Yes :(

Our infield depth is sure looking great right now. Would be nice to have that Bonifacio guy right about now . . . . .


Nice move, GMDM.

I'm usually not much into Conspiracy theories but I believe the Royals intentionally created the "lack of infield depth" issue to exaggerate the fact Billy Butler is eating up a spot on the roster that has no flexibility. If it were not for Butler, the Royals could keep Ciriaco or Donald and rotate other players into the DH position. I believe this will be Butler's last year with the Royals as the team goes for more flexibility.

I don't buy into that, they just didn't want to pay Bonifacio 3 mill to be a super sub even though it would have made complete sense. If you want to talk conspiracy he would have taken Dyson's spot and for some reason this front office will not move on from Dyson.

DM was stupid for getting rid of bono...dude would've been a great back up and is needed

That's how they created the "lack of infield depth" situation. They release the ultimate utility guy, trade David Lough for a third baseman that has not played 2nd or short, and are determined to keep both Maxwell and Dyson on the team. No position left for infield depth.

My friend who was at the game compared it to the sound an axe makes when you sink it into the chopping block.

This front office is apparently obsessed with Dyson's ability to pinch run for Billy Butler late in games. And his ability to play a mediocre CF in relief of Cain.

We all know DM loves LFBGwPC (Lightning Fast Black Guys who Play Center Field).

Re: Billy and the DH spot

The obsession with rotating hitters through the DH spot is annoying. The teams that got decent offensive production out of that spot are the teams that had a full-time DH.

A Royals team without Billy Butler is a Royals team that is worse hitting the baseball/worse offensively, any way you slice it. And also extremely LH-dominant.

They would need to acquire another quality RH bat to replace Billy, and odds are that bat will be even more expensive than he is (If you want to get one that can hit 3-4-5.)

Valencia I atleast get in that they wanted insurance for Moustakas. But Bonifacio can do everything Dyson does and more so the fact that Dyson is here and he's not speaks to how much they love Dyson.

Let the spin begin:

Poor David Glass

So Royals are going to lose money this year, somehow. Even if that were true (I don't believe it), how about the last several years when we've been playing a bunch of young guys? It's just so tiresome to be a fan of this organization, damn.

He's so full of shit, not to mention if the Royals have any type of sustained winning they'll draw.

Um yeah, no....stfu

You're right. It's probably something more worthy of the Pete Rose treatment.

You didn't see Salvy laughing.

Lifetime suspension.

Tommy John strikes again -

Bruce Rondon is out for the season.

Tigers bullpen is going to be a mess and might actually be worse than a season ago, at this point.

We had an extensive discussion on Royals financials a couple months ago, and I'd rather wait a few more months or a full year before bringing that mess back up again, but the bottom line is, its probably true. We probably broke even or lost a little bit last year, and we'll probably lose money this year if we sell roughly the same number of tickets.

NICE!!!

(insert platitude about how its too bad this guy got hurt, and hopefully he'll come back soon)

But does anyone remotely believe they wouldn't draw if they were good consistently?

Attendance sucked last year and they were winning.

Yeah, but "being good consistently" isn't easy. They probably didn't make money last year, and they'll probably lose money this year unless they sell more tickets.

If they did sell an extra 750k-1MM tickets, that would probably enable (barely) a 9-digit payroll for as long as it lasts, but it wouldn't be a game-changer. TV is a lot more important.

Attendance always lags performance by about a year, 2014 should improve, but if it doesn't that would say a lot about the fans. (Assuming the Royals don't start out with a 10-game losing streak or something demoralizing like that)

Chapman's head after surgery:

http://distilleryimage4.ak.instagram...fbc8973c_8.jpg

Rany made a good point just now. Now that the Tigers are apparently going to field a subpar SS, and now that they have lost Rondon, if the Tigers were to, say, suddenly lose one of their best hitters they would probably no longer be the favorite in the AL Central.

I still don't get why the fans get shit for not showing up last year. The Royals didn't even reach .500 until what? August? Having 2 winning seasons in the last 20 years doesn't exactly excite the casual fan. Now if the Royals are 10 games over .500 in June and competing for the central division and the fans still aren't there, then yeah it's a problem.

I would love to see 40,000 people at The K more than 2-3 times a year though, that's for sure.

EDIT: Royals reached .500 (51-51) on July 28th.

They shouldn't, and for the most part haven't outside of a few message board posters. If the fans fail to show up in 2014, then at that point its on them.

The life cycle of a returning fan-base is pretty well-known by now. At the beginning of 2013 the people who didn't show up in 2012 aren't following the team, aren't aware that they may improve, and are completely out on the Royals in April. When a losing team starts to win, the fans who were out on them will not commit to buying a ticket, but they will cautiously start to watch them on TV. We saw that last year, ratings on FSKC skyrocketed.

The offseason after that first good year, then fans who were out and transitioned to TV are now in, start to follow offseason news, and by the time April comes back around, they are ready to buy tickets. If we do not sell 2 million tickets, then the fanbase should hang their collective heads in shame. I'm hopeful for 2.25MM, and if the Royals start out hot we just might get close to 2.5MM, if not this year then maybe 2015 when the next wave of fans buy in.

Holy ****!

This made me laugh

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Finally, Mike Moustakas had an at-bat where he did not hit a ball hard. Instead, he walked.</p>&mdash; Andy McCullough (@McCulloughStar) <a href="https://twitter.com/McCulloughStar/statuses/447114086354919424">March 21, 2014</a></blockquote>
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Unreal

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>/shakes fist RT <a href="https://twitter.com/ryanmatheny16">@ryanmatheny16</a>: so...it wasn&#39;t an at-bat then?</p>&mdash; Andy McCullough (@McCulloughStar) <a href="https://twitter.com/McCulloughStar/statuses/447114412407533568">March 21, 2014</a></blockquote>
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LMAO I can't wait for this season. The team should be good. The beat writer might be better. HE has just the kind of snark this fan base needs.

