C'mon man...Shealy hasn't proven a damn thing... Brown is a very average player and DeJesus is a mediocre centerfield, at best . What has John Buck ever done? I mean, seriously?

You want to rest your team's chances on a guy who the Cardinals wouldn't offer dick too even though they had a severe need at 2B and a guy like Reggie Sanders who can hit a bad breaking ball with the best of them, but can't hit a good fastball to save his life??

Potential doesn't mean dick when it comes to results.

Yeah cause Shealy's played a few seasons in the majors to prove himself....give me a break, he hasnt sucked, and if the Royals gave up on Teahan he wouldn't have had the year he did. It will take time and I don't think we have that many holes as you think. Dejesus is a solid player and would probably be on most teams.

You obviously haven't actually watched Grudzielanek play, he should win a Gold Glove this year. And he hit almost .300, I don't know what more you could ask for at that price. That was a huge mistake by the Cardinals. The Cardinals went cheap this year, I wouldn't be making any judgments based on their FA decisions.

Shealy will be a good hitter. DeJesus is already a good hitter, and very good defender. Brown and Sanders don't really fit into the long term plans of the team, although I like Emil, he has a great approach at the plate. In a couple years Billy Butler will be out there in RF.

You can't say that Grudzielanek fits in either long term...he's 37? now...and you seem to forget that this is about next year's team...look at the thread title. I'm not saying that Shealy can't be a good hitter, I'm saying that expecting him to produce next year is asking too much, just like expecting anyone on that team to actually produce at an all-star level is asking too much.

So in another one/two years when Butler, Shealy, and Gordon are *ready* (provided that they all actually *do* produce at a major league level which is by no means certain) you've got guys like Grudzielanek, Sanders and Brown whose holes need to be filled.

Your expectations require all of their upper level prospects to pan out, but we all know that does not happen. You are going to have busts along the way, especially given that many of these people weren't exactly drafted by the best scouting department to ever be assembled.

You realize Shealy played nearly a third of the season in KC don't you? And he already was producing... and it was the first time he's ever gotten regular duty really. If you project that out, it would've been a .280/22 HR/114 RBI season.

Grudz isn't a long term solution but he looks okay so far. As long as he keeps playing D and slaps it around a little I'm okay. Plus there are two guys in German and Jeff Keppinger that could be long term solutions. I'd say both Teahen and Shealy were producing pretty high levels. Teahen definitely was at All-Star level.

You put Gordon and Butler in the mix of this lineup we got something really going! We have some possible starters but need more. Just have to hope we have a bounce back year with some reliever. So is Burgos a starter now or what??

I don't think my expectations are that high at all. The only two upper level prospects I'm predicting pan out are Butler and Gordon. And those guys will pan out. Those might be the two best hitters in minor league baseball. Everything else on top of that is gravy, Lubanski, Maier, Justin Huber, etc. And the Royals system is pretty good at producing position players I'd say, just the absolute worst at developing pitchers.

Teahan was great the 2nd half of the season, but a lot of that was one torrid streak. I'm not saying he can't produce over 162 games, but he hasn't done it yet.

Regarding Shealy...he hit 7 HR over 50 some games...yeah that projects out to 22 HR, but it can also just be a nice 50 games. He's never done it over a whole season.


I say again, this is the problem with all Royals fans...you take these short term blips and blow them up into far more than what they really are. Albert Pujols was on pace to hit 80 homeruns after April, and as great as he is, he ended up with 49. You can't assume that one great month or two is indicative of a player's overall ability. You guys always stake your team's future to these incredibly-short term projections and they seldom work out as well as you'd desire. .

We need to do some kind of sig bet over this...

Royals can be the next T bones if they get a new Owner and start drafting well and paying for good players.

You are way out in left field here. Teahen just didn't have one little torrid streak. Drives me nuts when people say that. He was on fire for about 4 whole months. Since when did that become a little "torrid streak". Has Pujols just been on a "torrid streak" for 6 years now? At what point does it stop becoming a hot streak and become legitimate improvement?

Teahen went to the minor leagues and made some swing adjustments. Since that point he completely tore the cover off the ball at AAA and in the majors. And he did it with a shoulder problem. Ryan Shealy has torn the cover off the ball at every level of baseball he's ever played. He finally got a chance to play everyday and he continued to do it. Now, anything possible and they could go through the floor, but you act like it's some Chris Shelton deal where somebody played way over their head for a month and everybody got excited. It's really not like that.

Question number 1. Ummmm no.
Question number 2. Yep

And you are pencilling these guys in as potential all-stars. When '05 started, what was the consensus on Teahan? He was a light-hitting 3B. Shealy has potential, but he also had a Rob Deer-esque K per game while with the Royals. You are also forgetting that was his first go-round with AL pitching...they haven't found his true weak spots yet.

It's just as likely these guys are going to end up like Ken Harvey or Bob Hamlin as they are going to be leading players on a good MLB team.

Can the Royals be next years tigers?

No.

I mean, yeah, you could be right. Maybe they'll all get hurt. Nothing is ever guaranteed. Hamelin kept getting hurt and had eye problems. But you could say the same thing about any player. Maybe Pujols is going to develop some eye problem or hurt himself and never be the same again. Maybe Chris Carpenter is going to break his arm throwing a curveball. You don't know. You gotta go forward with what you have.

But I would say I've always been a big supporter of Teahen, even when all the fans and analysts were knocking him. And to be honest I think he has a chance to be better defensively than people give him credit for. I really like him, I think he's gonna be a good baseball player. Very good plate discipline, outstanding baserunner, very good arm, very patient and calm, makes him good in late-game situations. I mean maybe Shealy will be the next Ken Harvey, I don't know. I really don't think so, just watching them play, Harvey never displayed Shealy's power. Shealy can hit it a ton, and I think has better plate discipline than Harvey did, Harvey would go up there hacking, hit a lot of ground balls. I can handle the strikeouts as long as he keeps mixing in some 420 foot bombs every few days.