Why is Wade Davis still in the major leagues?

Why is Kelvin Gutierrez still in the major leagues?

Hanser Alberto agrees...

Hanser Alberto is that kid in little league that swings at every pitch, no matter what.

Dayton Moore just jizzed in his pants

Yeah that’s kinda what DM looks for

Rank among 30 teams

Infield hit rate: #1
Bunt hits: #1
Swinging rate: #3
Swinging rate pitches outside zone: #3
Swinging rate inside zone: #3
Babip: #15
Runs vs fastballs: #27
Walk rate: #28



We swing at everything, make weak contact, never walk, and can’t hit fastballs. WOOF!

I'm fine if you want to get a bunch of guys that 'swing away', but if you're gonna do that your organization and coaches need to be teaching the importance of contact rate and putting the ball in play. We excelled at that from 2013-2016 and, for the most part, still have a lot of the same guys employed in the Royals organization. The biggest difference is the current major league coaching staff. Mathany and his hitting coaches, which Duncan alluded to in an earlier post. If you're gonna employ those types of hitters, you need to teach them to approach their at bats a certain way, and that teaching certainly continues at the Major League level. At least, it should.

Since Terry Bradshaw became the hitting coach in 2018, the strikeouts have steadily gone up. Not saying its all his fault, as I realize some guys have sold out for power in their approach, but I think it's safe to say at this point that they're not being taught the same thing they were a few years back when Sveum was the hitting coach.

I think that explains part of the problem. Not all of it, obviously.


Edit: In fairness to the Royals organization, I think they recognized some of their shortcomings the past few years, which is a big reason why they signed Santana and went after Beni on the cheap. They recognize the problem to some degree, but rather than fix it internally, they seemed to have just gone out and picked up a couple guys who have a different approach. But that doesn't change the fact that you still have the same hitting coaches working with these guys everyday. And we're simply NOT seeing results . . . . . at least, not positive ones.

He was 3 for 4 last night. Starting with the Angels series through last night his OBP at .429.

The entire organization needs a complete overhaul and change in philosophy.

DM is solely responsible for the wild hackers plaguing our lineups. He brought in guys like Duda, Mondi, Soler, Doze, Phillips, Starling, M Taylor, ROH, McBroom, KG, and even gave Owongs 145PA (whiffed 55x before mercifully being cut)

If the Royals have any hope of finishing around the .500 mark, he's GOT TO start producing runs and OPS'ing closer to 800+ the balance of the season.

Ironically Soler for the month of June is OPS at .900. He is starting to get going which is a good sign. He missed a dong last night by 6 inches.

Now with Benny out, we just have too many AAAA players in the lineup towards the bottom. You can live with Michael Taylor in the 9 hole because of his defense with a good lineup above him.

That is a positive sign at least. The Royals REALLY need his bat to turn the corner if they have any hopes of winning games with this offense.

The only reliable part of the lineup at this point is your top 3 and Whit has been scuffling a bit for a while, Santana is REALLY struggling right now and then Salvy, who has been their most consistent hitter all year despite his free swinging approach. But hey, it's worked out for him (so far).

He also had a critical AB with multiple runners on base (possibly loaded, IIRC), and he swung so hard he fell over and hit a weak popup. He's gotta stop doing that.

Soler is extremely important to this current lineup. He can't be throwing up zeros. Let's hope his June trend continues.

Mondesi back tonight?

Tom, you are certainly the Wile E Coyote of Royals Troubleshooting. As you said previously:

"Check my post history in this thread lately versus yours, if you wanna talk about meaningful baseball discussion. I'll stand on my body of work in the baseball thread versus yours anyday."

OK. Fair Enough. Question:

Is Mathany the Royals equivalent to the Chiefs Bart Vatch?

I'm looking forward to another evening of wildly entertaining and provocative Royals baseball. Are you?

Bring up O’hearn!

He’s crushing it!

Mondesi gone tomorrow?

I’m weirdly amused by George losing his mind over this team. Might keep me more attuned to post-loss discussions. What will he say next?

ROFL

Nope. Mondesi-less lineup was just posted.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Mike Matheny said Royals shortstop Adalberto Mondesi &quot;is very close&quot;. Said yesterday was the first day Mondesi looked like he was moving like Mondesi does, running without favoring anything.</p>&mdash; Alec Lewis (@alec_lewis) <a href="https://twitter.com/alec_lewis/status/1404890060785389568?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 15, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The ideal world this season is that you get Mondesi and Benintendi back and can do something like:

Merrifield (2B)
Santana (1B)
Benintendi (LF)
Perez (C)
Mondesi (SS)
Soler (DH)
Dozier (3B)
Taylor/Dyson (CF)
Olivares (RF)

That would be a better defensive squad. I'd actually prefer to hit Soler 7th because he's kind of perfect for that spot, but cest la vie.

