What's a potential Parra Contract look like? 3/$27MM??

Anywhere from 2/15 to 3/24, would be my guess.

Was anyone listening to sports radio in KC this morning? I heard someone on 610 I think say that there were only something like 45 players on major league rosters last year over the age of 30 who could be considered productive players.

Did anyone else hear that? I'm trying to dig into that a bit, but I'm not sure I heard it right.

They were referencing a recent Tom Verducci article from SI.

New York is still hurting after losing the World Series. The New York Post ranks the best GMs in baseball and Moore is tied for ninth.

http://nypost.com/2015/11/13/ranking...akes-the-list/

His UZR has gone straight down the toilet the past 4 years, incl LF where he used to be elite. Depends how you view UZR but that is certainly scary to me.


But it's better than getting killed on a Gordon deal. Please, please do not let that happen.

Who gives a shit if we get killed after 2017? The odds of us competing for a WS then are small anyway. I can live with a few down years while we struggle through a Gordon contract to keep this core together for 2 more years. It's the same concept as trading away valuable prospects for Cueto and Zobrist. Win now while we have this window.

Tigers picked up K-Rod.

Meh, we'll beat that guy too.

That is hilariously laughable...

The numbers were pretty amazing. There's almost no point in ever signing a player over 30 to a big (or even medium) sized deal of more than a year or two.

This is interesting. I see two things happening in the future:

1) Older players become a new "moneyball" lens, as teams stop spending on them, to the point of them becoming an undervalued asset.

2) MLB does something with the CBA to change the arbitration rules and get more money to players in their prime years, when still under team control. If teams stop spending on vets, the players will push for either shorter periods of team control, or more lucrative arbitration awards, so that guys who get to arbitration late do not get punished when reaching FA at 30+ and having no one willing to pay them.

Dombrowski that high? really?

Maybe if they make a movie about Dayton, with the emphasis on his valuing of defense and bullpen, he'll get more credit. Maybe have Matt Damon play the lead role.

Is he the best GM? Who knows, probably not. But based on the last three years, he should obviously be higher than 9/10/11.

List is bad.

Far too rewarding to guys like Cashman (who has done little despite having the most advantages of any team in baseball for most of his tenure) and Dombrowski (who can be a great short-term GM but has a tendency to leave behind cratered programs.

Steamer projections as of today (no Gordon, Zo or Cueto):

Cleve 85
KC 77
Twins 77
Sux 77
Tiggers 75

We get almost nothing from 2B-RF-LF. If you played Colon-Zobrist-Gordon, Steamer would add 10 full wins and hence the division.

Are you a fan of the Cleveland Streamer projection?

Would that bring down Cleveland's projection as well?

Not sure, it's continuously updated thru the offseason. But if you're asking whether the league avg is always 81 wins, the answer is of course.

No real point in placing stock in these until each team has set the roster, but it is once again demonstrative of how much projection systems love certain profiles.

That Cleveland number is rather silly, considering the holes that team still has.

No shit. Here's their job.....

1. Blank Checks - you fill out the amount you need

2. Repeat Step 1 as often as you deem necessary.

http://www.si.com/mlb/2015/11/17/fre...e-johnny-cueto

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Sources: O’Day asking for four-year deal in $28M to $36M range. Most accomplished reliever on open market.</p>&mdash; Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) <a href="https://twitter.com/Ken_Rosenthal/status/667050198674382848">November 18, 2015</a></blockquote>
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What is Soria worth these days. The Royals already have their 7th, 8th, and 9th guys in Hoch, Hearra, and Davis.

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.

From somebody who doesn't know much about the development of baseball players, would it be fair to say that his work in the majors might resemble Moustakas, who has taken awhile to figure out his bat and has faced a lot of ups and downs and frustrations from fans in his career thus far?

That's absolutely horrible. I'd be very, very displeased with some of those moves.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Royals?src=hash">#Royals</a>’ 2016 opener at Kauffman Stadium vs. Mets will be played on a Sunday night on ESPN: <a href="https://t.co/ftqm5rW4AC">https://t.co/ftqm5rW4AC</a> <a href="https://t.co/wlMyEJ0YYW">pic.twitter.com/wlMyEJ0YYW</a></p>&mdash; The Kansas City Star (@KCStar) <a href="https://twitter.com/KCStar/status/667438624657514498">November 19, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Gordon is a lot like Carl Crawford statistically. Here's what happened to him:

5 years before FA: 25 WAR
Turns 30
5 years after FA: 6 WAR


Yes, his age 30-34 seasons have produced a total of 6 WAR. All for the low low price of $97 million. He's got 2 more years at $42 million left.

