Late May Rumblings

Well, Dayton Moore must have heard the chatter about Hosmer from the Bullpen Boys, because he didn't waste anytime in answering the question "When do we bring up the Hos". Hosmer has been everything as advertised and maybe even a bit more. He hits righties, he hits lefties, he hits for average, he hits for power, he takes walks, he plays good defense. Yeah, its only been 66 PA's, but you can tell by watching him that he is going to be the real deal. It's funny how far he's come from a couple years ago when he was battling a thumb injury and was still pre-Lasik. People thought he was another young bat that was many years away. Then one full season and 26 games later and he is batting 3rd for the Royals. That truly is amazing. Seriously a year ago today he was in A ball. From A ball to 3 hitter in the MLB in just 12 months. That is stupid.

That rapid ascension led some fans to question the timing of the promotion. Like I said last post, I thought it was a bit early. However, I respect DM for putting some chips on the table. It was a nice shot in the arm for our fan base and for our ball club as well. He is a damn good player and is only going to get better. I'm just happy that he got off to a good start and didn't start off slow which always adds pressure to young hitters. It is also a nice reminder of just how fast a prospect can shoot through the system. We talked about Odorizzi in the last post and he is currently in the same spot Hosmer was this time last year. Who knows, maybe he gets called up next June to start for the Royals. Pitchers typically move slower than hitters, but you never know how some kids will progress.

Another exciting player brought up recently was Danny Duffy. Duffy is an electric left handed pitcher. He is almost too electric at times as walks are his real concern right now. In his first two starts it was obvious that he has the stuff to be successful at the major league level. The question is can he harness that stuff. I'm excited to find out because if he can - he looks to be a great piece to the rotation. Duffy walked away from baseball last year (ala Greinke) but he is back now and appears to be past whatever personal issues he had last year. Scary to think that Mike Montgomery (still in AAA and now also battling walks) is considered a much better prospect than Danny Duffy. I think Duffy will struggle at times this year, but hopefully he can learn some things from those struggles and help the Royals be ready to compete in 2012.

That's my main takeaway from the two moves with Hosmer and Duffy. It now appears that we shouldn't need to "wait a couple years" like many said this year, but we should be able to compete in 2012. Hell, we're still technically in the picture right now, but with this rotation, I don't think it can hold up. We need to fill out our rotation a bit and address our middle infield before we can hope to make a serious division run.

Middle Infield:
SS - Ok, I've praised Escobar so far this year and I am still floored by his glove, but his bat needs to improve. I don't see a huge benefit to sending him down because his glove really does help our pitching staff night in, night out at the major league level. He has a career OBP in the minors of .337 so I don't know what he can learn back down there. No, he needs to learn how to make adjustments and I would like to see Seitzer work a little magic with him. He doesn't need to hit .300 - that ain't happening. I would be perfectly fine with a line of .250/.300/.375 with his glove. That would still make him an above average SS overall. If he can OPS over .700 then he is All-Star material with his glove. If he continues to OPS at .600 or under it becomes a concern for his long term place on this team. Now that steroids aren't as prevalent we don't have Miguel Tejeda's floating around hitting 35 HR's a year. The SS position has trended back to the old days of light hitting position. Out of 25 qualifying SS's in the majors, over half of them have an OPS under .700. So if Escobar can be around .675 and play Gold Glove SS, that will be just fine for the Royals. I still think he will improve on his current, dismal OPS of .540. He only has 7 doubles, which are his only extra base hits - so as he gets a few triples and home runs that will really bump his slugging %. He has the entire year to get his numbers up - but he is one to watch, because he is almost an automatic out at this point. If you're wondering what else is down on the farm, there is Christian Colon. The Royals drafted Colon #4 last year out of Cal State Fullerton in the hopes that he would be fast tracked to the majors with his college pedigree. He was drafted before the Greinke trade, so after Escobar came in, it was rumored that Colon would move to 2B. He has stayed at SS for now which makes sense because he can move to 2B at any time. The problem with Colon right now is that he isn't hitting. He has a .653 OPS in AA so far, which is poor for a guy who was supposed to be an advanced bat. Too early to form a real opinion on him, but I would really like to see him validate that #4 pick.

2B: Chris Getz has been pretty awful at the plate this year. I liked his skill set when he came over in the trade, but they have not panned out at the major league level. He has an average to slightly above average glove (which I think is overrated because its better than Aviles) and very good base running skills. That is about it. He really can not handle the stick at the major league level. He now has 819 career PA's and has a line of .249/.314/.313. Yes, I know that is better than Escobar, but the SS position is much more important than 2B, defensively. The other two bagger on this team is my boy Mike Aviles. I like that Aviles has been driving the ball this year, but man does he need to take a walk or two. He OPS is league average right now thanks to his pop, but his OBP is .275. I think Aviles could be a decent utility guy for this team, but I'm not sure if he can be an everyday 2B with his poor OBP. Time will tell, and he is the best option we have now. The 2B in the minors are interesting. We have Colon who I mentioned above as he will probably move to 2B. However, Johnny Giavotella is in AAA and preforming pretty well. We drafted Gio in the 2nd round of the 2008 draft with hopes that he would be a fast riser. He signed quickly and has gone up a level each year and posted OBP's of .355 Low A, .351 High A, .395 AA, .354 AAA. Those aren't crazy high numbers for minor leagues but he is consistent and he walks at a high rate. He doesn't have a lot of pop and his glove is slightly below average, but if he can be a .750-.800 OPS guy in the majors then he is a valuable 2B. He will probably be a September call-up with a shot at the starting gig in 2012. He won't be an All Star, but it would be nice to have a 2B that can actually get on base on a good clip.

Rotation:
I would like next year's rotation to include Hochevar, Duffy, Crow, Montgomery. If we have those 4 in the rotation, I'll be pretty damn excited about next season. Montgomery is our best pitching prospect in the minors and though he is scuffling a bit in AAA right now, he has the tools and frame to be a successful MLB pitcher. I think he will break camp in the rotation next year. Aaron Crow is the real wildcard. The decision to put him in the pen is looking absolutely genius right now. He has been insanely good out of the pen. He has given up 2 runs in 22 innings while having a K/9 over 9. Yes, his stuff will drop off a bit when he moves to the rotation. Yes, he sucked last year in the minors (though he had a nice K rate). Still, he is getting great experience in the majors and gaining confidence. I think they will start to stretch him out in August/September and then get him back to a starter off-season program with hopes that he is in the opening day rotation. Crow's re-emergence as a valuable piece to our future has been one of the most underrated developments of this season. The only way I see Crow staying in the pen is if Soria continues to suck...

Soria is hurting right now. He now has 3 blown saves in 10 opportunities. Yes its only 20 innings (about an 7% slice of his career innings), but man is it scary to see him struggle like this. My main concern is his health. He can't locate his fastball to save his life. Hey, blown saves happen, but this isn't just bad luck. His walk rate has doubled and his K rate has halved. That is bad. Yes he is only 27 and I'm not suggesting he should lose his role - that is the last thing I'm saying. I just worry that something is wrong and he will be on the DL soon. We've seen this before with him. If he does go to the DL, I hope Yost puts Coleman in the closer role so that Crow can stretch out and move back to the rotation later this year.

Quick Hitters:

It's been so nice to not watch Kyle Davies play baseball the last couple weeks. Very refreshing.