They need to get Dyson more time in CF and just turn it into a more true platoon while chasing handed-ness advantages. Taylor's massive swing change has... led to him being the same exact guy, over time.

Wanna know something scary? Look under the hood of Taylor’s stats. He’s batting .237 with a babip of .357! His expected avg is only .223 so he might actually get worse if his luck aligns with his actual. Also his OBP of .294 is expected of .281


Maybe Hud can stop gargling his balls.

So spelling errors is the route you're going on me?

But to answer your question. Sure. Why not.


I like you, George. You're a good dude. But you WERE being kind of a dick in the Royals thread lately. Sorry I felt the need to call you out on it. Apparently one of your comments just rubbed me the wrong way.

Nothing personal.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">We have made the following roster moves. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Royals?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Royals</a> <a href="https://t.co/21uyUnfRff">pic.twitter.com/21uyUnfRff</a></p>&mdash; Kansas City Royals (@Royals) <a href="https://twitter.com/Royals/status/1404946077686587398?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 15, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Over/under on how long he lasts?

He was just put back on the IL

Nothing Personal.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/x-Bg0jjJhgQ" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Why are the Omaha Storm Chasers the greatest team of all time?

Kelvin reminds me of watching Escobar after he lost his elite speed.

KG = embarrassing

Why the **** is Olivares not getting every single chance to play.

That’s what’s annoying me right now. Perfect time to let the young bats get some experience

In 16 years, DM hasn’t drafted a single starting OF. It’s so embarrassing. It’s the easiest spot on the field to place, and you have 3 spots on top of that. Yet this clown can’t ever do it.


He’s had 3 viable OF in his entire term:

1. Gordon, moved from 3B
2. Locain, acq in trade
3. Dyson, 50th rounder who’s been a 4th OF

Wil Myers

We can swap Myers in for Cain then.

I guess he wasn't kidding. He got to the on deck circle. That's closer than he's been in weeks!

Is Wade Davis still on this team?

He pitched in Oakland on Saturday giving up 5 hits, 5ER 1 BB and 0 K's in 1 inning. He's completely washed up and a perfect fit for the R's.o:-)

I promised Tom I would be nothing but positive this week. I was looking at the Royals vs. the AL Central so far this season. Going into today's afternoon game, Royals are 15-22 vs. the AL Central. They are 1-5 Vs. Cleveland. 3-6 Vs. Chisox. 6-6 Vs Detroit, 5-5 Vs. Twinkies. They have been swept at least once by every team in the division except the Twinkies. The Royals only sweep was against Detroit. So, we're playing even thus far with the last and next to last teams in our division, so we've got that going for us....

Mondesi in the lineup today.

WHo's defense is still suspect....(IMO)

There's just no room for him with so many great hitters like Dozier, Taylor, Gutierrez, Alberto, Lopez, Dyson, and Gallagher needing ABs.

Goes yard first game back....would be so cool if he could stay healthy.

People are starting to refuse to throw Sal strikes again.... let's see if he adjusts.

I’ll ask again: why does DM have so much trouble producing OFs? Why?

Witt 3 for 5 with a dinger tonight.

Is there any position that this question couldn't be asked about?

The thing that is surprising me about Witt is that his BABIP is only .286.

Well, I think you'd have to add Merrifield in as well because he can and has played OF for us. On some other team he could play there.

But to your question it's probably because the royals are very conservative in the draft and because of that, they really don't draft outfielders with premium picks. And if you aren't spending premium picks on the position then eventually you will luck into some like Gordon(who needed a position change but obviously wasnt supposed to be there) or Merrifield, but you won't be producing many on average.

I think what also shines through is that the royals are a team that basically ignores power upside as a single tool trait that might carry the person to the big leagues and would much rather draft defensive guys who might hit. For example, I think the royals would never draft Nolan Gorman, who was taken right after Singer a couple of years ago. He had questions about his defense and might end up in the outfield at some point, but had the most raw power upside in the draft. They just haven't shown any desire to take guys like that. When you do that, it reduces the player pool down and you'll never hit an Aaron Judge who may never be a gold glover but has a big hit tool. They just keep acquiring speedy center fielders who play good defense that they hope can hit enough to make it.

After a slow start he has been raking.

Yeah. It appears he has made some
adjustments and also is experiencing better luck. He has an OPS over 1.000 in June, driven by a big .660 slugging percentage and paired with a .300/.375 average and OBP.

11 Hr

19 RBI

Apparently his teammates can't get on base for him.

So you are saying he's a perfect fit in the majors.

