Because Jon Sanchez was turned into Jeremy Guthrie, who doesn't sign in KC without his excellent second half as a Royal.

There also is the whole "50 game suspension for positive PED test" thing.

Melky's a joke now and they stole Guthrie for Sanchez. Guthrie's been a stud as a Royal. It was a Cardinalesque find.

Fair points. Guthrie's been pretty good.

I would say, however, that if the Cards had traded Taveras for Shields, many Cards fans, myself included, would've been pretty angry. Guessing the Royals think they have enough offense with Butler, Gordon, Hosmer, etc.

Team needs.

The Royals desperately needed quality starting pitching to be a winning team, and so far it has worked.

Part of that is Santana and Guthrie, but part of it is also the mentality and leadership Shields has brought to the staff. I'm sure it will help when less experienced guys like Duffy and Zimmer and Ventura make their way to KC over the next two years.

Wil Myers is also NOT QUITE the prospect that Taveras is. His K issues (49 K in 139 AB at Durham, 189 K in 661 AB over the past two seasons) are going to make it hard for Myers to hit for a high average in the show with any consistency.

The Royals DO need more offense, but they needed more pitching worse.

He hasn't. He's been the luckiest pitcher in baseball. The dude's FIP is 5.59 and he's been a below replacement level starter. He's survived on an absolutely ridiculous 95% LOB percentage.

I assume that's a fangraphs number on the WAR? I looked him up last night on Baseball Ref, and they had him at 1.5 WAR this season.

Guthrie is what he is. A battler who will eat innings. He also is much more effective at Kauffman, where his FB tendencies don't hurt as much. When he does a better job of limiting walks (like he did last season after coming to KC), Guthrie can be a solid No. 3 starter (His FIP as Royal last year was around 3.90).

Prior to the start against the Angels, his FIP was sitting right around that level (3.85 by my figures).

I'm willing to throw that game out unless it becomes a trend, as Tim McClelland squeezed him all night and was basically forcing Guthrie to center the ball to call a strike. The Angels capitalized, hitting 4 solo shots.

Just a thought, but aren't there enough ****ing Royals threads here without turning the lone Cardinal thread into one?

question for you Cards fans: have you been paying much attention to the advanced stats on pitch framing that are really hot right now?

Yadier Molina, as might be expected, grades out EXTREMELY high. The run-saving value works out to the equivalent of multiple "wins" per year for an elite guy like Yadi.

It's all about positioning and reflex when receiving the ball.

Molina and his brother Jose grade out extremely high. I know the Rays are all over this - is this something the Cards org recognizes and is seeking out in other catchers?

Saw a blurb for it on Grantland, didn't read the article. Logically, it makes sense, but our system hasn't produced any worthwhile catchers other than Yadi in the last two decades.

Bryan Anderson was a complete bust and Tony Cruz isn't a ML-quality bench player, but it's cheaper than 20 games of Gerald Laird or Jason LaRue.

Gerald Laird really annoys me.

Probably because every time I watch him play, he tries to bunt for a hit. Idiot.

Oh goody, Ty Wiggington starts at 1b today.

LMAO

Looks like we have the old throw in the towel lineup today.