Well, once you secure that extra year, I'm sure you could get to a point in July where Duffy has "shoulder soreness" or whatever to put him on the 15-day to limit his innings. Either that, or send him down after a couple bad outings.

Aoki drives in 2 on a single up the middle, advances to second on the throw home.

Hosmer grounds out to 2nd and brings Aoki home. 5-3 Brewers.

Yesterday I was listening to a Dayton Moore interview on Mad Dog Sports radio on Sirius XM. Chris Russo asked him about re-signing James Shields. Moore gave a very convoluted answer. He talked about how the Royals are a small market team and he won't apologize for it. He said they are interested in signing ALL of their YOUNG players to multi-year deals. He then babbled on for several more minutes, and it's hard for me to remember exactly what he said because he didn't say anything meaningful.

Not once did he say anything remotely positive about James Shields, and not once did he say they will do the best they can to retain him.

Shields will be gone next year. Count on it.

I hate that, but I can also understand DM's reluctance to give $20 million to one pitcher when he only has a $90 million payroll. If the Royals EVER give that high a percentage of their payroll to a single player, it has to be a Mike Trout type of player. Even if he really finds his power stroke in the next couple of years, I don't think Eric Hosmer or anyone else on this roster qualifies.

As long as they manage it properly, I guess I don't care how they do it.

Just don't do it the way the Nationals did a couple of years ago with Stephen Strasburg. They might have won the World Series that year if they had mananged his innings limit properly.

The Nats were F'ing stupid. If you find yourself where one of your best young pitchers is at an inning limit but you are going to the playoffs, you have to just go for it. The pitcher isn't going to say no and shut himself down. Make him throw, and try to get him the best help available to recover in the offseason.

Or just approach it better during the season. They had a viable sixth starter in John Lannan whom they could have used to spell Strasburg and keep him fresh.

Sure. But jason vargas is jason vargas, he is a no. 3 on decent team and 4/5 on a good team... and who the **** knows what we will get out of the kids. Shit, zimmer is already shut down. Duffy already has TJ... Until DM produces ONE major league starter (something he has not done) color me skeptical.

This is an all in year, no matter what DM says....

Also, why are we suddenly depending on young pitchers a year after trading away our best position prospect in a generation for two year rental starter? Why didn't we depend on these types of gambles last year and keep Myers? Oh because DM didn't have a contract extension....that is why. JS got us over .500 and got DM his money.

If this team is going to succeed, we have to develop young pitching. We just have to. If the Ventura/Duffy/Zimmer group doesn't work out, we are going to fail regardless of what happens with Shields/Santana/etc. Dayton will lose his job and we'll move to the next guy.

Agreed, they should not have put themselves in that position, but if in some bizarre stupid turn of events you find yourself in that position where you failed to limit your young pitchers innings and you made it to the postseason, then you have to just own your stupidity and keep him throwin'. No one will care if he's healthy and pitching well the following August, 9 games out.

I don't think that's a bad take, but I get why they did what they did.

They're trying to build for the long term and are set up to make several playoff runs, not just one. Protecting Strasburg is a key part of that.

The flip side of the argument is that he pitches, hurts himself in that postseason, and then everyone is all over them for abusing a pitcher coming off of Tommy John surgery and potentially ruining his career and the team's future.

Thank god.

Yeah, i.e. like Shanahan getting RGIII hurt. I still would've pitched him though. History is littered with teams that never get back... it's hard to throw that opportunity away.

Colon hits one to right-center and plates 2. Ties it up at 5.

Tie game!

That was interesting....

There we go! Royals take the lead.

There has been 3 reviews in this game so far. All calls have stood as called on field.

I don't know why they don't just go to a 5 man ump crew and the 5th guy just sit in the press box with the media and be the replay guy. I don't understand why they have to go to New York to get the official ruling. Replay would be a lot quicker if you already had a guy on site just watching the game.

I thought there was a 5th umpire doing that? I may be wrong, but that's what the Brewers announcers said... who could very well be misinformed.

I can't argue with that. It was very short term thinking.

Maybe that's the way they are doing it in spring training, I don't know. During the regular season all replays are going to be reviewed in New York.

This sports weekend sucks. KU/KSU/Mizzou/Sporting KC and the Royals all lose.

Season's over.....