If he was with the Royals it would be

11 HR

12 RBI

Gorman is going to be at 2nd, that is what they have him playing in Springfield.

Royals for outfielders look for speed and defense because of Kauffman Stadium. That's the bottom line. Power doesn't play that well at Kauffman, and you need athletes for defense.

Appreciate what DM pulled off 14-15 just as much as anyone. But it’s time for him to go. He has 3 winning seasons in 15 (soon to be 16) years. Sherman stated he wants to have a consistent franchise like Cleveland which he obv saw up close. I don’t think DM can deliver that and the results are pretty clear that’s the case

I know why we do it, I was just pointing out why we don't produce as many outfielders as elsewhere.

And the power thing is just silly at this point. Power doesn't play is mostly true because we make no effort to acquire said players. Yet opposing teams have huge lists of guys who have caused us problems for years hitting for massive power numbers. Oh, and the one guy we acquired who had that potential actually led the league in HRs one year. And we have probably the best power hitting catcher in the game. It's just an excuse at this point. The real thing is we don't want to pay for power now or in the future so we don't try.

That is despite having two guys that have to be one of the better players in lack of chase & good patience. Soler & Santana.

If Perez had Soler's patience he would be the best player in all of major league baseball.

If Mondesi had Santana's pitch recognition he would be a 10 WAR player (if healthy)

I don't know in what realm we would classify Soler as a hacker, though.

https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/savan...-r-hitting-mlb

Pitchers drafted by the DM since 2008 with at least 1.0 fWAR for the Royals:

Jakob Junis
Brady Singer
Scott Alexander

For the Royals/Red Sox game tomorrow, MLB.com has the starting pitcher as TBD.

I'm thinking it should be listed as DIM.

Does it matter? :cuss:

*sigh*

How does that rank with the 2005 Royals?

Olivares gets optioned to AAA. Perfect time for him to be getting substantial playing time, but nope we have no room in the Majors for potential improvement because our lineup is crushing it!

The quicker Dayton and Matheny get canned the better. Dayton has an absolutely horrid track record of giving shitty vets with no potential insanely long leashes. He basically says **** you to any prospect that isn't one of the top guys. He's just an absolutely horrid talent evaluator.

I totally missed that the Royals were dragged into this huge controversy on Twitter. A baseball writer with tens of thousands of followers posted a bunch of tweets listing off all the other teams that have cheated and done sign stealing over the last few years, and he basically said the 15 Royals might have kicked it off because they put their analytics and video teams right next to the dugout. Erik Kratz who was a backup catcher called him out and said that's completely false. The writer deleted all of it and is apologizing today and is begging for forgiveness.

https://www.crawfishboxes.com/2021/6...-sign-stealing

Padres gave Olivares up for Trevor Rosenthal. He is way over valued on this board.

What about undrafted free agents and pitchers who were obtained in trades? It's not like DM didn't get any valuable pitchers here during his tenure.

It's 100 percent false. One of the two guys in that room every night is a good friend of mine. I've been in there with him when players are in there. I've seen what goes on during games in there. There was nothing happening.

If there was, the team wouldn't have fallen off in 2016 and 2017.

The funniest thing about that guy's claims re: the Royals was the statistics that i saw referenced comparing 2014 to 2015, which were slight increases that reflected the upgrades Morales (over Butler) and Zobrist (over Infante) provided.

Basic research, brah.

He may be and he may (probably?) end up being nothing in the big leagues but referencing who he was traded for doesn’t necessarily ensure that. Baseball history is wrought with “throw away” type projects/minor leaguers who were traded for washed up pitchers/players, only to see the younger player find their footing and have very productive careers. See Bagwell, Jeff (obviously can’t expect Olivares to be anywhere near that production, but just saying).

Are you starting that count in 2008 specifically to exclude Duffy and Holland?

Weird, arbitrary start date.

They did a decent job acquiring pitching talent early on (2007-2010 or so), especially if you include international signings like Herrera and Ventura, then struggled when the draft format changed and the hard slots went into place, and only recently came out of it with the college-heavy approach.

Or, for a recent example, see Tatis Jr., Fernando.

Thank you. I was trying to think of a more recent example but…early morning fog.

I don’t think I’ll ever forget that the White Sox traded the best player not named Mike Trout for 1.5 replacement level seasons from James Shields.

This is literally one of the dumber posts in this thread. I don't care who we have up for him. He's been killing it in Omaha and deserves a chance to show what he can do, especially since we have about 5 auto outs in the lineup.

CC is a Royals super homer and will defend just about anything Dayton does.

More like 11 HR with 10 RBI (**** you Blue!)

There is still time to get 2 of those back under that threshold.