Hamilton getting on base enough to be a threat is as always the key with him...

But Mondesi should see a ton of fastballs if Hamilton and Merrifield are hitting in front of him (I would hit Hamilton 9th and Merrifield first, with Mondesi hitting 2nd). It’s an interesting roster construction.

He’s not really blocking anyone at this point, so nothing is hurt.

1) 2B Merrifield
2) SS Mondesi
3) C Perez
4) 1B O'Hearn
5) DH Soler
6) LF Gordon
7) RF Bonifacio
8) 3B Dozier
9) CF Hamilton

A lineup similar to this with Owings, Goodwin, Phillips, and Gallagher behind them seems decent enough for Opening Day. It's not going to push us past 500, but again, we'll be incredibly fun to watch IF we get on base.

Don't think you'll see Bonifacio, Goodwin and Phillips all on the 25-man, especially with Owings, Whit and Soler able to play the OF.

Phillips and Boni have options left -- one of them is going to the minors. Unless they just decide to dump Goodwin.

I'm a big fan of Phillips, and I'd love to see a Gordon-Hamilton-Phillips OF just for the D. Phillips had a good rookie year in Milwaukee in 2017, hopefully he can regain that after an awful 2018 with the bat.

I do like this Hamilton deal.

Sorry.

We can't all offer super insightful commentary like "Oh man they'll have two monster contracts underperforming" in reference to the Padres signing Hosmer and considering Machado.

If Ozzie Smith didn't do flips , would he be in the HOF? :)

I answered that.

^^^^^^
THIS

Plus, who are some of our most-promising and young assets? Junis, Keller, Lopez, Fillmyer. What is the best friend of developing pitchers that you don't want worrying about whether pitching to contact will constantly kill them? Defense. Specifically, outfield defense. This is a developmental move as much as anything - for the pitchers. I'm all for any move that helps those guys out as they mature.

Unless Phillips looks dreadful in ST and Boni is just crushing the ball, I think Boni goes down without question and they start with the all-world outfield defense of Gordon, Hamilton and Phillips. Not likely to look the same all year, but it's a good strategy to start things off. Plus, I THINK we know what Boni is...but Phillips just needs to be given a ton of at-bats and see if he can figure it out at the plate while making highlight reel throws from RF.

I agree with you completely about Harold Baines. I’m glad I visited Cooperstown when I was a kid before it became the Hall of Pretty Good. So many sportswriters suck!

It is easy enough to skip the stuff honoring the pretty good and focus on the great. Cooperstown is a magical place that every baseball fan should visit.

Really bad signing IMO just for the fact it will take away at bats from guys we want to see perform such as Phillips. If they are planning to go Gordon/Boni, Hamilton, Phillips EVERYDAY I guess I'll listen but I Don't trust them to do that.

Honest question. Do you REALLY think any of the above will be key contributors to our next championship run? Many of our best outfielders will be at Wilmington this year, w/ the likely exception of Khalil Lee. Hamilton upgrades our outfield defense, which is key to winning for us - it helps out our pitchers and takes us back to the defensive culture we need to rebuild. This is a transition outfield - kinda like the Gordon, Cabrera, Francona outfield was (except this one will be better).

Besides, he's only on a one year deal Even if you do think Boni and/or Phillips will be key contributors to our next championship run, with options, it's not like Phillips or Boni are going to rot on the bench. They'll get at-bats at the MLB level or the MILB level. It's just a matter of which for 2019.

Phillips could definitely be part of our next run. He could be the next Alex Gordon. Great defensively, decent power, can walk. The only question is can he hit.

If they trusted non-roided Bonifacio to be a quality MLB player, I don’t think this happens. I expect him to be the odd man out this year, either at Omaha or elsewhere.

Suspect he and Phillips may both start at Omaha unless they’ve given up on Soler in RF and plan to DH him most of the time.

