Agree 100%. Hence the giphy. They are barely keeping their heads above water.

Random thought - Greinke was drafted by KC in 2002, so the Royals now have not drafted anyone close to a true ace in over 20 years now. Surely that is an example of historic ineptitude by this franchise.

It's kinda funny that Allard Baird drafted Greinke and Beltran...while being hamstrung like a mofo by ownership...meanwhile today...

I get what you're saying, but is it really?

Depends on your definition of "true ace" I think. I can't think of a true ace drafted/developed by the following teams in that time span:

Cardinals
Cubs
Astros
Phillies
Blue Jays
Diamondbacks
Orioles
Red Sox
White Sox
Reds
Rockies
Angels (unless you count Ohtani)
Twins
Mets
Yankees
Padres
Rangers

That's more than half of MLB teams.

That standard is too high to judge a team on. What's better, is just ... how many viable MLB starters are you pumping out?

An area where the Royals are clearly deficient.

Imagine someone from Johnson County being forced to park east of 71 highway LOL

https://cityscenekc.com/city-manager...UqXLYtEudVrBb4

The city manager also made some interesting comments...

"It’s an interesting concept but the user experience will not be positive. If visitors are being told to park in a series of garages that can be minutes or miles away it’s going to be inconvenient for people. It’s not the same experience of going to a game that everyone wants."

Looks like a **** ton of challenges. Did some math the street car can move about 5k in a few hours that's not nearly enough so some sort of parking will need to created. There's also a businessman on 10th & Charlotte who's refusing to sell his business which impacts the idea of building near the stadium. This thing sounds much easier in NKC

Edward Olivares is such a dipshit

LMAO An Olivares highlight reel there. Fly ball to right and he leaves first full sprint and is halfway to 3rd base by the time it's caught. Not sure what happened there. Maybe he thought there were 2 outs.

I guess I don't know what the technical definition of ace or somewhere close but there are a few missing here. Degrom(Mets) Sale(white sox) Hammels(Phillies) Gallen(drafted by cards but traded in minors to dbacks) John Lester (Red Sox, 4 seasons with an era under 3) Dallas keuchel( Astros, cy young and 3 seasons under 3 era) Cueto(Reds) peavy(padres).

Regardless your last point still stands. It's actually pretty depressing to think about who is the second best starter we have drafted and developed. The runs in the playoffs had basically no starters except for Ventura, who we didn't draft but close enough, but even he wasn't actually as good as people remember. Lots of potential and some great outings but the world series win year he had an era over 4 and did the same the following year. If you take out Duffy's one amazing year he has a career era well over 4. I'm not sure we have had a pitcher who has posted 4 seasons with an era under 4 with the royals since greinke which is depressing.

Why does everyone always pick on Joco? What about Lee's Scummit and Blue Springs?

Here's my attempt at filling out your list with only guys drafted from 2002 onward:

Cardinals: Depends how you count Alcantara, Gallen
Cubs:
Astros: Keuchel
Phillies: Hamels, Nola
Blue Jays:
Diamondbacks:
Orioles: Arrieta
Red Sox: Lester
White Sox: Sale
Reds: Cueto
Rockies:
Angels (unless you count Ohtani): Jered Weaver
Twins:
Mets: Depends on how you count Wheeler. DeGrom.
Yankees: Depends on how you count Tanaka
Padres:
Rangers: C.J. Wilson (not counting Darvish)

Cole Ragans nice start. 6 innings, no runs, 8 K's.

Blanket statement: If they were traded and came up through another team's system, they don't count.

So of the 17 teams I identified as joining KC in the "No ace drafted and developed since 2002" club, I'd walk it back on the White Sox (Sale), Mets (Wheeler, deGrom), and Phillies (Hamels). There are a few guys who are questionable (Red Sox, Astros), but there's also the question of if we're counting from Greinke forward or not (which would drop the Red Sox and Phils back out for me).

And if you're holding it up to Greinke as a comparison, who should be a slam-dunk HoF player, I don't think there are many on that list who stack up to him.

Point being: If 1/2 the teams in a league aren't doing something, I don't think you can really critique the Royals for not doing it.

There's plenty of ammo elsewhere, though.

The bigger question would be what teams drafted and developed starting pitchers that had an impact on the roster for 5+ years above average starters (majority of arbitration years), which I think is more telling than drafting and developing a generational pitcher.

Using the Cardinals as reference, the only two guys they’ve had on the roster who fit that criteria since 2010 are Lynn and Flaherty.

The issue is the Royals don't do anything well so it's not like they can trade for someone else's pitcher.

Yeah. There are teams that are doing this well. The Marlins, Rays, Brewers, Dodgers, Mariners, Guardians, and Braves really stand out.

I'm still on team "find a way to steal talent from those orgs that can bring that draft and develop method to KC."

Next year should be a pretty telling one for what Paul Gibson and his team is doing.