Are you fukd up or what. Your post makes no sens.

fixed your post

This is the latest into the season that the Royals have been .500 or better... since last year. LOL. We aren't out of the woods, yet.

Our pitching staff has 37 Ks and only 5 BB through four games.

Last year the Royals didn't score 10 or more runs in a game until July 2nd. That was exactly one week before the All-Star Game. So at least we're well ahead in that regard.

Sorry for the dumb question, but did Hosmer have good at bats today, or were his hits "lucky?"

Solid at-bats... seemed patient at the plate. Got a walk and went 4-5. His 2 RBI hit when we were down 4-0 was huge.

I got MLB.TV for the first time ever... bought 1 month... in case the Royals sucks... it's only $20. LOL

It's awesome to have the game at your disposal and see the moments as they occur instead of highlights.

He looked good.

That is spectacular.

Hoz looked extremely good today.

Excellent news! Thanks guys.

That is insanely awesome. I know they can't keep that up, but that's a great start.

Holy crap! That's a complete reversal from the old Royals.

Yep. Last season they finished third to last in K to BB ratio. Not sure if that stat was AL or MLB though.

I assume you live outside KC? I've always avoided MLV.tv because of their stupid blackout maps.

Yeah the blackouts suck but you can still watch it on a regular computer. The blackouts only apply to my mobile devices (this does suck) but at least I have been able to watch the day games at work.

My biggest problem is when I go to watch a game that is still going on, it takes me right to the live portion instead of starting at the beginning. Easy enough not to look at the score and drag the bar back to the start of the game, but if it has to refresh even once, it takes it right to the live portion again! So I usually have to wait until the game goes final if I want to watch from the start. Lame.

I jailbroke my IPhone and use fake location for those times KC plays in my area market. I can't stand watching other teams' broadcasters. Yesterday the Philly announcer jacked Hosmer and Hochevar's names up something cringe worthy.

13 runs.

Whoa, what?

I'm always at school, and on my laptop I get blacked out.

What do I need to do?

anyone get anxious when Hoch took the mound in the 9th?

*raises hand*

His stock is maxed out, and hotter than it has ever been.

Trade him for a bag of hitting practice balls.

How many here going to be at The K tomorrow?

Ill be there. For one ticket on stubhub...

Infield dugout row B.

Standing Room Only, brother!!!! woot!!!!:D

Driving up from JoMo. Can't wait. Don't tell my parole officer.

I'm guessing you can't do this for a PC?

Wouldn't miss it. Now to stay sober and enjoy the game...

I'll be there. Haven't missed the last 5 years or so. Looks like the rain will hold off.

I'll be there. Rain shouldn't be an issue. Anyone have a problem with me starting the gamethread?

I think Cabletech just started one. LMAO

I can't go due to work. Hopefully Santana takes care of business.

Down on the farm, Yordano Ventura and Kyle Smith had nice first starts. Offense has started slow throughout the organization, hopefully they'll pick it up soon.

The offense has picked it up after the first few innings. I know they are being much more patient this year which is awesome because they are getting walks, but I would like to see some scoring before the fifth inning.

fify

Don't think we are going to make the trek this week.

We wanted to go up Wednesday, but an 80% chance of storms and a high of 44 degrees sounds miserable.

statistical improbability. I'm just holding out hope for 1 run moonshots

Ball should stay in Kauffman a little better than it did on the road.

Santana throws HR Derby pitches no matter where he is at.
#santanasucks

Strong south wind will not be Santana's friend.

Duncan,

The Cardinals are getting some great returns on Matt Carpenter at 2b and his bat has always profiled extremely well for the next level, especially if he can stick at 2b. So with Carpenter looking more and more like a long-term possibility at 2b, we have a top 50 prospect 2b of our own named Kolten Wong that appears to be buried or at least expendable in our pursuit of a SS.

If you're DM and the Cards come calling with Wong, who's arguably ML ready right now at 2b, would you give up Calixte or Mondesi for him? You fellas still don't appear to have a great long-term 2b option on your roster and our needs appear to match up nicely here.

no and no lol

Don't be trying take Getz out of our lineup! He had an almost HR yesterday. That is raw power!

I think wong is way overrated. Could be just me though.

Christian Colon = Kolten Wong (or, at least close enough that we're not dealing one of our high upside SS for him)

Fortunately Duncan generally has more than "LOL" to say.