In the FG dashboard, there are 4,003 players all time with >200 games played. Baines rates as the 7th worst all time in terms of defensive value created. Here’s what he did:


Offense: 243.5 runs
Defense: -235.7
Base running: -8.8
Total: -1



So he basically didn’t create or destroy any runs over 20 years, mostly as a pretty good hittting DH who didn’t run or field. If you count him as a RF where he started, his 38 fWAR ranks 24/25 who got in. The avg RF war is over 70.


Summary: this Shithead has no business being in.

No doubt. I could spend a week visiting that museum every day. I was 14 when I visited and I still remember how mind blowing it was to see all that cool shit from baseballs past in one place. It just amazes me how much the standards have lowered for players to get in.

So Hamilton gets 1 year, 5.25 million with a mutual option for 2020. Which side do these types of options benefit on short term contracts?

Any idea when preseason farm system rankings are released? I'm curious to see how far we've progressed. I'd venture a completely uneducated guess of maybe around 22-23 out of 30?

Both.

Player gets more guaranteed money. Team shifts financial obligation 1 year out.

Player.

There is no upside for team. Which is why only like 1-2 of these have ever been exercised by the player.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">One random tidbit from the Winter Meetings: Royals manager Ned Yost said the Royals&#39; in-house projection system has the Indians winning 97 games in 2019 despite the changes they&#39;ve made.</p>&mdash; Rustin Dodd (@rustindodd) <a href="https://twitter.com/rustindodd/status/1072669454348288000?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 12, 2018</a></blockquote>
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That’s true, there is a deferral.

You’re welcome...?

We better trade Hamilton by the end of this year. Can't wait to get another Brandon Maurer out of it.

Looks like the Royals selected Sam McWilliams, a 6'7" pitcher from the Rays in the rule 5 draft this morning.

I believe we also lost someone. Luciano is his name I think?

Apparently we also lost Elvis Luciano, a high upside 18 year old pitcher to the Blue Jays. That's strange that he was even available. We'll see if he can stick in the majors.

Yeah but he has to stick on the roster all year. A lot of the Toronto writers I see on Twitter are very skeptical of the move.

We got Luciano in the Jon Jay trade.

Yeah, I'm guessing the Royals didn't think anyone would take him due to age.

We'll see if the Jays can stash him away in the 25 man roster for a year.

Y'all have also traded for the Rangers Rule 5 selection; Chris Ellis from the Cardinals.

JAG through and through. Maybe they think converting him to relief will get his stuff to play up to a viable swing-man role. I honestly have no idea why anyone selected him - every organization in baseball has a dozen guys just like him. Needing to clear a 40 man spot for him is a bridge too far, IMO. Let alone a 25 man spot.

You essentially traded Sam McWilliams for him. If you pass on your Rule 5 pick, my memory is that it allows you to protect another player not currently on your 40 man.

It's bizarre that Luciano is even Rule 5 eligible to me. There must be some caveat to the Rule 5 that I'm unaware of. Generally speaking a guy signed under 18 years of age isn't eligible for the Rule 5 until his 5th Rule 5 draft period.

Near as I can tell this should only be his 3rd. There must be some kind of weird wrinkle in there for guys that signed as a free agent and are never technically draft eligible. I really have no idea why he needed to be protected.

I believe it's something to do with him having to renegotiate his original rookie contract that made him eligible.

Best I can determine is that it was because he signed a contract with Arizona that was declared void due to a failed physical. That made him a free agent and he re-signed, thus become immediately subject to the Rule 5.

Man...that REALLY hamstrung his trade value and would explain how the Royals got him for Jay. It isn't just that he was available to be taken this year that was a problem, but that he'd have been available for the foreseeable future. And if the Royals wanted to protect him even next season they'd have to start using option years on him after adding him to the 40. He'd smoke through those option years by 22/23 years old.

For a guy that raw, that's putting a clock on him that's wildly unfair for both him and the organization. I guess it's easier to hide a relief pitcher in the DL league when you've got less pressure on your bench but still - that's a tough guy to have to deal with in your organization. There are just a lot of impediments to successfully developing him.

