***Official 2023 Royals Season Repository Thread***

[ChiefsCountry]

2023 – A new beginning for the Royals. Matt Quatraro era begins. A year to see which of our young players will make up the core going forward. Can Bobby Witt Jr become a superstar SS or will go to the hot corner? Will Brady Singer take the next step forward? Will Salvy be Salvy? Will Big Vin or Pratto take first base? Will they find a position for MJ? Who else emerges from the youth movement? Not to mention the development of the new downtown stadium.

Free Agents/Trades Acquisitions
Jordan Lyles, RHP
Ryan Yarbrough, LHP
Josh Taylor, LHP
Aroldis Chapman, LHP

Top 10 Prospects from Baseball America
1. Gavin Cross, OF
2. Cayden Wallace, 3B
3. Drew Waters, OF
4. Ben Kudrna, RHP
5. Frank Mozzicato, LHP
6. Maikel Garcia, SS
7. Tyler Gentry, OF
8. Nick Loftin, OF/3B
9. Angel Zerpa, LHP
10. Carter Jensen, C

[Nightfyre]

Angels fans crying poverty in a Royals thread. **** baseball economics and **** you.

[dlphg9]

Originally Posted by Vladimir_Kyrilytch

I see you boys have taken notice of Shohei Ohtani, a player on my California Angels. As a big Angels follower, I'm very dialed in to Ohtani rumors.

Everybody knows Ohtani prefers the west coast due to the easier air travel to and from Japan. So suck on that Mets, who have the most money and their GM Billy Eppler was the Angels GM when the Angels signed Ohtani originally. Mets fans are convinced he's as good as signed already. But he won't sign there, **** them.

The Dodgers went full austerity mode this prior offseason, not spending much while letting big name players walk. League circles suspect this is because they plan on making Ohtani the highest paid athlete ever this coming offseason. Whatwhawha is correct - I've heard 50 million per. This could very well happen.

But people forget that the Angels werent good when Ohtani originally signed there. There hasnt been a lot of clarity why he chose them, but here is something I bet y'all didnt know. Ohtani and his interpreter Ippei are tight and he has been with Ohtani since well before he came tp the MLB. They go back. And guess where Ippei is actually from? Where he was born and lives? Not somewhere in Japan! The correct answer is Orange County California. Leage circles believe Ippei is a key reason why Ohtani chose Anaheim - he talked up the town and Ohtani wanted in.

Another factor: Japanese people value loyalty. They arent as mercernary like as Americans, willing to sign anywhere to get MuH RiNgZ. Ohtani would much prefer to win with the only American organization he has known than to just go to the local hated rival to slightly up his chances at mUh PoStSeaSoN AppEAranCeS. The truth is most all teams that try to win will make the playoffs cause the playoffs have been expanded and watered down to near meaningless. With LAD he could often be a 1 or 2 seed and with Anaheim it will be a 5 or 6 seed. Not that big of a deal.

Lastly, consider Moreno spends big when he wants a player, as big as anyone, and that he considers the Dodgers his biggest rival and it would kill him to have his star attraction headlining down in LA for the Dodgers. He will do whatever he can to prevent that, including matching their contract offer.

So for the preceding reasons, your boy VK says Ohtani aint going anywhere, suckerfish Met and Yankee and Dodger and Giants and Mariners fan. Find your own damn talent. Angels are gonna keep theirs.

The Angels are trash. Literally have 2 guys that are once in a lifetime talents and can't even get to the post season. Scoffing at players wanting rings or post season success is what I'd expect from a moron of your caliber, so no surprise there.

[DJJasonp]

Originally Posted by Vladimir_Kyrilytch

Another factor: Japanese people value loyalty. They arent as mercernary like as Americans, willing to sign anywhere to get MuH RiNgZ.

Worked for Yu Darvish

[PHOG]

Spoiler!

Originally Posted by Vladimir_Kyrilytch

I see you boys have taken notice of Shohei Ohtani, a player on my California Angels. As a big Angels follower, I'm very dialed in to Ohtani rumors.