There are arguments for and against; Calixte and Mondesi have higher ceilings but also significantly lower floors. The odds suggests that one or both of them never take a major league at-bat. Meanwhile, Wong really could step in today and be a better big league 2b than Chris Getz.

Wong's ceiling is probably Jose Vidro (minus Vidro's 2000 campaign; I don't think Wong will ever have 20+ pop). He could reach that as soon as next season and be under team control for another 5 years. You're really not willing to give up the 3rd best long-term SS option you have for that guy?

The Royals would be silly not to move one of those guys at this point with their biggest holes being at 2b and RF. You could fill one of those holes damn nicely with a very good young 2b prospect.

Edited for clarity.

That's fair. I don't know that I'd say Colon is on par with Wong, but there may be a small enough gap between them that you'd want to save your powder for a different trade.

Colon's sure failed a lot, though. He's had a couple of brief spurts of productivity, but he's otherwise been a pretty shitty minor leaguer. I know he was a high value draft pick, but you eventually want to see some production and Colon's offered very little thus far. I think you improve the odds of getting a legitimate big-league 2b pretty substantially by moving for Wong, but I've been wrong before.

Mondesi is one of those guys that you wait and see on as he could be superstar caliber, Calixte I'd be more willing to part with for the right guy... I don't know enough about Wong to say 'yay' or 'nay', though...

This.

Mondesi--yeah, it would take a LOT to pry mondesi from our grip. calixte... yeah, more doable. not sure I'd make the move, but still more palatable than mondesi

I could see Calixte being moved as the season goes on to bolster the roster, but I doubt they'd move him for a guy like Wong when Christian Colon is there and extremely similar. They put up nearly identical numbers in AA, playing in the same league (and Wong had Oscar Taveras hitting behind him all season, vs. Colon hitting in front of Wil Myers for a half season.

Colon also adds the benefit of being able to play SS as your backup guy there, while Wong really can't slide over there.

I don't think there's very much at all that would get them to budge on Raul-formerly-officially-listed-as-Adalberto Mondesi at this point. And there shouldn't be.

His numbers at AA last year are nearly identical to Wong's.

Colon: .289/.364/.392 | .756 OPS | 16 XBH in 270 AB | 12/18 SB
Wong: .287/.348/.405 | .754 OPS | 38 XBH in 520 AB | 21/32 SB

Wong hit for slightly more power (Colon projected to 31 XBH in same number of AB as Wong) but Colon was slightly better at getting on base. Neither is a guy who should be trying to steal bases in the major leagues.

Colon was actually BETTER at Omaha than he was at AAA, too, in an extremely small sample size (17 AB).

If Colon was shitty last year, so was Wong...

That's why I can't see them moving even Calixte for Wong. Christian Colon is practically the same player, and he has more positional versatility.

Side note: Who ranked WOng as a top 50 prospect? BA and BP both had him in the top 100, but down around the 80-90 area.

Well, yeah.

Don't know if the Marlins will move him, though. They already are on the verge of all-out fan revolt down there. And they'd need some major-league ready talent back in return to do it.

He meant a top 50 second base prospect. ;)

Would we have the pieces to get a deal done? I mean, the Marlins could just go the Astros' route at this point. I think they're past the revolt stage.

Mondesi, Ventura, Duffy, Crow, and Bonifacio for Stanton?

Sure, if they were willing to trade him.

I'd swap Mondesi and Starling in the asking price there and see if I could get away with it. Rest of the package looks reasonable, I guess.

If they managed to trade for Stanton, you'd hope part of the trade is an immediate extension that buys out at least a year or two of FA for him. He's only controlled through 2016.

Mondesi + for Stanton, Mondesi for Wong? Barf

Colon was shitty for a great deal of the season at AA and had a nice hot streak to boost his numbers. It was also over a pretty small sample and it was his 2nd attempt at the level, which is a huge deal. If you compare Wong's first season at AA to Colon's first season at AA, Wong clearly beats him. And Wong did it while a year younger than Colon on his first go-round. So it's not entirely fair to compare a 23 yr old in his 2nd attempt at AA to a 21 yr old in his first attempt, is it? And I say that being fully prepared to say that I was very underwhelmed by Wong last year and expected a lot more of him after his performance in High A.