Dayton Moore staying busy during the offseason.

Yeah, that's pretty awesome!

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dwfr5oUUUAARmcu.jpg:large

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Royals announce start times for 2019 season. Standard times will be:<br>Monday-Friday: 7:15 p.m.<br>Saturday: 6:15 p.m.<br>Sunday: 1:15 p.m.</p>&mdash; Pete Grathoff (@pgrathoff) <a href="https://twitter.com/pgrathoff/status/1083094116173524994?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 9, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Cheslor cleared waivers and was outrighted to Omaha...so they're keeping him around. He won't sniff the majors this year, but he better take advantage of his opportunity to revive his prospects with consistent play at Omaha.

Pitches and Catchers report to training camp in three weeks and two days.

AAAA Baseball lives in KC.....yet again!

Baseball Prospectus released its top 101 today...

Matias (52)
Lee (61)
Melendez (67)

All made it. Singer was in the next ten.

So, according to one outlet, the Royals have 4 of the top 101. It’s not an excellent system and still lacks some star power, but it’s major progress.

With a good draft and adding either Witt or Rutschman at the top, KC should be positioned to be a top 1/2 system and possibly better by the end of this season.

If the college arms we drafted move thru quickly we could be top 10 by August.

If Daniel Lynch holds his velocity gains, he’s a top 100 guy at mid season, IMO.

Kowar and Singer absolutely can jump into that mix, too. Baseball America already has Singer as a top 100 guy.

Which is pretty typical... Baseball America tends to prioritize safety and proximity to the majors more in its lists. Prospectus is more focused on upside and tools (and accounts for D better)

Alright I'm ready for the suck guys. Go Royals. Lets go get Bobby Witt Jr.

I like him a ton. Think the O’s are going to take him, though.

Adley Rutschman is the college guy you want to watch. He’s clear 1/2 in this draft with Witt, and as we learned during the Heimlich debacle, KC has a strong relationship with Oregon State baseball.

JUST
SAY
NO
TO
HIGHLY
DRAFTED
CATCHERS

So, we're going to draft a catcher?

Man...I really think they have a shot at being pretty competitive. I'm not saying it's a play-off team or anything, but I don't think it's a 90 loss club.

Their ceiling at its peak is maybe .500 but they should keep us somewhat engaged until training camp starts.

I'd say that's about right. It could go higher IF the youngsters that played well in August and September continue their development and a little luck in the bullpen.

but I'm guessing shouting distance of .500

Royals will compete again when we luck into having the best bullpen ever

Why are you guys even ****ing fans? I mean really. This board is 50% full of whiners that hate every ****ing move the Chiefs or Royals make.

I mean really, is your life that ****ing miserable that you can't ever look at something in a positive light?

Still want this down that Dan quisenberry should be in the hall of fame.

We have 2 or 3 negative Nellies that post in this thread. The rest of us arent so bad.

It still amazes me to read the Game 5 of the WS thread and see the people calling the team "quitters".

Hot rumor: FanFest has a Bubba Starling autographed bat for only $75

Bubba Starling bat for 75 cents.


fixed your post

It's kind of amazing the buzz for the team a few years ago that missed the playoffs compared to now. Back then it was basically sold out good luck finding a parking spot now I dont know a single person even going.

You saw Nebraska's attendance this year, right?

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Source: <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Royals?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Royals</a>, Whit Merrifield nearing 4-year contract extension. Story: <a href="https://t.co/OiQf6nv83C">https://t.co/OiQf6nv83C</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/MLBNetwork?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MLBNetwork</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/MLB?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MLB</a></p>&mdash; Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) <a href="https://twitter.com/jonmorosi/status/1089697684871626752?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 28, 2019</a></blockquote>
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I wasn't opposed to trading Whit, but I did think we were better off holding onto him than potentially making a poor deal that wouldn't net us even value in prospects.

We can always trade him later if the rebuild doesn't go very well.

