What holes might those be? DH and loogy?


I assume DM will do exactly what he did last year and sit out the first wave of FA and then sign a guy or two. Then so the same after wave 2. Have to find the Kendrys/Volq types who will go 2 years. That's a Parra or Pelfrey or Bud Norris. I'm already marking off Gordon and Zo and Madson as no ways and Chris Young as doubtful, as in they don't even want to match anything over a year on him .

Brantley is going to miss a good part of the year. Abraham Almonte is currently their starting CF (Jarrod Dyson would be a major upgrade). Lonnie Chisenhall is a below-average RF.

Their starting 1B is Giovanni Urshele, another JAG with a career .710 OPS in the minor leagues.

Carlos Santana is an OK bat but a horrible defensive 1B, and as you mentioned, they need another DH/1B type.

Their starting rotation is good, and they have a top 5-10 closer, but middle relief is nothing special.

So yeah, I'd say they have some holes. And they have no money to spend to plug any of them, and the only option they have for that is trading one of Carrasco or Salazar to fill it.

4 for 32 sounds pretty good.

That sounds awful for a 33 yr old reliever.

Good if someone in our division is dumb enough to do it.

Sounds about right. 2-3 years if sub 2.0 era and maybe 1-2 years of 2.5 maybe. Maybe 3-24.

Look at post below

@FlannyMLB: #Royals plan for Bubba Starling: Major League debut next year, starter by 2017. http://atmlb.com/1YhAELd via @mlb

http://m.royals.mlb.com/news/article...?tcid=tw_share

Starling gaining steam with solid AFL season

By*Jeffrey Flanagan*/*MLB.com*|*6:41 PM ET

KANSAS CITY -- Outfielder Bubba Starling, the fifth overall pick of the 2011 Draft and considered a disappointment until recently, keeps inching closer to the big leagues.

Starling, the Royals'*No. 5 prospect, is having a solid season in the Arizona Fall League, posting a .770 OPS with four homers and 10 RBIs to go along with his defense that general manager Dayton Moore has described as "Major League ready" right now.

Starling, 23, most likely will start next season back at Double-A Northwest Arkansas. But the goal is to have him advance quickly to Triple-A Omaha and then to his Major League debut in 2016.

And by 2017?

"Hopefully a regular in the big leagues," Royals vice president/assistant general manager of player personnel J.J. Picollo told MLB.com.

The rapid ascension of Starling has brought smiles to the faces of the Royals' front-office staff.

"He's just a different hitter now than what we saw of him a few years ago," Picollo said. "There haven't been many major mechanical adjustments. He did have this little waggle with his hands when he was loading that used to slow down his swing and made him late on everything.

"We worked with him to get rid of that, and finally last year we saw that happen. He's just quicker to the ball. He's more confident, more mature."

After being promoted to Double-A this past season, Starling had a .744 OPS there with 10 homers and 32 RBIs in 91 games for the Naturals.

"You combine that with what he did in the Fall League," Picollo said, "and you can see him turning a corner. He'll get a Spring Training invite and we'll see how it proceeds from there. He's getting close."

Another prospect who had a strong AFL was right-hander Brooks Pounders, a 6-foot-5, 268-pounder who was acquired in a Minor League deal with the Pirates in 2011.

Pounders threw 12 shutout innings over three starts in the AFL and had a 0.42 WHIP.

Pounders presently is pitching for Team USA in Tokyo, where he is joined by two Royals prospects, catcher Parker Morin and outfielder Brett Eibner.

"Brooks really is having a great fall," Picollo said. "He's a guy that can throw 91-93 [mph] consistently and go find 95 when he needs it. His slider is his out-pitch.

"Right now, we view him as a potential starter, but he could be one of those guys that if converted to the bullpen, he could go get 95-97 [mph]."

Jeffrey Flanagan*is a reporter for MLB.com. Follow him on Twitter at*@FlannyMLB. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

That's pretty exciting re: Starling. That would be HUGE.

Makes me wonder if Zobrist is indeed the priority. Let Infante start at 2B, bring in Parra in RF, let Zobrist hold down LF, and then if we can offload Infante mid-season (if he does anything and we eat some $, we move Zobrist to 2B full-time and Starling takes over in LF.

Probably better off flipping Parra and Zobrist. But otherwise, not far from what the team might be thinking.

All depends on how he hits to start the year. If I'm the team, I probably try to send him to winter ball. Get him more ABs.

Pull the Hootie platoon with Zobrist, Dyson and Infante.

Is a 770 ops in afl really all that great? I thought the competition there was weak

It's not great, but JJ Cooper's remarks about it are worth watching.

I don't think THIS requires a sub.

Clifs:

Last year he looked completely hopeless and overmatched. This year, he does not.

The hit tool has improved a lot, and if he can just be average or slightly below with the hit tool (35-40), Starling will be a quality MLB regular because of his power and defense and baserunning.

I don't think Starling is ready to be a star out of ST 2016, and I expect he'll struggle some at AAA when promoted, but he's come a long way. Basically, he's gone from looking like a guy who was so helpless at the plate he would NEVER get it, to looking like a guy who belongs.

That's more important, in sample sizes this small, than raw numbers.

SB Nation 2015 Off-season Simulation summary

Every team is represented but I just thought it was interesting so see the Royals theoretical moves from the exercise.