Moustakas is heating up after a nice May. His line is .268/.346/.482. Not stellar, but that is after a very slow start - which is normal for him. The best development with Moose is that he has more than doubled his walk rate from last year in AAA (to be fair, the rate was astoundingly low). Moose is going to hit his home runs (36 last year, 8 so far this year), but some think his ability will be limited by his free swinging approach. His free swinging isn't awful because he actually has very low K rates for a power guy, but he also has very low walk rates. He is like Alberto Callaspo in that regard, except he has power and he isn't a drunk. High contact rate but low discipline. It's important for him to increase his walk rate, because it will have a direct impact on his slugging %. The more selective he becomes, the better pitches he'll be swinging at which will make him a much more productive hitter - percentage wise.

Lorenzo Cain has an OPS over .800 and his number look ok. However, when you take a further look he is struggling against RHP and just killing LHP. I'd like to see him produce more consistently against RHP so we can get him up here this summer when we ship off Melky.

Jon Lamb left his game last week with an elbow injury. There is speculation that it could be Tommy John. Let's hope not. This is a good reminder of why its important to have a boatload of prospects - you have to know the %'s and increase your chances for actual Major League production. Lamb isn't done by a long shot, but this has the potential to be a significant setback for him.

Low A just got more exciting by adding a couple expensive Latin American signings from Dayton's expanded International pocketbook. Cheslor Cuthbert is an 18 year old 3B from Nicaragua. Very raw talent and he has two homers in his first 5 games. Keep an eye out for his name. The other is Orlando Calixte, a 19 year old SS out of the Dominican. Calixte will make his debut this week. Both of these guys are very young, but are already in A ball, so they could be real sleeper prospects in our system.

Finally, Noel Arguelles is actually pitching. The man who earned a 5yr/$7M MLB contract at age 20 before pitching a game for the Royals missed the entire 2010 season with surgery. Well now he is in high A and has a 2.31 ERA in 39 innings. What is great to see is his control. The lefty has only 4 walks in his 39 innings to go with 28 strikeouts. Very good peripheral numbers for this young man with a terrific arm. The big 6'3" Cuban could find himself in AA by the end of the year.

Exit Question: Thoughts on Crow as a starter and Soria's problems?

Still Hanging Around

Another solid stretch in the books for the boys and blue. They are playing great ball at home, and bounced back nicely from a 6 game road slide. I’m very pleased with the start to this season. Oh, and Kyle Davies is terrible at baseball.


I want to jump right in to a couple reader comments…

Kneedlez – I agree completely with you about the makeup of the Central. The Twins pitching is very shoddy right now. Liriano’s 6 BB no hitter aside – there should be an asterisk by that for that many walks. Mauer is having leg/health issues – I still think that guy should just DH or move to 1B when Morneau leaves. No reason to beat up his body behind the plate. On second thought, they should leave him behind the plate and have him play every game, especially double headers – that guy scares me. I think Chicago is in for a rough couple years unless Kenny boy can make some stealthy moves, he has a tendency to do that. Detroit has old bats but nice young arms, that team needs an offensive overhaul. Cleveland is playing amazing right now but there pitching can’t hold up like this. No way, no how. Masterson and Tomlin? These guys are pitching out of their minds. Reminds me of when Banny had a 4-0 start a couple years ago and he was a lock for our #2 starter for years to come. Indians will fall off – but Minnesota is still the team to beat until someone beats them. Kneedlez also expressed concerns about Escobar’s bat – which is very fair considering his .513 OPS right now. That is really bad. I still think he’ll get that up to at least .650 this year, which is acceptable with his amazing glove. If he can just OPS at .700, then he is a very good ML shortstop. His glove has been insanely good. Two errors in 30 games – and one of those errors was a Betemit blunder at 1B. It’s still early, but he is playing like he wants some hardware this year.

Kelvin – I agreed with your comments about Kila when you made them and I still do to an extent. However, there is a problem for Kila. That problem is Eric Hosmer and his domination of AAA baseball. Hosmer has a current slash line of .439/.525/.582. He has a K:BB ration of 19:16. He has 7 multi-hit games in his last 10. He is just terrorizing that league. That being said, I’m not ready to bring him up. I’ve had some good debates with some fellow fans about Hosmer. I still want him in AAA for a while – the obvious reason is for service time and hoping to avoid super 2 status. It’s clear that Hosmer is going to be a star, and I am perfectly fine with playing the service time game with him. Sorry, Eric – its business. That being said, if he has crazy numbers come late June, it’s going to be nut-cutting time for Kila. The other big problem for Kila right now is that Yost has lost confidence in him. His playing time is being cut into by Wilson Betemit (and it should). Also - the other night, there were runners on the corners with one out in a tie game in the bottom of the ninth. All you need is a sac fly. Chris Getz is at the plate and Kila is on the bench. Chris Getz hits about 5 fly ball outs a year so naturally you’d pinch hit Kila to get a fly ball and win the game, right? No, Yost left in Getz and he hit a weak chopper to 1st. That had to hurt Kila that his coach wouldn’t even put him in for a routine fly ball. I’m worried about his confidence. I’ve always been a big Kila supporter, readers know that. However, the problem for Kila is that he just reached 300 plate appearances (PA’s) over the past two seasons. That is a decent sample size, not a great one, but decent. His line is .210/.303/.370. So, Kila cannot blame anyone but himself. He has stepped into the box 300 times and every one of those times is an opportunity to prove something. He just hasn’t done it. I hope something clicks in the next few weeks and he starts to play better ball. However, even if he does – you know Hosmer is here by September at the LATEST. Maybe he can increase his trade value in the next couple months, but I think there is a 5% chance he is on our team next year. Therefore, his clock is very limited and may be time to look at other pieces to the puzzle, like WILSON!...


Wilson Betemit has been a huge lift for our offense up to this point in the year. This guy was a great surprise last year and is proving that last year was no fluke. Betemit was once a very high rated prospect with the Atlanta Braves (yes, Dayton loves his former Braves). He had some health issues and bounced around but now seems to be finding his groove as a UT player. You see, Wilson has pretty shoddy knees and he just can’t play 3B for 160 games a year. That’s ok, we don’t need him too. I love the way Yost uses Betemit. Wilson seems to be ok with it, too. With his knees, he's probably good with playing 4-5 games a week and picking good matchups. Hell, what's wrong with that. It’s puts him in the best position to succeed, which makes him much more effective as a UT. He’s like Ross Gload, except he doesn’t suck at life.

In 410 PA's with the Royals he has an OPS of .882. Obviously, something has clicked with him because he is playing at a very high level for us. Some people have said we should cash in a trade him when he is playing this well. I disagree. At his age and health history, no one is going to give up a top 10 prospect in their system for him. Therefore, you are going to get a guy with a 5% chance of making it to the pros. Why give up a guy who can clearly hit the ball at the major league level for that?

Just keep him and use him the way we are now. If he finishes this year with an OPS over .800 and doesn't break down, then give him a 2 yr/$6M. I would work in a $750K buyout clause after year 1 and a $3.5M club option for year 3. This keeps him around as a UT that gets 300-400 PA's a year and we can afford that contract. I want to see more blood soaked Wilson volleyballs out at the K, like now. Someone makes this happen.