Everybody knows Ohtani prefers the west coast due to the easier air travel to and from Japan. So suck on that Mets, who have the most money and their GM Billy Eppler was the Angels GM when the Angels signed Ohtani originally. Mets fans are convinced he's as good as signed already. But he won't sign there, **** them.

The Dodgers went full austerity mode this prior offseason, not spending much while letting big name players walk. League circles suspect this is because they plan on making Ohtani the highest paid athlete ever this coming offseason. Whatwhawha is correct - I've heard 50 million per. This could very well happen.

But people forget that the Angels werent good when Ohtani originally signed there, and it didn't stop him then. There hasnt been a lot of clarity why he chose them, but here is something I bet y'all didnt know. Ohtani and his interpreter Ippei are tight and he has been with Ohtani since well before he came tp the MLB. They go back. And guess where Ippei is actually from? Where he was born and lives? Not somewhere in Japan! The correct answer is Orange County California. Leage circles believe Ippei is a key reason why Ohtani chose Anaheim - he talked up the town and Ohtani wanted in.

Another factor: Japanese people value loyalty. They arent as mercernary like as Americans, willing to sign anywhere to get MuH RiNgZ. Ohtani would much prefer to win with the only American organization he has known than to just go to the local hated rival to slightly up his chances at mUh PoStSeaSoN AppEAranCeS. The truth is most all teams that try to win will make the playoffs cause the playoffs have been expanded and watered down to near meaninglessness. With LAD he could often be a 1 or 2 seed and with Anaheim it will be a 5 or 6 seed. Not that big of a deal.

Lastly, consider Moreno spends big when he wants a player, as big as anyone, and that he considers the Dodgers his biggest rival and it would kill him to have his star attraction headlining down in LA for the Dodgers. He will do whatever he can to prevent that, including matching their contract offer. He has already refused to trade Ohtani at the very real risk of him walking for nothing. I suspect this is because he has no intention of Ohtani ever wearing a different MLB uniform.

So for the preceding reasons, your boy VK says Ohtani aint going anywhere, suckerfish Met and Yankee and Dodger and Giants and Mariners fans. Find your own damn talent. Angels are gonna keep theirs.

tl;dr

[Vladimir_Kyrilytch]

Originally Posted by dlphg9

The Angels are trash. Literally have 2 guys that are once in a lifetime talents and can't even get to the post season. Scoffing at players wanting rings or post season success is what I'd expect from a moron of your caliber, so no surprise there.

The function of the World Series originally was to pit the best of the American League against the best of the National League, the two league champions, in a series against each other to crown a champion of champions - a world champion! Originally it was a best of 9 series but it was later shortened to best of 7. That's a good playoff system. You have two leagues with their separate rules and cultures and you let the two champs battle it out to decide who's the actual one top team.

There were no other rounds. There was no NLCS and there was no ALCS, there was no seeding, there were no byes, and there were no wild cards. It was great. Baseball was America's National Pastime in these days.

Flash forward to the present, and now countless teams make it. I think we are up to what, 16 out of the 30? More than half the league? Something like a dozen wildcards per league, and some divisions have 3 out of the 4 teams getting in? That's a tournament for baskeball. It's March Madness. It's stupid, it's gimmicky, and it damn sure doesn't crown a deserving champion.

You play 162 games. You find out over that many games which teams are the best and which teams are the worst. You don't need a wacky silly exhibition style tournament lasting till mid November. People like you eat that shit up - MoRe PLaYofFs = MorE BeTTeR!, you say.

To each his own. But the whole "Ohanti needs a different team to get into the playoffs" rationale is now obsolete with all the playoff expansion they've done and plan on for the future. The Angels will surely get in this year now that they have ML quality depth. And in baseball, any team can beat any team in a short series. The best teams in baseball win like 60% of the time and the worst teams in baseball win like 40% of time. It isn't basketball where the better team will win a substantial amount of the time. This is why I think it was stupid to use the basketball postseason format for baseball. But it sure is profitable!

