposed to be.

[Archie F. Swin]

Interesting storyline in the AL West. The Rangers, who now have a front office with a winning attitude and money to back it up, are 5 games out of first behind the Athletics who seem to still be playing some form of moneyball.

[Chris Meck]

Originally Posted by Prison Bitch

Why didn't he evoke the name Raul Ibanez?

Here's the thing with Lough-yeah, he's probably just a guy. Except that...I remember right after they changed hitting coaches, he hit a homer to right and everyone, including him was surprised.

He credited Brett with finding something wrong with his swing and said they "corrected it". Since then, he's been a .300 hitter and fairly productive. I felt like early on he didn't have the bat speed,but it seems he does now.

Perhaps it sticks. At any rate, it's not costing us much to see. I think we need to sort out RF but it's no longer the gaping black hole it was when Frenchy played there every game.

to me, 2b is the real question mark. You really need an everyday player in that spot.

[lewdog]

Originally Posted by 58kcfan89

Fair enough. I don't know enough about what he would command & what we can afford. I just know that we have no problem overpaying crapsacks like Hoch, Frenchy, etc. and it might not be the worst thing in the world to overpay a good player, especially considering how "close" we're supposed to be.

No problem. Baseball is so much different than the NFL which has parity in player signing because of salary cap rules. You pay good players you want to keep in the NFL but MLB is so much harder to judge appropriate signings based on franchise structure, minor league talent and ability of top tier teams to take greater chances on player signings than the lower tier teams. It is what makes baseball a complete guessing game for these small market teams and very interesting when lower level teams ARE in the race come August.

[tk13]

Originally Posted by Archie F. Swin

Interesting storyline in the AL West. The Rangers, who now have a front office with a winning attitude and money to back it up, are 5 games out of first behind the Athletics who seem to be paying some form of moneyball.

The A's may be walking on thin ice though if Colon gets suspended. Of course they'll probably find a way to work around it. That'd be a huge blow though.

But the real story, as we've seen several times over the previous decade... is the A's and Rays are leading their big budget divisions with payrolls that are 10+ and 20+ million dollars less than the Royals. This kind of thing has happened several times in recent years.

[Raiderhater]

Originally Posted by tk13

But the real story, as we've seen several times over the previous decade... is the A's and Rays are leading their big budget divisions with payrolls that are 10+ and 20+ million dollars less than the Royals. This kind of thing has happened several times in recent years.

And everyone wants to bitch about Glass being cheap. Which, he probably is to some extent. However the real story with this franchise is the incompetence that runs through it. If the Royals are actually spending more than a couple of division leaders, there is NO excuse for not being contenders.

And it pisses me off.

[siberian khatru]

And the Rays play in a crappy ballpark and have an apathetic fanbase.

[Coach]

Originally Posted by Raiderhader

And everyone wants to bitch about Glass being cheap. Which, he probably is to some extent. However the real story with this franchise is the incompetence that runs through it. If the Royals are actually spending more than a couple of division leaders, there is NO excuse for not being contenders.

And it pisses me off.

It doesn't help the fact that they are spending it on poor quality players like Getz, Francouer, Mendoza, etc to name a few off my head. Beatancourt was another one that was terrible.

[Raiderhater]

Originally Posted by siberian khatru

And the Rays play in a crappy ballpark and have an apathetic fanbase.

Yep. The level of fail coming out of Kauffman is absolutely mind boggling.

[Raiderhater]

Originally Posted by Coach

It doesn't help the fact that they are spending it on poor quality players like Getz, Francouer, Mendoza, etc to name a few off my head. Beatancourt was another one that was terrible.

Absolutely. Incompetence plain and simple. Shitty talent evaluation. Stubbornness to stick by those players even after they have proven to be failures. It is like an entire franchise of Pioli/Cassel syndrome. Completely unfathomable.

[Prison Bitch]

Originally Posted by Raiderhader

And everyone wants to bitch about Glass being cheap. Which, he probably is to some extent. However the real story with this franchise is the incompetence that runs through it. If the Royals are actually spending more than a couple of division leaders, there is NO excuse for not being contenders.

And it pisses me off.

In all fairness, those big money teams have bad injury luck right now. Nobody thinks the Yankees would only be 55-50 if they had Texeira-Granderson-ARod all year long. Red Sox without Buckholz, Bailey, Hanrahan, which is dead money. And Texas lost 18-game winner Matt Harrison, Colby Lewis (14-game winner two years ago, 3.30 ERA last year), Feliz who saved 35 per. Berkman hurt now etc.


Tampa Oakland and yes, KC have been extremely injury-free this year. That explains what's happening in the standings.

[Raiderhater]

Originally Posted by Prison Bitch

In all fairness, those big money teams have bad injury luck right now. Nobody thinks the Yankees would only be 55-50 if they had Texeira-Granderson-ARod all year long. Red Sox without Buckholz, Bailey, Hanrahan, which is dead money. And Texas lost 18-game winner Matt Harrison, Colby Lewis (14-game winner two years ago, 3.30 ERA last year), Feliz who saved 35 per. Berkman hurt now etc.


Tampa Oakland and yes, KC have been extremely injury-free this year. That explains what's happening in the standings.

Tampa is always a potential contender, regardless of the BoSox and Yanks injury problems. Oakland is not in the mix every year but, often enough to provide fans with a reason to support them.

Sorry but, the big money clubs injury problems does not detract from the competence emanating from a couple of the smaller franchises.

[KevB]

Myers with 2 more home runs today and 4 RBIs. It's a struggle trying not to pay attention, but when the guy is blowing up like this I can't help it.

[DeezNutz]

Originally Posted by KevB

Myers with 2 more home runs today and 4 RBIs. It's a struggle trying not to pay attention, but when the guy is blowing up like this I can't help it.

Imagine if Moore had decided to trade Moose instead of Myers for Shields...