Ok, I want to talk about Jeff Francoeur. Some fellow fans have been baiting me lately about my knock on Frenchy in my last post. The main culprit is my brother, Q-Dart, who has taken a shine to Frenchy and his fun-loving attitude and gritty baseball style. Well, I’m afraid I’m slowly becoming an old baseball curmudgeon and little Q still has the zest for life that only a college student can possess. Has my aging, jaded view on the game kept me from enjoying this feisty player who is knocking the ball all around the park right now? Maybe. Or maybe it’s that in 3443 PA’s before this year, Jeff got on base 31% of the time. Or maybe it’s because he is known for torrid April starts, or that he only hits LHP... Though maybe, just maybe ol’ Seitzer has found something. I’ve obviously liked what I’ve seen about Francoeur to this point and I hope it continues. He will not become a .950 OPS player like his is playing right now, but maybe he can settle in around .280/.330/.480 and play stellar defense (a given) and be a great clubhouse presence (a given). When we signed Francoeur, I didn’t flip out like others in the blogosphere because it was only a one year deal. It’s hard to get livid about one year deals in baseball. I just don’t want people telling me we should lock up Francoeur to a 4 or 5 year deal. Hold your horses – there is a lot of baseball left to level off this start. That being said – I’m catching “Frenchy Fever”.


A couple other quick hitters…

Aviles has rebounded nicely from his slow start. People were calling for his head, but now love him again. Royals fans need to understand that Mike is very, very streaky. Sometimes he’ll look awful up there, sometimes he just plugs gaps with his eyes closed. Bottom line – you have to love that bat flip. No one looks more bad ass in the box than Mike. I still try to recreate that bat flip on the softball diamond, which is extremely pathetic.

I can’t wait to read this one morning on the interweb: Royals selected the contract of LHP Danny Duffy from Omaha (PCL). Released RHP Kyle Davies. Duffy is killing it at AAA. He really struggles in Spring Training, but he should be in the rotation this summer.

It’s fun having a dangerous Alex Gordon. He looks really good at the plate. Can’t wait until pitchers start working around him more and increasing his walk rate. More runners for Billy and company.

Our bullpen is nasty. 26 straight scoreless innings. All we need is for Timmy Collins to quit walking one guy per inning and we’ll be in great shape. Hat tip to Blake Wood for working out of some nasty spots last week. He is building confidence and getting some nice strikeouts with men on base.

The Royals are 2nd in the AL in runs. When our lineup is Aviles, Cabrera, Gordon, Butler, Francoeur, Betemit - that is a pretty good 1-6 right now. Seriously.

My favorite development so far: Jake Odorizzi. This is the 20 year old arm we got in the Greinke trade - he was Milwaukee's #1 pitching prospect. In high A ball, he is 2-0 with a 2.42 ERA. In 5 starts he has never given up more than 2 runs. He has 38 K and 5 BB through 26 innings. Very good numbers. He should be in AA soon. Aside from Crow - he is our #1 RHP prospect.


Exit Question: Ok, let’s hear your take on your Hosmer promotion date?

April: Hope is a Dangerous Thing

Well the Royals are off to a hot start and I’ve been hearing rumblings of 2003. There have been some nice developments these first 9 games, but there is still a lot of season and a lot of Kyle Davies left for this team. In positive news, Jason Kendall will be out longer than expected and that may be the spark our young guys need to continue this inspired play. I don’t think I’ve seen a team play as hard on a consistent basis as this current team. It’s a lot more fun to have a young team. Old players are a bunch of Roger Dorn’s. The only drawback is that I feel like a bigger nerd writing about dudes younger than me playing baseball.


My big takeaway through the first 9 games is that I am gay for Ned Yost. I mean gay as in “baseball gay”, which is totally cool, bro. Ned Yost does and says things that make me want to be a better (baseball) man. He doesn’t bunt, he is aggressive, he likes to play young guys, he is respected by his players, and he speaks the truth – basically he is the anti-Hillman. Yes, fresh after firing the worst manager in baseball history – not exaggerating – Dayton Moore appointed the perfect man for the job here in KC. Yost has been such a breath of fresh air. It’s almost hard for me to deal with the fact that I actually agree with the majority of the moves he makes. I’m not sure if watching games is as fun when I don’t get to yell at the TV and act like I know more than the manager. I’m still coming to terms with this transition. Check that, I’m ok with it. I’ll give up yelling at Hillman just so that I don’t have to watch our 2 hitter bunt in the first inning of an American League game. Ok, on to the players…


This is a huge year for Gordon and Hochevar. You may think there are more important guys this year, but hear me out. Of all the exciting faces that we are seeing already and have yet to see this year, why Gordon and Hochevar? These two have been prodding along in our system and have been performing below mediocrity up to this point. You might say, “Hey DP, didn’t you say 2009 was a big year for these two? Come to think of it, didn’t you say 2010 was a big year for them?” Well yes, yes I did. However, its different this time and I’ll tell you why.


This year is crucial for Gordon not because we need him to succeed to win in 2011. No, this year is big for him because he is playing for a job. We need to see if he can be the 7 hitter of our future. Yes, our 7 hitter. A few years ago, we were dreaming of Gordon being our perennial 3 hitter and spitting out .315/30/115 and having an OPS over .950. It looked like a slam dunk and he was the definition of a “can’t miss” prospect. Now, I’m just excited about the prospect of him producing a line of .275/25/85 with an OPS around .850 while playing LF and hitting 7th after Hosmer, Moose, Butler, Myers. Come to think of it, you could even get creative and plug him into the 2 hole with his walk rate – I wouldn’t put it past ol’ Yost to do it. Yes, there is Gordon excitement in the air again, but its different this time. We don’t NEED Alex Gordon to produce. Whatever he gives us is icing on the cake and so far – the icing tastes good, baby.


I want to talk about an AB Gordon had in the first week against the Chicago White Sox. Chris Sale, a big tough lefty, was pitching to Gordon in the late innings of a close game. Gordon quickly found himself down 1-2 after a couple long loopy swings form the past. At that point, I was starting to question if Seitzer had really changed Gordon’s swing in the offseason. Gordon worked the count full and then I saw the most beautiful thing I’ve seen in a long time. Chris Sale dialed up a fastball on the outer half at 95 MPH. Gordon’s hands flew through the zone with his new-look FLAT swing and he drove the ball the opposite way for a line drive double. Butler homered in the next at bat and the Royals had themselves another comeback win.


Yes, the new & improved swing is very encouraging. I had a conversation (note it was not an argument) with Cabby in February about Gordon’s swing. We were both commenting that we had seen video clips of Gordon in spring training and that we were encouraged by his new approach. We both agreed it all depends on if he can keep the new adjustments when the lights come on. There is a tendency to go back to what is habit and what got you to the big leagues (See: Teahen, Mark). However, if you want to make the jump to a productive MLB ballplayer you need to make adjustments (See: Brett, George). Now I find myself watching Gordon’s at bats closer than anyone else. Here’s to finding our future 7 hitter…


Moving on to Luke Hochevar and his mixed bag start to the season. His first 3 starts in order were ok, bad, good. Not really screaming #1 starter. Which leads me to my point about Hoch, which is similar to my thoughts on Gordon. The last two years I stated that our success depends on Hoch stepping up to be a #2 starter to help Greinke. Well that ship has sailed. Hoch isn’t going to be a #2 on a playoff team, but he could be a #4. Luke is still a big 6’5” RHP who throws 90-94 and mixes in a decent slider and cutter. His problem is that he doesn’t spot his fastball and use it to get ahead in the count. If he could work on those things with Bob McClure and learn more how to pitch and not just throw, he still has a shot to be a decent ML starter. The beauty is that with Montgomery, Lamb, Duffy, Dwyer, and Crow around the corner, we shouldn’t need Luke to be the #2, but I wouldn’t mind him sticking around as a #4. The reason that would be nice is because then we would only need 2-3 of the kids to become effective starters instead of needing 4-5, which just isn’t going to happen. Here’s to finding a nice back-end piece to the future rotation…