[Vladimir_Kyrilytch]

Originally Posted by DJJasonp

Worked for Yu Darvish

When Ohtani came over from Japan, he was considered too young to be a full free agent. So instead of signing for unlimited money (and he would have got hundreds upon hundreds of millions as one of the most sought after free agents in history), he was limited to what teams could give him from their international bonus pool, which was generally like 3 million to 10 million dollars, TOTAL, for SIX years of control! And he'd be like any other rookie, able to be optioned down to the minors on the regular, etc etc. His actual salary (not counting the small bonus) was rookie scale pay, so like 250K per year.

So he left maybe 250 million dollars on the table to come to the US when he did, when any rational, wise money-motivated person would stay in Japan a mere one or two years, then come over for the 250 million or more. He voluntarily signed up for SIX years of control at relatively no compensation instead of waiting 2 years to be able to demand anything he wanted.

This leads me to believe that Ohtani is a lot different than Yu Darvish. When he signed with the Angels in the offseason he did, he made it clear that his primary motivation is NOT money. And by picking the Angels themselves, he made it clear his primary motivation is also not MuH RiNgZ either. He's a different guy. He's one of a kind. And he's an Angel.

Get used to it!

[dlphg9]

It's also absolutely ridiculous that he didn't win the MVP last year. The guy was 4th in cy young voting, so he was absolutely insane on the mound and then at the plate he had 34 HRs and a .875 OPS, but a shit Yankee hit a bunch of HRs playing in a park that has no place in ML, so Judge won.

[Vladimir_Kyrilytch]

Originally Posted by dlphg9

It's also absolutely ridiculous that he didn't win the MVP last year. The guy was 4th in cy young voting, so he was absolutely insane on the mound and then at the plate he had 34 HRs and a .875 OPS, but a shit Yankee hit a bunch of HRs playing in a park that has no place in ML, so Judge won.

100% spot on Mr. Poopybutthole. And what grinds my gears even MORE about that injustice of an MVP award last year, MLB was having special juiced balls brought in for Aaron Judge's at bats to get him more homers. This is not even speculation, it is proven, as per the scientific research of astrophysicist Dr. Meredith Wills.

It's a wild conspiracy theory some mad fan would make up but it's actually 100% true, and makes all of Judge's homers very suspect. How many would he have hit with normal balls like all other hitters got? 40? 45? And would that have won him the MVP over Ohtani? **** no!

I got receipts. Here is an article that summarizes the findings, oddly published by golf digest (but you sure won't find it on mlb.com or any of the sites that rely on MLB for access). https://www.golfdigest.com/story/mlb...w-york-yankees

An excerpt:

By weighing each ball, Wills was able to establish three separate categories: The lighter “dead ball” that was said to be the new league-wide default, the heavier “juiced ball” from years’ past, and a new middle-weight ball, referred to in Wills’ research as the “Goldilocks Ball” for being the best of both worlds—heavy enough to soar into orbit at regular intervals but not so heavy that the pitchers start to whine.

Perhaps even more interesting than the discrepancy in the “Goldilocks” ball's weight, however, were the situations where it was found: All-Star Week, including the Home Run Derby; commemorative games; the postseason, including the World Series; and Yankees games. Yes, really.

And this link to an insider.com article actually shows the research findings in more detail:

https://www.insider.com/mlb-used-two...-third-2022-12

So yes, Ohtani got robbed by the dumb MVP voters, but he also got robbed by the league itself when they used extra bouncy balls for Aaron Judge to ensure he got the HR record (or was close enough to sell a ton of tickets). Really infuriating stuff.

[cabletech94]

I remember when we talked about the Royals in this thread…….

[Vladimir_Kyrilytch]

Originally Posted by cabletech94

I remember when we talked about the Royals in this thread…….