:clap:

We would have a Hos, a Moose and a Bubba on our team. :D

Kauffman will be a rocking that night.

Will be there!

Yep. If you give him a 5 year $100,000,000 contract, you're hoping to get $100,000,000 of value from him. When the bet case scenario is that you get fair value, it's a bad team for the team.

Some how, some way, I will be there too. I HAVE to see that Championship banner raised.

We'll be having three banners raised on that day, correct?

No. They won't raise division or AL banners.

Only the WORLD ****ING CHAMPIONS banner.

I wish it would actually say that.

Tigers beat writer:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Front-runners for Soria&#39;s services now appear to be Royals, Giants and Rangers.</p>&mdash; anthony fenech (@anthonyfenech) <a href="https://twitter.com/anthonyfenech/status/667033033090822144">November 18, 2015</a></blockquote>
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I'd still love the Royals to march the trophy over to Noah Syndegaard and shove it in his face.

Or, Yordano (assuming opening day starter) starts off the season with a up and in fastball:clap:

I completely agree with the point you're making. I love Alex Gordon, but if some idiot GM offers him $100 million, he should take it and run.

I'd be happy for him in exactly the same way I'm happy for Billy Butler and the $30 million deal he got from Billy "most overrated GM in history" Beane.

Not really. Moustakas put up some huge numbers in the minors. George Springer is a good comparison, though. Both are really "toolsy" guys who took some time to click and had things come together at age 23 after big struggles early.

I don't think Crawford is a really good comparison for Gordon, in that he was a speed/wheels guy who couldn't recover from losing a few steps.

Gordon's value would take a hit from him losing a step, but he's less vulnerable to aging than a speed demon like Crawford.

I completely disagree with this. I give a shit if we get killed after 2017.

You could look at 2015 and easily conclude that Alex Gordon's decline has already begun. I don't want my favorite team to be stuck with a horrific contract that would make it impossible for them to be competitive after 2017.

Dayton Moore's strategy is to build up the farm system and then keep a continuous pipeline of talent flowing to the MLB team. I see no reason to abandon that strategy now.

I really hope Bubba makes it to KC.

My Son's nickname is Bubba, last name Starling.

Of course, my son is already pushing me for a jersey. :D

We have always called my youngest bubba, his sister started it lol. He even tells people his name is bubba and if you knew my last name it sounds even more redneck lol.
A couple years ago they had starling shirts that had the number 1 and instead of starling on t he back they said bubba.

I bought him every size they had lol.

I kinda figured as much.

I don't remember how my son's nickname came about.

He was always small so I think it was born out of irony. He's 17, 5'4" 100lbs :)

Kinda like how you call a big guy Tiny. :)

FIFY

*** Official 2016 Royals Offseason Repository ***
 

Mlb to allow streaming in market games.

Harper wins nl mvp, unanimous vote.


Guessing the al will be announced shortly

Had the 2nd highest ops season of anyone 22 or younger. Like Tiger Woods, he's even better than the hype.

:clap:

Douchebag Donaldson won AL mvp.

And somewhere, Jonny Gomes smiles.

That ****ing sucks

Not on our team, we beat him.

http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r...pso20khlpg.jpg

I'm glad that he won. It makes Gomes drop the mic speech prophetic and legendary (we beat down the AL Rookie of the Year, Cy Young Winner, and MVP in the playoffs).

I only think of Bubba from Forest Gump when I hear the name.

TV I will gladly pay for.

Also, on that Sunday that we hoist the flag, I'll be at the players' entrance to see that Noah Syndepretzelz is heckled from the moment that chromosome defective, googled-eyed, papsmear smelling, Nordic pos steps off the bus.

Cable script verification needed, though that's not hard to get around.

I'll find the workaround. Thanks to daface.

Pm if you need a log in

Finally. ****ING A.

And if he has a problem with it, he can come see the World Series flag 375 ft 6 inches away in left field.

If we had only lost a few more games that season before he was drafted... soooo close. Imagine him on our team, as well.

Although Christian Colon has 2 of the biggest hits in the Royals playoff history... I'm sure Harper could have done some damage, as well.