Alright yeah that would make sense. The NHL holds all reviews in Toronto so i'd imagine it would be similar to that.

In the NHL there's a team that sits in a room watching games and waiting for reviewable plays. They are on top of the plays and are working on the call before the ref even goes to call Toronto.

In May? That's when it's usually over, unfortunately :banghead:

I'm in spring training as well. Preparing for the anguish and happiness as well.

There is no reason to believe that this is true.

Sure there is. The guy in New York has to be watching 15 games at a time. If a guy was actually at the stadium, he isn't concentrating on multiple games he has to keep an eye out for and you'll never have to wait for him to rule on another game first that has a simultaneous challenge going on.

That is not correct.

MLB plans to have New York replay umpires in charge of no more than 2 or 3 games at a time.

Keep in mind, it won't be "the guy in new york", it'll be an entire umpiring crew, and games don't all have the same first pitch time.

Jason Parks is a funny dude, and this sounds just dreamy:

Jason Parks ‏@ProfessorParks 4m
My spring training scouting report on #Royals LHP Sean Manaea--coming this Monday at Baseball Prospectus--reads like pure smut.

Aoki should probably learn how to do this.

http://ea-cdn.voxmedia.com/productio...8-2d26a81d.gif

This one is a goodie.

http://ea-cdn.voxmedia.com/productio...5-02f5d064.gif

Speaking of Aoki, according to baseball reference, he's signed through this season. I know he's in his early 30s, but should we expect him to be here only one year?

Or is it way too damn early for that? :)

We could try to extend him, but he's eligible for free agency next year.

Yeah, I was trying to see if you, or anyone, think he might stick around for a couple more years or if we've got a guy(s) in the system to replace him soon. We don't seem to work the count much as a team & I think it'd be nice to have a leadoff guy do so for more than 1 season.

Hopefully Bonifacio is ready to take over by 2015

No one really has any clue what he might want to do. He came over through NPB's posting system and has never come up through a team's minor leagues or been able to choose where to play. If he can repeat what he's done the last couple years then yeah it would be nice to have him for more than just 1.

I'm really stunned by Hoch's injury. I was just talking about how he's never had any injury problems in his career. Just goes to show you can never predict pitching. I would be scared to ever give a pitcher a long term deal, especially after Meche didn't even pitch much his last 2 years of his 5 year deal.

Signing Aoki to an extension allows the Royals to move slowly with Bonifacio, provides some insurance for Cain, and also could give them an option in LF when Gordon's contract is up if they can't work a longer-term deal out with Alex.

Love the idea of the move. Really hope it happens. 2-3 more years of Aoki should work out just fine.

Jon Heyman is reporting that the Twins have made a 3 year offer to Ervin Santana. But for now he still prefers the 1 year deals. Heyman says it may take a few days to sort itself out.

there's no excuse to let one of our (and i'm using the term loosely) assets go to a division rival. none. even if his season is ready for an implosion. no excuse.

Easy 1, 2, 3 inning for Duffy.

Nice. Getting fisted by Colorado.

Zimmer is shut down? Did I miss something?

Unless he knows Zimmer and is breaking news, nope. Its hard to make sense of most of that incoherent bunch of babbling.

Zimmer got shutdown last year due to shoulder soreness. Which is really NBD.

Jfc, thought something happen to Zimmer. Smdh

Zimmer is not shut down. They are starting him slowly this year because he's on an innings limit and they are going to delay ramping it up a little bit so he's not at his innings limit and shut down in September.

He had a tender elbow last august, then again this spring. It is worrisome.

Not a surprise, but Dwyer will be optioned to Omaha.

Rany pointed out a worrying downside to not having a backup middle infielder that I hadn't considered. Its fine to say that Escobar can start every day and that you'll just dial Omaha whenever needed, but if we don't have a backup, then Escobar has to finish every game.

If he bounces back and hits like 2012 thats fine, but if Escobar repeats his crappy 2013 season, then our opponent could take advantage of that late in the game, walking someone to get to Escobar knowing that Yost won't pinch-hit for him.

The Braves are now in on Santana. They didn't want to give up their draft pick for him, but they already lost one pitcher recently, and a 2nd Brave pitcher got hurt today.

I don't think we will sign him for spite.