Fine fine. There is a Royal related issue that's been on my mind. Fantasy baseball experts everywhere seem to agree that Edward Olivares is an excellent late round steal, cause he's going on average in the 36th round, but he has a quality bat and he'll provide way better offense for your fantasy team than anyone else that deep in drafts. They say he'll be an everyday starter for the Royals and will be quite good.

But it's the Royals. They aren't as predictable or frankly, logical, as these fantasy analysts are assuming. We all know they brought in Jackie Bradley Jr. and we all know they love their poor-hitting aging veterans. But VK, I'm told, the Royals are in a rebuild and will want to see what their younger, higher ceiling guys can do!

I'm not so convinced. I suspect that Olivares will be parked on the bench more often than not, and that we'll see a ton more of JBJ in the OF than anyone in the national media is claiming.

I have been unsuccessful in finding any website that shows spring training stats, so I don't know how Isbel, Olivares, JBJ himself, or even Franmil Reyes are even doing. Anyone been following the KC spring training want to elucidate? Predictions?

Will Edward Olivares be an everyday player for the Royals or just a part time bench bat that they never let play regularly enough to get into a groove? Same question for Kyle Isbel.

[blake5676]

Fantasy leagues have drafts that go 36 rounds? If you're that interested in Edward Olivares, I'm thinking your league needs to slim down rosters a bit. I'm pretty sure I'd quit playing if I was pondering the likelihood of Edward Olivares being a late round steal.

[Vladimir_Kyrilytch]

Originally Posted by blake5676

Fantasy leagues have drafts that go 36 rounds? If you're that interested in Edward Olivares, I'm thinking your league needs to slim down rosters a bit. I'm pretty sure I'd quit playing if I was pondering the likelihood of Edward Olivares being a late round steal.

Absolutely my friend! One format of fantasy baseball that is pretty much just for the most hardcore of baseball enthusiasts is "mono-leagues", which are AL-Only and NL-Only leagues. In those, your total player universe is cut in half so basically every player on a 26-man roster in the league becomes fantasy relevant (excepting the lower tiers of relievers), even platoon hitters. Good prospects that are close to getting called up are also generally rostered - I'm holding on to Brandon Pfaadt in the NL and Oscar Colas in the AL even though I doubt either makes the opening day roster. Colas might.

Then there are "draft and hold" leagues that have normal roster sizes and use the full MLB player universe, but go a TON of rounds, cause you are allowed ZERO pickups after the draft, ZERO trades, ZERO transactions of any kind except setting your roster. So you gotta have each position backed up like three-fold, and still you can run out of active players if the injury bug is unkind. The NFBC is my favorite platform for those, where they have NFBC50 leagues: 50 dollar buy-in, 50 rounds, draft n hold format.

Olivares is very much on fantasy radars. Isbel, not so much, although he did have that stretch a few seasons ago where he looked like a legit power/speed guy.

Jackie Bradley Junior is not on any fantasy radars of course. I just have my doubts that the Royals will do the obvious and smart thing and let both Olivares and Isbel play every day, even through slumps. I remember Chris Getz playing 2B over a higher ceiling, better hitting young Johnny Giovatella. And not just for a stretch of time. It was multiple SEASONS they wouldn't let Giovatella have a real chance, even though he raked any chance he did get, minors and majors. It took until he changed organizations for him to get a real shot, with the Angels, and he was legit good. Not a star, but definitely and immediately better than Getz!

I'm worried Olivares and/or Isbel will get the Giavotella treatment once again.

[poolboy]

Hey Hey I saw Barlow pitch at Camelback Stadium today

[KCUnited]

Rough day for Franmil today but the man is built

[Ocotillo]

Originally Posted by blake5676

Fantasy leagues have drafts that go 36 rounds? If you're that interested in Edward Olivares, I'm thinking your league needs to slim down rosters a bit. I'm pretty sure I'd quit playing if I was pondering the likelihood of Edward Olivares being a late round steal.

I play in a 50-round league with 15 teams but you keep the roster for the whole year. No adds, drops or trades.

At the end of the draft, I still have a list of 20 players I want to add to my roster. I wish it was a 60-round draft.