The next topic of discussion is very near and dear to my heart: the bullpen, baby. The young bullpen is indescribable right now. Well, I guess I could take a stab at it. Let’s try enlivening, energetic, revitalizing, rousing, boisterous, and most importantly cheap. This bullpen has the potential to be a legitimate strength on a playoff caliber team. Now I must warn you that Tim Collins and Aaron Crow are not going to dominate MLB hitters night in night out. I was talking to my boy Hands about this and we both agreed that young relievers usually have success coming out of the gates in their career. This is due to the face that MLB hitters have never faced them before. That usually favors the pitcher. Especially a pitcher with a funky deliver like Collins and Crow. So yes, they are both killing it right now – but the AL hitters will develop a “book” on Collins and Crow. That is when the young pitchers will face their real test. When AL hitters realize that Crow goes to his slider immediately when he has two strikes, that could cause some problems. When hitters learn to find the ball after Collins release, it could present some new challenges for him. That being said, both of the pitchers have great stuff and I think they will be mainstays for the Royals pitching staff. I still want Crow to move to the rotation down the road, but I like him cutting his teeth out of the pen. The guy is too talented to be in the minors – a little baptism by fire never hurt anybody.


Let’s throw out some other quick hitters about this team:


I really like Escobar’s glove. I think his bat will come around and be average, but his glove has the potential to be excellent. I’m a big fan of the way he plays. Oh, and when he steps in the box he doesn’t flail about like Yuni did in the past. He isn’t off to a great start offensively, but when our SS bats now, I don’t yell at the TV as much.


Kila is hurting right now. He is not recognizing pitches and looks downright awful against lefties. He needs a come to Jesus meeting, or his ML career will be a short one. I’m not done with him, I still like his skill set – but with Hosmer lurking, his at bats are already precious.


Soria’s fastball couldn’t be flatter right now. I’m not worried about him due to sample size, but keep an eye on his fastball. If it is diving last minute while painting the black, then he’s back to normal. Until then, I’m holding breath a bit in the 9th. Maybe he shouldn’t have dropped the nickname.


Billy Butler will have an OBP over .400 this year. The guy sees the ball so well – watching him bat is like artwork. The only thing that will keep him from being great is laziness. That or KFC.


Jeff Francoeur is just not good at hitting a baseball – I just want you to know that so you don’t get excited. Luckily, he’ll be gone by July 31.



Exit Question: What are your takeaways through the first 9? I’m not yelling at the TV as much, that’s big for me.

Greinke is a Goner

Rough day for Royals fans as a 27 year old former Cy Young Award winner has been traded. A local fan favorite has been dealt and it will feel like Beltran, Damon, Dye all over again for some people. At first blush I think the Royals could have received a little more for Greinke, but there are some intriguing players coming back in this deal. We’ll get to those players in a bit, but first I’m going to sit in my ivory tower for a minute. There is nothing more annoying to me than a prima donna in sports. No one likes A-Rod or T.O. because of their “me-first” attitudes. You can now famously add Derek Jeter and LeBron James to that list. You see fans don’t like it when players give the impression that they don’t play for you and your home team first. Fans want their players to respect the name across their chest and act like they care about the tradition it brings. Hey, many of them don’t – I know that, but when they constantly remind you of it, it’s hard to cheer for them. The other type of prima donna fans tend to hate is the one that reduces his effort when times get tough (Randy Moss, Jose Guillen, T.O. (again), Albert Haynesworth, etc). I think this type of player is even worse than the A-Rod types who are just pure narcissists. These guys take their talent and waste it, because they would rather pout in the corner than work hard to overcome adversity. I despise these players. The reason I’m talking about all these jack-asses is because sadly, that is what Zack Greinke had become to the Royals.

You may write off Zack’s recent transformation to prima donna as Zack being goofy, crazy, nutty, etc. I don’t. Yes Zack is whack, he is very unique and no one will ever be able to grasp what is going on in his head. It used to be funny and kind of a cool story and people would love to hear his crazy post-game interviews and off the wall comments. Last year though, it started to get more depressing than funny. Zack openly questioned why he should care and try hard down the stretch when the Royals were in their usual pathetic end to the season. Some will say that Greinke hates losing and that he has a right to bitch and complain about our performance. Yeah, to an extent, but when you can see him dialing it in on the mound in a meaningless August game, that is when I take exception. That is unprofessional and when you are given a $38M contract, you have obligations. I can’t just take days off whenever I feel like it at my job, why should Zack be able to do it? Because he throws 95 MPH? Because he says funny things? That was the start of my Greinke decline. The next thing he did was leak out that he wanted to be traded in the offseason. After the Royals stuck by him during all of his mental issues that made him walk away from the game, this is the thanks they get. When Greinke retired from baseball in 2006, the Royals easily could’ve have let him go and chalked it up as a tough break for our system. They stuck by Zack, the PERSON, not the ballplayer. Buddy Bell will always deserve tremendous credit for treating Zack like a person and not a commodity. He helped him find the joy in baseball again (and in life for that matter). Thanks to the Royals support, Zack resurrected his career, won a Cy Young, and got a $38M contract. Thirty-eight million dollars. Let that sink in. Then when times get tough and losses pile up, he tells Dayton that he wants out? Thanks for the loyalty Zack – real stand-up guy. There was a report about a month ago that Zack asked Dayton to explore trade options and said (threatened) “You won’t want me around the team in 2011” insinuating that he would be a bad seed in the clubhouse. Then it surfaced this week, that Greinke fired his agent and had upgrade his trade request to a trade demand. Wow, thanks again Zack. You really helped our leverage in negotiations with other teams. Now, when Moore tries to hold out for more of a return, the other team can say, “C’mon, Dayton. This kid wants out and has said you don’t want him around next year, you got to move him for your clubhouse, take the deal.” Yeah, that makes Dayton’s job much harder and therefore dings the return you can expect. That’s a chicken shit move, Zack. Dayton now has to trade a malcontent who has mental issues that caused him to leave baseball before, who probably couldn’t handle a handful of the markets that are after him, who can waive a trade to half of the MLB teams, who is coming off a 4.00+ ERA, and who has announced to the world that he doesn’t want to play in KC. So, with all that being said, what did he get?

