<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">With the Samardzija, Greinke, and Iwakuma signings, the Royals&#39; first round pick for 2016 has moved from 27th to 24th.</p>&mdash; Royals Review (@royalsreview) <a href="https://twitter.com/royalsreview/status/673699334177685504">December 7, 2015</a></blockquote>
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Meh, two of our homegrown starters have provided us with almost 700 IP over the last two seasons. Sure, it's certainly a weakness in our player development, but I'm not going to lose too much sleep when our organization has phenomenal in every other phase of the game.

Cant be that many teams that have at least 3 of the 5 starters that have only been with that franchise.

Any?

Forty percent of the likely opening day rotation will be homegrown. I'd guess that's about average. By 2017, I think you see that number at sixty percent.

The Mets and the Rays are the exception, not the rule.

Not sure if this is posted before, NY Post says Royals working on keeping Chris Young and Alex Gordon, think Zobrist is gone:

http://nypost.com/2015/12/06/busy-ro...eyeing-gordon/

So the trades for Shields and Cueto (both of whom made big $) and the signings of Volquez, Vargas, Young, Medlen and you cablissibly throw JGuts in there.....don't indicate at least some weakness in development?

Even Wade Davis was a starter for nearly a full year in 2013.


I also *think* Duffy is in the rotation but that's no gurantee. If they did sign Young and Kazmir then you can be assured he won't be. That's 1 starter in a small market. Just seems light

I think getting priced out on Zobrist might have tightened the Royals focus on bringing Gordo back. Last year, Moore seemed genuinely shocked that Butler went so quickly (and for so much) that the Royals wasted no time bringing Morales and Rios to KC.

Originally, the Royals wanted the DH to be fluid enough to give Salvy some relief at the plate. Winter meetings last year caused the Royals to adjust to the market, and it wouldn't surprise me if that happened again this year.

It doesn't really assure anything. They could easily see Young filling the role of long relief/spot starter (just like 2015).

Don't remember if it was Joel Sherman, but someone on Twitter was saying that Zobrist is definitely getting 4 years. At this point I legit wouldn't be surprised if he got 4/$70 million, or even more. Not bad for a guy who is about to be 35.

Cardinals for example:
Wainwright - trade
Wacha - homegrown
Martinez - homegrown
Garcia - homegrown
Free Agent 2016 - outside organization

Royals 2016
Volquez - FA
Free Agent 2016 - outside organization
Ace - homegrown
Medlen - FA
Duffy - homegrown
Young (long relief/spot starter) - FA

I always said we needed to develop a starter or two to win it all. We kind of did, but didn't. Although Ventura was a huge part of the last two years... not as good last year but he was solid in the 2nd half. Pitching costs so much you have to least develop a couple guys.

That's exactly what I told someone last night. At the beginning of the offseason I thought they'd be more inclined to go Zobrist and no way on Gordon. Now I think they go after Gordon.

Interesting. I've given up on Gordon, but nap patently KC has not.

Keeping Alex would stir a mix of emotions, but I trust the front office no matter what happens with him. How weird is that?


I'd be surprised if Young is NOT the swing man to start the year. Suspect Duffy gets one more chance to succeed out of the rotation, but is moved to the pen permanently if it doesn't work out this year.

Developing pitching is hard. I think Moore made those trades because his young SP didn't pan out, for various reasons. Lamb blew out. Montgomery was broken (and even the Rays couldn't fix it), etc.

They also traded some of their "closest" pieces to win a WS this year. That's a fair trade.

I'm not saying they're great. Just not shockingly bad.

I suppose we could've stood pat and had Yordano-Odorizzi-Duffy-Mobtgomery-Lamb in our rotation. And no hardware


still, we need to develop starters. DM himself called it "the currency of baseball"

Plus Almonte has really nasty stuff. Really nasty. If he can harness it at all he's going to be a weapon. And of course Zimmer. And they drafted some nice pitchers this year.

We're certainly not the Braves who have about 15 pitching prospects, but it's not hopeless either.