Wow, Kris Medlen with a right forearm strain as the early diagnosis. He's already been Tommy John'd once a few years ago. They are going to be hurtin' for pitching.

One of our most important players just left the game with a trainer. It might be nothing so I don't want to worry anyone, but his name rhymes with Salvador Perez.

edit: he ran to the clubhouse with the trainer, so I guess there's nothing wrong with him below the waist.

Awesome.

The fact that he was jogging at least eases the worry about his knees. Hope he's fine.

Isn't that the most common early indication of UCL problems?

Left palm contusion.

Salvy has a bruised left palm.

SEASON OVER

Bruised left palm off a foul tip, looks like nothing, they'll do tests.

Yes.

x-rays were negative, by the way

Is Sluggerrr Boning Mrs. Met?

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Hey <a href="https://twitter.com/MrMet">@MrMet</a> welcome to Twitter! BTW, can you ask Mrs. Met why she won't call me back? <a href="http://t.co/MnKEbagKLQ">pic.twitter.com/MnKEbagKLQ</a></p>&mdash; Sluggerrr (@Sluggerrr) <a href="https://twitter.com/Sluggerrr/statuses/443085785630134272">March 10, 2014</a></blockquote>
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Just a bruise. He'll be fine. A few days off won't hurt.

The Braves have signed Santana to a 1-year deal. Not sure for how much yet.

Well, at least he's not in the AL.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>ervin santana gets $14.1M</p>&mdash; Jon Heyman (@JonHeymanCBS) <a href="https://twitter.com/JonHeymanCBS/statuses/443729535763091457">March 12, 2014</a></blockquote>
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Hm. Isn't that the what our qualifying offer was?

Thats the exact value of the QO.

Braves lose #26, our comp pick is now #28.

Fortunate break for Santana with Atlanta's bleeding SP like crazy of late. Much better spot for him to try to rebuild his value and position for a 3- to 4-year deal.

Works out OK for KC, too.

we interrupt this kick ass thread for some useless, trivial bs:

The Royals won the day I was born.
On July 18th, 1972 the Royals swept a double header against the Indians at Municipal Stadium.

game 1: 5-6KC
game 2: 8-11KC

Yep, I just looked up the 2013 HR park factors, and both Toronto and Baltimore look like miserable places for him to pitch. (3rd-most and 4th-most in baseball for home runs) He may have had bad seasons at both of those places.

Turner Field, while not supressing homers as much as the K, is still better than average for keeping it in the yard. Its a tough choice between Baltimore and Toronto, but including Atlanta in the mix makes it a no-brainer for a 1-year contract season.

Perez is starting today. I guess he didn't need any rest.

Sounds like Ventura had a great outing.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Royals&amp;src=hash">#Royals</a> Ventura throwing/commanding his curveball well, punching a couple guys out w/ it. 4 Ks in last 2 innings. 1 H in 3 IP, 40 pitches.</p>&mdash; Josh Vernier (@JoshVernier) <a href="https://twitter.com/JoshVernier/statuses/443851295938469888">March 12, 2014</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Royals&amp;src=hash">#Royals</a> Ventura allowed a single to the 2nd hitter he faced. He's now retired 11 straight with 5 punch-outs. No score, top of 5.</p>&mdash; Josh Vernier (@JoshVernier) <a href="https://twitter.com/JoshVernier/statuses/443854634113703936">March 12, 2014</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Royals&amp;src=hash">#Royals</a>’ Ventura struck out Donaldson on 102-mph fastball, according to <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Athletics&amp;src=hash">#Athletics</a>’ radar gun. One scout said, “I saw a lot of 101s.”</p>&mdash; Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) <a href="https://twitter.com/Ken_Rosenthal/statuses/443859831632302080">March 12, 2014</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Yordano Ventura is done after giving up a hit to open the fifth. He threw the expletive out of the ball.</p>&mdash; Andy McCullough (@McCulloughStar) <a href="https://twitter.com/McCulloughStar/statuses/443860769805828097">March 12, 2014</a></blockquote>
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It moved.

Here's hoping for a June/July extension of Ventura.

Remember when we were talking about how useless spring training is, especially for pitchers?

This is one exception: when a starting pitcher is fighting for a job, and he faces major league hitters.

Ventura is not working on stuff, he's trying to out-pitch Duffy.