You will see this phrase often in the Greinke trade analysis – “quantity over quality”. People will be quick to say that Dayton Moore looked to fill position needs (SS, CF) rather than go after best available talent. Well those people are right because that is exactly what he did – however, the debate will rage on over the type of “quality” he got. I was debating this the past few weeks – Should Dayton go for a blue chip prospect return or fill organizational holes? Very valid argument and I see both sides. Part of me thought that you need big names if you’re going to move Greinke. I get worried when I hear GM’s announcing what they want in return for a player. You see, back in the day Allard Baird told the world he wouldn’t trade Carlos Beltran unless he got a C and 3B back in the deal. Then every team patched together an offer with a C and a 3B and who knows what kind of premium talent was omitted from offers going forward. Now, if Mark Teahen and John Buck didn’t suck at baseball, maybe I wouldn’t point to this example, but I just don’t like announcing what you want in return. Seems to limit your options a bit. While Dayton didn’t come out with a worldwide telegram like Baird, there were rumblings behind the scenes that he was looking to build this team up the middle. Ok, that’s not as narrow as Baird’s statement, because it includes C, 2B, SS, and CF. Also if you look at our talent in the minors its Moose (3B), Hosmer (1B), Myers (will move to RF) so I guess you could kind of figure what Datyon needed any way. Well apparently the rumblings were correct as Dayton traded Greinke for pieces to help build our 25 man roster up the middle. Ok, let’s get into the return.

Alcides Escobar – The central piece of the deal. For all intents and purposes, Escobar is our SS of the future. He measures 6’1” and 175 lbs; he throws and bats right handed. Escobar was a very highly touted prospect before his 2010 rookie season for the Brewers. He was the #1 prospect in their system and ranked #12 in Baseball America’s Top 100 (for comparison our number #1 was Mike Montgomery and he was #23 in the Top 100). He was also the #1 ranked SS in the minors, so this guy has had a very good track record. His tools and makeup compare to Elvis Andrus, the stud TX SS who was part of the Mark Teixera deal when ATL gave up the farm for him. He will not hit for power, but he is Gold Glove caliber for sure. If he can get on base at a decent clip and steal bags and play his great defense he will be a very good MLB SS. The problem is that he had a rough rookie season - his line last year in Milwaukee was .235/.288/.326 which is not good. It’s actually really bad, but that is where the divide is on Escobar. He was 23 last year and a consensus top prospect and then he had a bad rookie season. Does that make him Tony Pena Jr.? I hope not - and Escobar, unlike TPJ, had a minor league track record of hitting well. At AA (2008) he had an OBP of .363, at AAA (2009) he had an OBP of .353 and is a lifetime .293 hitter in the minors. The question for Escober is can he bounce back from his rookie campaign. If he can just give us .330 OBP he will be an above average MLB SS. Shortstop is a premium position right now and there is a definite lack of talent in the MLB – if Escobar can give us that it will make this trade look much better.

Lorenzo Cain – dude has a sweet name, sounds like he should’ve been a Linebacker at ESU in The Program. Zo plays CF, bats and throws right handed, and has a nice frame at 6’2” 200 lbs. This is another guy who has a high ceiling, but may just be another 4^th OF in our stable. Last year in 84 games split between AA and AAA, he put up a slash line of .317/.402/.432 and his minor league career line is .291/.366/.416 which is pretty good considering that his best talents are his speed and defense. I won’t compare him to Joey Gathright because he is not a toothpick, but he is a speedy CF. He has proven that he can hit in the minors and last year he spent a little time in Milwaukee and in 158 PA’s his slash line.306/.348/.415 and stole 7 bases. He doesn’t project to hit like that in the majors, but it’s nice to see he had some success. I could see Cain as a .280/.335/.400 guy who plays good defense and steals bases. If he can do that, then he is a very good piece considering he will be very cheap for the next 5 years. Some might wonder what this means for Dyson or Blanco, but all it does is give us more options and more depth. I would bet that Cain starts the year in CF (Dayton said today that he will be given an opportunity in spring training) and Melky is our 4^th OF. Not sure what this means for Blanco as he is out of options – you’d think there would be another trade for one of our OF’s. Dyson will be up in the summer at some point after we have traded Melky to a contender. My favorite thing about Cain is how he is similar to Carl Crawford. No, he will not be as good as Crawford, that’s not what I’m saying. However, both Cain and Crawford picked up a bat for the first time in high school. They are raw athletes who came to the game late and they have potential to improve later in their development. Some people are very high on Cain, some think he is just average. Like all trades, time will tell. I know that I’m very excited to watch him play baseball. Start with this.

Jake Odorizzi – 20 year old RHP who became the #1 prospect in the Brewers system when Escobar became an MLB player. He was the minor league pitcher of the year for the Brewers and is a 4 pitch guy with terrific makeup. He was a 1^st round draft pick and scouts love his ability. He is 6’2” 180 lbs and has similar style to Greinke actually (He will not be another Greinke, but he is similar to him and has 2-3 starter ability at the MLB level). He immediately moves to the top of the RHP rankings in our system. Odorizzi will make it the major leagues, it’s just a matter of when and in what role. He should stick as a starting pitcher though he wore down a bit last year but he is only a couple years out of high school. His numbers last year in A ball – 3.42 ERA 120 IP 99H 40BB 135 K. Very good numbers. He has a very smooth delivery and throws low 90’s consistently and can pop 94-95 (sound familiar). His plus fastball with sink goes with a plus curve and a slider as well. He needs to work on his changeup like all young pitchers, but he should start the year in High-A and then go to AA as the season carries on. Look for him to debut in 2013 and be a piece of the Royals 5-man rotation. Scouts say that Odorizzi would be a top 3 prospect in any teams system right now, any team but the Royals. He is probably the 5^th best pitcher in our system right now behind our crazy LHP talent. Another thing to be excited about.

Jeremy Jeffress – This guy brings the smoke out of the pen. This guy also loves to smoke outside of the pen. He has been busted for pot twice in the minors and one more strike like that and he gets a lifetime ban. However, the good news is that the MLB union doesn’t allow pot testing so as long as he is on our MLB team, he can continue to get high every day. This guy throws 100 MPH and will immediately be a flamethrower out of our pen. Our bullpen is going to be filthy in the next couple years. With Tim Collins, Louis Coleman, Blaine Hardy, Robinson Tejeda, and now Jeremy Jeffress we are pretty stacked with POWER arms. This is good because it gives us trade chips at the upcoming trade deadlines. We did this with Ramon Ramirez and Leo Nunez (though the return was weak) and should be able to move some of these arms for a talented return. More bullpen depth is never a bad thing, especially for small market teams who can use that as a weapon (the Devil Rays did this in the WS run).

After trades like this go down, people want to see a grade assigned, but it’s too early for that. We really have to see how these young guys pan out. However, we have supplemented the wave of Moose/Hosmer/Myers/Montgomery/Duffy/Lamb/Crow/Colon with these 4 players. Unfortunately, our rotation is going to be hurting as Hochevar looks to be our opening day starter (gulp) but we are getting more young, cheap players in place. I will say this – 2011 just got more exciting in my book, that may sound crazy since a Cy Young pitcher will no longer pitch every 5 days. However, I prefer to watch ballplayers who want to win and play hard 100% of the time, I’m old fashioned I guess. After being obsessed with Greinke’s every start in 2009 and watching every pitch with excitement, my feelings for Zack took a nose dive in 2010. No, not because his numbers slipped, but because his effort slipped in a big way. That being said, he is still an excellent pitcher with an affordable contract so he was certainly a trade commodity. Though who knows, maybe Zack would've flaked out if we kept him and that would've killed any future trade value. I think its a decent return considering that he forced our hand and every day we kept him was a risk that his value could plummet with another freak out. I’m not sure how I’ll feel about Zack a few years from now, will there still be a bad taste or will I remember the Cy Young and Chipotle comments? I don’t know, but just like my thoughts on this trade - time will tell.