Hopefully this causes kcchiefsus to go drink anti freeze.

I think it also signals that they think they're closer than a lot of outsiders do.

Good. Love Whit. No need to trade fun, likeable players if you can’t get value in return

I think there was already zero doubt of that.

This probably doesn't 100% eliminate trading Whit. What we basically did was buy out all the years we already had him under control. Now we don't have to go to arbitration with him and we know exactly what he'll cost going forward. But I always thought it was way unlikely he's traded.

The game has changed. Look at how Harper and Machado are still out there. All these big market teams have totally changed the way they work. They still spend money but they don't blow out the budget on FAs and they don't trade their big prospects away so they can build from within.

well, and he fits the park and the club. We need to quit trying to get these low contact power hitters, it's nuts. We need to run, run, run, play defense and slap doubles into the gaps. Whit's the prototype Royal. I think he'll age well too, he's so fundamentally sound. he'll be good into his late 30's. AND-you're right also, if they DO decide to trade him, it's probably even easier now, as his salary going forward is locked in.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Whit Merrifield’s four-year extension with <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Royals?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Royals</a> will be worth $16.25 million with $2 million in performance bonuses, source says. <a href="https://twitter.com/MLB?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MLB</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/MLBNetwork?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MLBNetwork</a></p>&mdash; Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) <a href="https://twitter.com/jonmorosi/status/1089714027956178945?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 28, 2019</a></blockquote>
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That’s a steal!

Wow. That’s peanuts.

I mean, I get why he did it, significant raise, guaranteed money in case of injury, etc., but wow.

He’s even more tradeable now than he was before (if they get a good enough offer). If not, the Royals get to keep a good player for next to nothing during his arbitration years.

Great deal for the Royals.

we gonna steal some bases with a Hamilton, Merrifield, Mondesi top of the order

and blast some dongs.

Wait, that’s 16.25 million over 4 years? Not annually right?

Locking up Whit in his prime for essentially 4 million a year is insane. I almost feel bad for him.

In my opinion, that pressuring the defense with the running game is what PECOTA could never calculate and why the '14 and '15 teams were so much better than projected. It forces the pitcher to throw fastballs, interferes with their location and accuracy, makes shortstops play out of the hole and gets in the head of every defender, forcing them to play everything perfectly and as fast as possible. We got away from that for a couple years for god-knows-why.

it's hard to put a statistic to that, but how often did we see that? Nobody plays that way anymore, it's foreign to most other teams. When I was a kid lots of teams played that way but that was a different era.

On the surface, it has a Salvador Perez ridiculous contract feel to it (before they renegotiated his deal), but in reality he was only getting 500K this year. Maybe $4-$5 mil. next year in his first arbitration year. Would have obviously made more in years 3 and 4 of arbitration, but he traded more money his last 2 years for some security (I.e. injury, etc.)

Still, a great deal for the Royals, no doubt.

Yeah baseball Twitter is flipping out over it, not just Royals fans but all across the board. But he's 30 years old and has probably made about 1 million dollars so far... this gets him financial security regardless of what happens, and he obviously likes KC.

I think 2019 could be a really interesting season for the Royals if Ryan O'Hearn can put up numbers close to last year. A .900 OPS guy in the middle of line-up? We could be a real decent team. Probably a fluke last year, but exit velocity numbers were legit, so you never know....

It's still all about their pitching and lack there of
.They have to shore that up before they can compete

That’s a little less than I was expecting but is pretty close. He was likely due for about $1 million this year, then $4 in arb 1, 8-10 in arb 2, and 10-12 in arb 3 assuming this production held and he stayed healthy.

So he might have left money o. The table, but he’s not set for life, too.
Makes him even more attractive as a trade candidate, too.

That's what I was wondering. Had to do a double-take.

Whit's deal gives the Royals options.
They can still trade Whit.
Or, move him to CF and give Lopez 2nd.
Or, they could put Lopez on the market. I imagine they'd get something decent in return.