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.

The 2013 season is closer than we realize. The Royals will feature a rebuilt rotation that likely includes 4 new starters. The most-watched prospects of 2012, Wil Myers and Jake Odorizzi are gone, the price required to rebuild the rotation.

The Royals still have Sal Perz, who has even more of a "star" look to him than a year ago. They still have Alcides Escobar, who was a little less SS jesus in 2012 but brought more at the plate. Billy Butler finally hit a number of home runs that matches his build and how hard he hits the ball. Alex Gordon did it again. Hosmer and Moose struggled.

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.

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?
2) When will Luke Hochevar be shown the door?
3) Does Hosmer bounce back?
4) Can Moustakas hit for a whole season like he did in the first half of 2012?
5) Who regresses?
6) Who plays 2B?
7) Can Jeff Francoeur be at least replacement level, rather than epic horrible level?
8) Will Dayton Moore survive to see 2014?
9) Will Danny Duffy come back healthy? And if he does, is he the same, better or worse?
10) And the big one: Has KC added enough to run down the big-money Detroit Tigers?

[Prison Bitch]

Originally Posted by Three7s

I figured he'd be a 15-20 homer guy when I followed him in the Minors. If anyone else expected more, then I don't know what to say. He's a line-drive hitter. If he can bump up his average more, he could be similar to Mauer.

Really? You saw him hit 29 HR his only minor league season, and you figured he'd hit 15 in the bigs as a mature, experienced hitter? YOu would literally be the only person who thought that low.


Also he's nowhere near Mauer since Alex can't make consistent contact. He swings at terrible pitches and Mauer rarely does. However, Alex is a good athlete and is healthy (unlike Mauer) and is really providing surplus value in LF and on the basepaths. He's basically turned into Darrin Erstad.

[DeezNutz]

Originally Posted by Prison Bitch

Yeah, those 14 bombs he hit in 650 AB last year were REALLLLLLY impressive. Gosh weren't you just blown away by that power surge? Don't you suspect steroids or something now when a guy hits 14 home runs in a season? What a power hitter!



He's a slap and line drive hitter, not close to a power hitter. He was supposed to be a Ryan Braun and hit 35hr. Maybe he'd fall short and be an Aramis Ramirez and hit 25 every year. Nobody thought he'd have Mark Teahen power. Alex hits line drives and is able to leg out lots of extra bases with his speed & athleticism and intelligence.


But his power is barely existent. He's a shadow of what we thought he'd be. Nobody figured he'd become a 5-WAR player by racking up tons of legged-out doubles and playing great defense in LF. Tht wasn't what we thought we were getting.

I have no idea of the intent of your first paragraph.

Gordon hits a lot of line drives and his approach is gap to gap, all of which are fine. While Gordon didn't end up living up to the hype, he's still ridiculously productive and valuable.

Don't denigrate what he does by labeling him a "slap hitter," which is inaccurate. Plain and simple.

[Saul Good]

Originally Posted by CJizzles

Jack-King off.

Well played!

That's actually why that hand popped into my mind.

[duncan_idaho]

Calling Alex Gordon a slap hitter is just ignorant. He is a line-drive hitter, yes. But there's a big difference between guys that drive the ball and guys that try to slap it.

Juan Pierre is a perfect example of a slap hitter. Scott Podesdnik also fits the bill. There's a big difference between those guys and Alex Gordon.

He's probably not going to hit 30+ year after year, at least not playing home games at the K. But he's still someone who is going to average around 20 HR a season with the ability to hit 25.

[CJizzles]

Originally Posted by Saul Good

That's actually why that hand popped into my mind.

Terrible ****ing hand that gets mucked by me OOP 90% of the time.

[mr. tegu]

Anyone going to FanFest? It is this Saturday.

http://kansascity.royals.mlb.com/kc/...um/fanfest.jsp

[Great Expectations]

Any chance the Royals are interested in Marcum? What would it take to get Upton from Arizona? Colon, Bubba, and Smith?

[duncan_idaho]

Originally Posted by Great Expectations

Any chance the Royals are interested in Marcum? What would it take to get Upton from Arizona? Colon, Bubba, and Smith?

Arizona would probably need much more than that from KC to move Upton.

Bubba + Ventura + Colon is more likely (and only because they really like Colon, apparently).

I don't know if we'll see a Marcum signing, in fact I doubt it... but they ARE kicking the tires on Javier Vazquez, still.

[stevenidol]

I follow Bob Dutton, the Royals beat writer for the KC Star, on twitter and you can really tell how tired he is of answering people's questions about Jeff Franceour and the Shields trade.

Every moron fan that sends a "can we trade Jeff Franceour for Giancarlo Stantion" type question or "Dempster is better than Shields, we should have kept Myers" comment gets a response that seems to me like absolute disdain.

It's pretty entertaining.

[DeezNutz]

Originally Posted by duncan_idaho

Arizona would probably need much more than that from KC to move Upton.

Bubba + Ventura + Colon is more likely (and only because they really like Colon, apparently).

I don't know if we'll see a Marcum signing, in fact I doubt it... but they ARE kicking the tires on Javier Vazquez, still.

Done. Yesterday.

If we're going all in, so be it.

[duncan_idaho]

Originally Posted by DeezNutz

Done. Yesterday.

If we're going all in, so be it.

In retrospect, that package is probably light UNLESS something else of note is included. Maybe one of the other SSs (Calixte?).

But yeah, I'd be willing to swing a strong package to Arizona for Upton.

[Big Smoke]

Originally Posted by lewdog

Check out my new signature guys!

I'm glad you decided to save it.

[cookster50]

Originally Posted by duncan_idaho

In retrospect, that package is probably light UNLESS something else of note is included. Maybe one of the other SSs (Calixte?).

But yeah, I'd be willing to swing a strong package to Arizona for Upton.

They'd want someone more established than any of those players to be the centerpiece.

[JASONSAUTO]

Originally Posted by DeezNutz

Done. Yesterday.

If we're going all in, so be it.

agreed

[duncan_idaho]

Originally Posted by cookster50

They'd want someone more established than any of those players to be the centerpiece.

They've been linked to packages from the Rangers that included Mike Olt and the Braves that included Julio Teheran.

I don't know that anyone really knows what they truly want or what it would take to pull the trigger.