One more thing... YUNI IS GONE. Praise Jesus. First Hillman, then Guillen, now Yuni. Who is left to hate???

Exit Question: Sound off if you feel like it.

Trade Recaps and Bye-Bye Jose

Oh man, this feels weird. Getting back on the saddle here and I don’t know where to begin. Let’s start with where I’ve been. I decided back in mid-June that I couldn’t take Jose Guillen playing every day. Sure I didn’t like Kendall and Podsednik playing every day either, but Guillen really drove me through a wall (or I guess I hit a wall figuratively). As I checked my daily morning box score of our minor league prospects, I routinely saw Kila Ka’aihue hitting the ball all over the park and walking at a crazy high rate. All of this, while watching a fat, lazy slob in the majors taking his AB’s. Classic Royals fan syndrome had people excited that we cut our division deficit to 7 games. Granted we had won 10 of 13 while riding Bruce Chen and Kyle Davies (obviously fluky) – Royals fans still wanted to talk about a pennant run. I laughed (and cried) when holding these conversations. You can look at the numbers or you can just watch our team play, and it’s easy to see that there are not nearly enough above replacement players on this roster. Not even close. Having such a poor team coupled with the fact that we had so many old players with no chance of being in our future took me to a breaking point. Well now my break is over.

Dayton Moore really tested my patience over the past month. He did this by continuing to play our knucklehead veterans while holding out for apparently a King’s ransom. Eventually he softened his demands and made some moves. I liked all of the moves at the end of the day. Would’ve liked them earlier, but sometimes these teams in the race like to hold out to very last minute so they know whether they are in a race or not. That is a very fair point when wondering why it took so long to move Pods, Farnsworth, and Guillen (though he hasn’t been moved as of yet). Given the return I’m ok with the timeline of the moves, but man is it tough watching these guys play when you know there are younger guys with potential not getting a chance.

You may look at some of the veteran’s numbers and wonder why I was so livid with there playing time. My point about our roster composition (and has been for a while if you read this blog) is that we have players at the league minimum that can most likely recreate what these overpriced veterans are doing. Sure Dayton wants to bring veterans in to help show fans (and players like Greinke apparently) that we are trying to produce a winner. I would rather save the money on veterans and put it towards the draft (including the International draft) and set it aside to help lock up young talent when necessary. Mitch Maier is Scott Podsednik. He will hit for a little less average, walk much more (thus having the same OBP), steal less bases, and play better defense. He also costs the league minimum. No reason for Pods to be playing. Kila Ka’aihue is Jose Guillen (for the purposes of this argument; no offense to Kila). Kila can have a large dropoff in his AAA numbers (even bigger than the projected regression from AAA to MLB) and still out-produce Guillen. This would also take Guillen off of the field and take his salary off of the books. I know Dayton was trying to move him to find room for Kila, but man it took too long. Just to mess with me a little more, Kila sat his first 2 days up in the bigs to let Guillen play (against RHP mind you) and then got his first start against a LHP – gee thanks Ned?!?! For the record, I like Yost, but that pissed me off.

Ok, the frustration is in the past – I just wanted to explain why I had a Royals breakdown. I probably didn’t do enough justice to express my frustration/anger, but I have already blocked it out, so I’m moving on. Let’s talk about our return.

Sean O’Sullivan and Will Smith for Alberto Callaspo. Bert’s sheen really wore off this year and his average dipped to .277. With his low walk rate (which is ok when he hits .315) kept his OBP at .307. That is really poor and well below his career track record, which means we did sell low – but I was ok with moving him. He played out of his mind in 2009 and will be hard pressed to repeat it going forward. Callaspo is also due for a decent raise next year in his first year of arbitration. To get two pitching prospects is pretty good return for Billy Buckner (the player we originally sent to AZ for Bert). O’Sullivan is a 23 year old RHP with average stuff. He is more of a bulldog mentality pitcher (think what Kyle Davies was supposed to be - yikes). He throws a fastball that sits at 88-91, a plus change, and an average curveball. He leaves the ball up a bit, but is young and is praised as a hard worker who loves to play ball. His ceiling is a #4 starter, but he could be a serviceable #5. Having another option for the 2011 rotation is good considering how bad Banny has become. Will Smith is an upside lefty -who some think is the better ‘get’ in the deal. He actually spent some time in AAA for the Angels, but we sent him to High A to start off. He is a 6’5” Lefty with excellent command (30 BB in his first 183 IP) and decent stuff. He could use some more strikeouts, but just turned 21, so he is a decent prospect for us. He is yet another attractive LHP in our system.

Lucas May and Elisaul Pimentel for Scott Podsednik. I like this trade because I would’ve moved Podsednik for a bag of balls with a couple bags of sunflower seeds (only David® of course). Pimental is a very raw 6’2” RHP out of the Dominican. He didn’t start pitching until later in life, so he is baseball young despite just turning 22. He is definitely a project with a good K/rate who has reported to low A. Lucas May is intriguing as he was a solid catching prospect for the Dodgers. When I first heard the trade I thought we would get A.J. Ellis (the no pop all walk catcher rumored to be dealt for Callaspo in the off-season), but it was his counterpart instead. May will turn 26 in October so he is growing out of ‘prospect’ status, but he is certainly playing some good ball these days. His walk rate is not great (though it is increasing) but his pop is above average. He had an .850 OPS in 285 PA’s so far this year in LA, but he has already hit 4 HR’s in his first 8 games in Omaha, so he certainly is making himself known to his new team. My big concern with May is that he is a converted SS, so he is still learning the C position. That same knock has seemed to have really hurt Brayan Pena in our front office, so I’m not sure if Dayton & Co. are ready to bring a still developing defensively catcher up to the bigs next year. I think he will be up in September to learn from Jason Kendall (Dayton’s new Gload as far as grit is concerned, though not as good as Gload). I think Pena and May will compete for back-up catcher next year (with May having the inside track due to Moore/Yost showing no confidence in Pena).

Jesse Chavez, Gregor Blanco, and Tim Collins for Rick Ankiel and Kyle Farnsworth. This is my favorite trade of the year. Just a steal for the Royals in my book. We gave up two players who had absolutely no future in KC and who really aren’t even that good in my book for 3 young players who can be nice 25 man roster pieces. Chavez’s numbers were not great this year, but he has a decent arm and is a cheap reliever (unlike Farnsworth and his 4.5M per year contract). Blanco is intriguing as he was the starting CF for ATL in 2008 and posted a .366 OBP in 144 games. The problem however is that he has ZERO pop – think of a Gathright who takes walks, knows how to actually read a fly ball, but steals less bases. I do not see Blanco as a CF for our future if we want to be a contender, but he is a very good 4^th OF. He is fun to watch play CF as he is a gazelle out there. Too bad his minor league SB numbers don't translate to the majors. He is like Maier but probably a little faster in the field and with much less pop. Maier and Blanco can compete over the next two months to see who is our 4^th OF of the future (and maybe even starting CF next year). I still hope Derrick Robinson can be our CF in 2012, but in the meantime these guys are decent options that cost us the league minimum (see the theme?) Finally, the best piece to this deal was Tim Collins. This guy is tiny. Think Cabby freshman year of college. Collins is listed at 5’7” 155lbs – though he’s got to weigh more than that. Most players playing weight is from the draft weight and is rarely updated – it’s just not as important as it is in sports like football. Collins is a flame throwing lefty – the best comp for him is Billy Wagner. Dude has average 13.4K/9 in his brief minor league career. This year alone he has had 92 K’s in 58 innings! That is filthy – and he is only 20. He can be an awesome piece to our bullpen for years to come (which should make the bullpen boys awfully happy).