Now if Colon comes back this year and hits well at AAA, you're onto something, but Colon failed with regularity his first 2 years as a professional and I'd be pretty hesitant to say that a nice month in AA trumps all that.

This year will say a ton about both players, but I suspect that Wong will show himself a superior prospect by a fair amount by season's end and while 2 years younger, which is a pretty big deal. And like I said, the guys that are willing to put projections on minor leaguers (ZIPS, OLIVER and a few others) believe that Wong could outplay Chris Getz by a significant amount if called up today. They aren't as bullish on Colon.

If Stanton goes on the block, they go to the Rangers and ask for Profar and probably a high end arm or two (Scheppers would be appealing for Miami).

And the Rangers will say yes, IMO. While there appears to be an outside chance that Mondesi is a Profar level prospect in a couple of years but he's not there yet. If the Marlins are looking to make a trade now, the Rangers will absolutely bite and have the best package to offer, IMO.

If the Rangers went to Profar, Scheppers and Ott for Stanton, the Marlins would take it and the Rangers should probably do it even at that sky-high price.

I just don't see the timing working out in KC's favor. Mondesi is way too young to project yet and nobody's going to give major value for him until he's beating up AA pitching at least.

SCOUT had him at 57, which was a little lower than I recalled.

Stop forcing our dreams down the toilet, please. I don't care how outlandish they may be.

I'm aware that age (17 months difference) and repeating the level definitely make Wong's numbers pop out a little bit more, but it doesn't really make Wong profile that much better as a major league guy.

I don't trust much regarding ZIPS and OLIVER projections for minor league guys. The same projections LOVED Chris Getz just a few seasons ago, as well as Kila Ka'ahuie. I definitely don't think I buy Wong as a .270 hitter in MLB this year.

I wouldn't call Colon's debut season in Wilmington in 2010 a "failure" by any means. That's an incredibly difficult hitting environment, and Colon's numbers profile just fine next to some of the better hitters to move through the KC system (Moustakas, Hosmer, Giavotella, etc.).

He was extremely disappointing in 2011 and looked to bounce back nicely last year despite missing time to injury. Wil Myers also failed at a disastrous level at NWA in 2011. Something in the water?

All in all, he played just a shade over 3 months of baseball last year and put up very solid numbers.

This year will be very telling.

I'm also not saying Wong is garbage or anything. He's a nice player and is likely to be a very solid second-division 2B for a decade or so. If offered a chance to do a straight-up swap of the two, I would do it without blinking.

Just don't think there's enough separation to warrant moving a guy like Calixte, whom the organization is EXTREMELY high on and thinks is ready to blow up this season.

There's nothing worse than a failing Colon.

I agree with all of this. Stanton would make WAY too much sense for the Rangers, and I bet they could pull that off for 2/3 you mention, plus another guy (Maybe Grimm).

The Royals' trade chips in the minors should be much more appealing at the end of the season than they currently are (one level closer for everyone).

Side note: Mike Montgomery made his first start in the Rays org the other day. 3 2/3, 3 BB, no K, 2 ER.

Will be interesting to see if they can find a fix. If they can't, no one can. Just such a strange case of failure.

If anybody finds a good image from the game today, I would like to update my facebook banner..

Exceptional images from previous games will do, as well..

I was at opening day... Row B. Amazing infield dugout seats...

Here's Gordon's RBI single.
https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphot...87239755_n.jpg

Here's Butler's RBI single.
https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphot...57146524_n.jpg

And a photo finish with Relish and Mustard....
http://i.imgur.com/k6TR8z5.png

Nice ****ing seats man.

Is there anything more depressing than the second home game of the season?

Thanks man. It was ****ing awesome. I'd never been to Opening Day before... glad I went.

And the iPhone and Samsung both take amazing pictures... you can see the ball in each one of those shots if you look. [I have two phones due to work, bleh]

Key point is that DJ is suggesting Wong to be an option at 2B right now at the major league level, so we're not really comparing prospect value Wong vs. Colon. We're actually comparing what each player would give the major league club today in place of Getz. So, the age/level difference is largely irrelevant. Neither profile to be upper end at the position, so you don't trade a SS with significant upside when you already have a middling/similar prospect at AAA.

Duncans baseball post are nice to read and I'm not even a big baseball fan.

Thunderstorms threaten tonights game. Damn

Rain, the great momentum killer.

Weather guy said it probably won't rain/storm until after 10:00

don't truss weather guys