Finally we essentially traded Jose Guillen for Kila Ka’aihue. It is finally time for Kila to get his chance. I hope to God he makes the most of it. If he doesn’t, that’s ok – he was never a guy we really needed to be a stud for our future (like Moose and Hos). He would be a nice diamond in the rough if he pans out and not too big of a deal if not. I will be cheering very, very hard for him though. Dayton has really messed with this guy’s career (giving Mike Jacobs a job over him last year was criminal). I hope he can relax and just play his game, which is fueled by patience. However, I worry that he will press knowing he has a limited try out. I will look for Ned Yost to know how to handle a young kid who may want to push himself too hard. I will now be watching the Royals games with great excitement to see Kila’s every at bat.

Ok, lots has gone on since my last post, so I’ll stop here so we can discuss the trades a bit. I have some other topics I’ll write about soon as well – including Billy Butler and Alex Gordon.

Exit Question: What do you think about the trades? What are you watching over the next two months?

Draft Recap

Well the Royals sure used some smoke screens in this draft. There was the rumor that a pre-arranged deal with Grandal was agreed upon and then there was J.J. Piccolo watching Chris Sale pitch in his last 3 games. Everything I read had ol' DP convinced it was one of those two. I'd heard some Colon chatter, but didn't think that we would take him that high. Well, our front office saw something they like. We'll never know if Grandal was the plan until his price went up last minute, the Royals won't admit that either way. They're saying it was Colon all along and Moore even went so far as to say that Colon is the draft pick he has been most excited about in his Royals tenure. Hmm, sounds like something you would say when people accuse you of drafting someone on the cheap.

I'm not going to knock this pick or Moore. I don't think we particularly went 'cheap' on this. Again, we will never know the situation with Grandal. I kinda liked him, so if we did switch last minute due to his money demands, that would upset me. But no point getting upset over something I'll never know is true...

Look, Colon sounds like a fine baseball player and honestly, there weren't too many guys that jumped out at you for the 4th pick. I'm not mad about this pick, I'm not ecstatic about it either. He may end up being a quality MLB SS, I'll be cheering my ass off for him. I love him makeup and I love his attitude. I watched him play the night of the draft in an elimination game in the College World Series regionals. He was a tough nosed little ball player. Went 3-4 with 3 RBI's and some clutch hitting. I liked his swing and I like his play at SS. It was only one game, but I liked what I saw. The only knock on him is that he isn't a crazy athlete with great tools. As Bubba mentioned in his comment, he grades slightly above average in all areas. He has been referred to as a 5 tool player, but a 5 tool player with no 'plus' tools. I hope his makeup is as good as advertised, because that is the x-factor for this kid. He was the first person ever named captain of the US national team - that is impressive. I'm hoping that he is some rare breed of work ethic, leadership, and moxie. Sounds like something on the draft board down at 1 Arrowhead Way. I'm anxious to see if Ol' Big Hatt is bitter about this pick because of the character reasoning that we heard about in April from the Chiefs...

2nd Round: Brett Eibner CF, Arkansas (R,R) 6'3" 205 lbs

This kid is interesting. Most teams rated him up as SP and think he has a better future there. He has a good arsenal of pitches though his numbers this year weren't great. He also played OF his first couple of seasons between his pitching outings. However, in his recently completed junior year, his bat went to a different level. A ridiculous level. In 58 games this year he hit .337 with 21 HR's. That is a lot of bombs. Dude has raw power for sure. He also drew 38 BB's (though it came with 53 K's). Piccolo has confirmed that we drafted him as an OF so that is good. He has much more upside as an OF, though there is some risk because this was his first year of great production. I've heard reports of him being gazelle like in CF so that is pretty sweet. I like getting bad ass athletes like this guy. Good pick in my book.

3rd Round: Michael Antonio SS, HS - New York (R,R) 6'2" 190 lbs

This is a pick that kctiger mentioned in the comments. I'm not wild about this pick. Seems like we had some more needs here, but you know what - in the baseball draft, it's all a crapshoot. I would've preferred a college C, but they must see something they like in this kid. Do you know where he grades out best? That's right, character. Scouts rave about his makeup before they rave about his ability. I swear Pioli and Moore are prayer buddies or something... Way too early to knock this kid, word is that he pressed this year after having a great off-season for the US junior team. Scouts got in his head about having a good year and it affected his play. Scouts say he should fill out and could move to 3B or OF, but he is certainly a project. 5 years away.

4th Round: Kevin Chapman, LHP, Florida (L,L) 6'3" 210 lbs

A very productive senior year from this hard throwing lefty. He should fast track to the bigs. Like kctiger mentioned, he is similar to the 5th round pick last year, Louis Coleman (who is tearing it up in AA and should move to AAA by end of year). I think its an interesting strategy by the Royals. Typically you don't use earlier picks on relievers, but if these are truly elite arms (that just aren't built to start) why not use a 4th or 5th on them? Sure it might not build the organizational depth but I think we obviously have a need for young relievers who throw strikes. Getting guys like this will help us avoid signing the Ron Mahay's and Kyle Farnsworth's of the world. Decent arms, but a small market team can't pay $4M for a veteran reliever. Now, just because I said these college relievers should keep us away from veteran relievers, doesn't mean that Dayton will do it. I'm just offering another positive to drafting guys like this. Though these guys do fall into that 'bunching' phenomenon that is being touted by the organization (more on that later)

5th Round: Jason Adam, RHP, Blue Valley NW HS - Kansas (R,R) 6'4" 225 lbs

A local product mentioned in the comments section. Here is a high school arm (committed to Mizzou) that will require some extra dough from Papa Dave. Rumor on the street is that he will need $1M to sign. I like what I've heard on him - I say we sign him since we'll save a few bucks on Colon, Antonio, and Chapman. We have been doing that recently in our system (Wil Myers, John Lamb, Chris Dwyer, Crawford Simmons, etc.) These are things the Royals have to do as a small market team. Maybe we can get him cheaper than $1M due to a home-town discount.

So the big thing coming out of this draft is the front office acknowledging that they are trying to bundle a bunch of prospects together to come up at the same time. This way you have your young core talent all up at the same time and all making little money while being effectively trapped in KC for 3-6 years. Hey, I like the notion and I don't think we're doing an all or nothing here - meaning I think there is some staggering to our talent. Here are the guys that potentially could be in the same group. Now remember that if half of these guys pan out it will be a great success. Here are some legitimate names in AA - (Montgomery, Duffy (should be there soon), Crow, Coleman, Moustakas, Giavotella, Robinson). In AAA, we have Gordon and Ka'aihue that will be up this year after a few trades go down. Lough and Parraz are potential OF prospects (though not elite). If you can bring a chunk of those AA guys up and Gordon and Ka'aihue pan out - then we have some pieces in place. Then there is another VERY legitimate wave behind them in A Ball (Hosmer, Lamb, Dwyer, Melville, and Myers (low A)) Now we can throw Colon in High A later this summer and he can start in AA next year with an outside chance of 2012 appearance depending on how he performs. Eibner will start in low or High A and you can see that we have a slightly younger wave behind our current core that is being talked about by Moore in Co. Then next year I think we go back to a high school heavy draft and build some depth. 2007 and 2008 were pretty heavy on high school talent and built our lower minors. Last year we went with some college talent to fill in our higher level minors. I like mixing up years and going after different levels of the minors. Obviously, I like best available with the first two picks. But those 3-7 rounds is where you can build some depth. This year we leaned college heavy (but did go HS in rounds 3 and 5) but this draft pool was pretty weak overall. I think we have a few pieces to keep an eye on. I've heard some rumors that the Royals anticipated the weak draft and allocated more money to the international draft (which is more of a bidding war rather than a draft) this year, so that is something to look out for down the road. We'll see if that is true or not.

One last complaint about the draft was that we didn't bring in a C. Maybe no one was rated high on our board, that's fine. I just want some more catching depth in the minors so we can move Wil Myers to OF. I know it would be sweet if he improved at C, but that is so rare for HS catchers to really make the leap. I'd prefer just let him work his bat (his numbers are trending up every day) and get to the majors quicker.

Overall, I think this is an exciting time to be a Royals fan. I think this is a little different than the Baird days. Yes at one point (2006 Wichita Wranglers) we were excited about Butler, Gordon, Greinke, and Lubanski all playing together. It was 4 straight 1st round draft picks all on the same team. Well Lubanski bombed after showing promise and Gordon has had injury problems. However, 2 of those guys (Butler and Greinke) are our best players. The problem was that other than those guys in Wichita there was NOTHING above them in Omaha and NOTHING behind them in A ball. And those were only 4 players. Now, we seem to be more staggered and I really think we have 8 legitimate prospects spread throughout our system, so if 4-5 of them are legit and we can keep Butler and Greinke then look out? That is the key in my book. Staggering your prospects so they can come in waves and not just a one time 'all in'. That is why I like mixing a year of HS heavy with a year of college heavy.

Exit Question: Your thoughts on Colon? Anyone else you're excited about?

Draft Chatter

Ok boys, the MLB draft will take place on Monday June 7th and the Royals have the 4th overall pick. Picking 4th is normally a pretty good thing. The 4th pick has yielded Dave Winfield, Barry Larkin, Kevin Brown, Ryan Zimmerman, and recently Brian Matusz. It also can get you Jeff Austin or Mike Stodalka if you're the Royals. We all know that baseball is the toughest sport to project at the amateur level, so the #4 pick is not a slam dunk - though it certainly will increase your odds. The problem with this year is that it agreed all across baseball that there are 3 top talents in this draft. After those top 3 the feeling is that players in the 4-18 range are interchangeable. This leads me to think that the Royals may draft for need if they agree with the notion that there really isn't a 'best available' at #4. I'll chat briefly on the top 3 (who we have little to no chance of drafting) and then I'll talk about the rumored options...

#1 Bryce Harper - We all know about this freak. He dropped out of high school after his sophomore year to and picked up his GED so he could go to JUCO and get into the draft a year earlier. His line from JUCO in 62 games and 215 AB's: .442/.524/.986. That's an OPS of 1.510. He hit 29 HR in 62 games. That is stupid. I don't care if the talent level wasn't great - its certainly better than high school. The kid is a freak and will be paired up with Steven Strasburg in Washington - Nats fans have a reason to be excited.

#2 James Taillon - RHP out of TX high school. Can run it up to 98. His 6'6" frame projects him to be a #1 workhorse type starter. The Royals would probably take him at #4, but I don't think they'll have to make that decision.

#3 Manny Machado - high school SS out of FL. He has been referred to as 'A-Rod light' because he is a young Latin American SS who projects to fill out his frame and become a big strong SS. He is very toolsy and the Royals are rumored to be high on him. If he is available at #4, I think you'll see him go to the Royals, but again - it's doubtful he'll be there.

The thought is that any of the above would be selected by the Royals if available, but let's look at the other more realistic options for the boys in blue.

The others:

Yasmani Grandal - 6'2" 210 lb C out of Miami, FL U. Switch hitting catcher with very good numbers. His line in 59 games this year was .412/.537/.730 with 14 HR and 56 RBI. He is one of the few catchers in NCAA to call his own games. He has a plus arm and is regarded as a plus defender overall. He sounds like a no brainer on paper, but for some reason some think he may go in the 10-15 range. He is not as strong from the right side so he may end up being a full time lefty in the big leagues. There were rumors out on Friday before the draft that the Royals and Grandal had reached a pre-draft deal. Obviously, no one would confirm that even it was true, but where this is smoke there is fire. Some mocks have us taking Grandal 4th, but I've also seen him in the 12-15 range. Some may call him a reach, but I would be happy with Grandal. He would be the most advanced C in our system immediately and could report to AA. Some may ask about Wil Myers, but I really think he should be moved to an OF position. It is hard for a high school catcher to adapt to calling his own games in the minors (Joe Mauer is an exception). I don't want Myers development to be stunted in any way because of difficulties of learning the C position. We know Myers bat is legit, so let him just focus on that. Grandal is a very polished C who already calls his own game, so he would be a better candidate to be the catcher of our future. Oh and he can draw a walk (55:34 BB:K ratio) - so you know I'm on board.

Drew Pomeranz - 6'5" LHP out of Ole Miss. There are a handful of 'experts' who think we may take this guy. He is regarded as one of if not the top LH arm in the draft. He is essentially a two pitch pitcher at this point. A fastball that sits at 90-92 and a big sweeping curveball at high 70's. He has good strike out rates, but his command has concerned some scouts. I'm not wild about this guy for some reason - he doesn't jump out as an ace to me. He is a highly regarded lefty, but we have Montgomery, Duffy (he's back if you missed it), and Lamb (killing it in High A) in our system right now. Sure, you can never have enough pitching, but there have been question marks about this guy, so I'm not thrilled with the idea of taking him. His numbers this year were 9-2 with a 2.24 ERA. He had 139:49 K:BB ratio in 100 IP.

Chris Sale - 6'6" LHP out of Florida Gulf Coast U. He is similar to Pomeranz in that he is a big tall lefty but he has more risk/upside. He has an interesting delivery (like 3/4, but maybe a tick lower than that) that has been compared to Randy Johnson. His fastball is 92-93 and has a little sink to it from his low arm slot. He has a nice changeup that he throws and also has a couple average off-speed pitches with a curveball and a slider. He strikes out a lot of batters and with his delivery some think he could cause problems for hitters. However, the downside and risk to him is that some scouts think his delivery is too difficult to repeat as a starter. Some think he may project better as a reliever. #4 is a little high for a reliever, but I guess it depends on what our scouts think. Piccolo was down to see him pitch 3 times in the past few weeks, so that obviously means something. His numbers are very impressive. 103 IP and 142:12 K:BB. That is flithy. He is also said to have the best poise in the draft and some have called him the most ML ready arm in the draft. I am tempted by his upside. I like him over Pomeranz.

There are a couple college bats the Royals may consider. Christain Colon, SS out of Cal State Fullerton or Michael Choice, CF out of Texas Arlington. I doubt it, but you never know. I would think its one of the three I wrote about above. Overall, I like me some Grandal. Now, he might not have the grit that Jason Kendall has, but he looks like he might be a decent C in the bigs. I think it is a need for us and he also has the potential to be an above average C in the bigs (something you'd like out of a top 5 pick) - something we haven't had in a long, long time.

Exit Question: What's your pick?