:clap:

Something I've noticed too is that a lot of announcers refer to a walk as an AB too, just seems to be a gray area within the game.

Looks like another year of good pitching and no hitting-hope I am wrong.

Based on what? The majority of our offense has been raking in ST.

They get shit, because they didn't show up for a rare winner. It works both ways, you can't call yourself a great baseball town then sit on your fat ass at home and complain about beer prices when the team is finally worth a shit.

Rare winners won't draw consistently large crowds, it just doesn't work like that. It doesn't matter how good of a baseball town you are (or say you are), if the product is mediocre, the fans won't pay for it.

Once again, I hope like hell we can see The K absolutely packed this year. Last year it isn't that big of a deal to me, but they absolutely need to show up this year if the Royals are in it, I agree.

He got it right this time LMAO

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Another plate appearance, or whatever, for Moustakas means another walk.</p>&mdash; Andy McCullough (@McCulloughStar) <a href="https://twitter.com/McCulloughStar/statuses/447121256274329600">March 21, 2014</a></blockquote>
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This. Just my opinion, but having nearly every home game on TV has hurt the gate attendance. Especially in small market KC which hasn't had a tradition of winning for 20 years.
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Wait....

2 walks for Moose?

Well though out points, good post.

:shake:

I haven't been paying much attention, but I heard during a broadcast about a week ago that they were leading the majors in batting average for the spring, and were at or near the top of the AL in slugging. If that's actually the case, I'm not sure how that translates into "no hitting".

What do we always hear???

It's only preseason folks....

Yes, I get that, but if you notice his approach right now, compare that to last season, it looks worlds better. I'm sure others have mentioned it as well on previous posts.

Dawg, we shattered like every offensive record in Cactus League history last year. Didn't exactly translate to regular season success.

He is a ****ing idiot. Don't mind him
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Not really.

I expect the lineup to be better and more productive, and the No. 2 pitching spot to take a step back. Think the 4-5 pitchers even things out, though.

If Ventura can hold his spot in the rotarion, Guthrie becomes a good No. 4 and a huge upgrade from that spot a year ago. Same with Chen/Duffy/Zimmer over the Mendoza/Davis combo out of the 5 spot.

I think the pitching will be as good as last year. The pen might be a bigger question. I think Shields is going to have a career year because he's going to pitch for a big big big contract. I would think Vargas might be as = as Santana, because career wise, they both are almost similar to their ERA+ and WHIP, and I think Vargas will benefit more from a excellent defense and the spacious Kauffman Stadium. But I think the 3-5 spots are a improvement, and Chen is a good #5 with Guthrie as a #4.

This is great news. I've not seen any preseason games, I shall watch one now.

I'm proud of my Royals Cactus League titles
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Asked what Omar Infante&#39;s plans are for Saturday, Ned Yost suggested he would start his day with a bowl of cereal.</p>&mdash; Andy McCullough (@McCulloughStar) <a href="https://twitter.com/McCulloughStar/statuses/447154567017279488">March 21, 2014</a></blockquote>
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ROFL

Its a curse of KC fandom, for the last 2 or 3 springs our hitters have beaten everyone into submission and come out of Arizona looking like a fearsome lineup, only to fall flat when it counts.

You can't pay attention to hitting stats because a lot of the pitchers aren't trying to get guys out. If you have a good scouting eye (I do not, I have to rely on experts), then you might be able to glean a little information on how the hitters look, but thats it. People who know more than I and who I rely on are saying Moose looks a hell of a lot different this year than 2013, which is encouraging.

Also, its better than having your hitters fail to hit in spring training. Since pitchers aren't always trying, everyone on every team should be hitting, so if your team is not hitting you can then go ahead and be very worried. A hitter can not "win" spring training, they can only lose. So far, our hitters look really good in Arizona, but that only means they have worked their way up to a zero, we won't know if they can hit until April.

I'd read this.

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/...ining-matters/

It's a good read. It talks a little bit about Moose as well.

Andy McCullough HAS to be a CP member. His tweets are hilarious!

I don't remember last march, but isn't the slugging this spring a bit of a change from the past? As my admittedly swiss cheese memory tells me, they've been good at getting hits in the past, but they always seem to struggle with runs.

Now that real games start (for 2 teams, this weekend only) tomorrow, this might be a good time to update and repost my 2014 MLB season simulator. I updated some of the weightings to be a little closer to the playoff odds at Baseball prospectus, and optimistically bumped KC up to being a slight favorite in the division.

quick 25-season simulation:

n = 25

KC's AL Central Ranking

#1: 11
#2: 6
#3: 4
#4: 2
#5: 2

Playoff result

No playoffs: 13
Lost Wild Card game: 1
Lost ALDS: 6
Lost ALCS: 2
Lost World Series: 1 (swept by the Brewers)
World Champions: 2 (beat the Mets in 5, beat the Nats in 5)

Yeah I may need an instruction manual for your simulator.

And finally, one last simulation, showing all the details. Going to take whatever comes no matter how good or anticlimactic, ready and.... go

Season #26

AL Central

CLE 90-72
KC 90-72
DET 89-73
CWS 80-82
MIN 59-103

Oh neat, an interesting season. In this season the AL Central comes from out of nowhere to be this monster division. The Angels win the west with 92 wins, Tampa Bay wins the east with 90 wins.

The two AL Wild Cards are Detroit and whoever loses the AL Central tiebreaker game. In the NL, the Cardinals win the central and are the top-seeded team, Giants wins the West, Nats wins the east, wild cards are the Dodgers and Padres.

AL Central division 163rd game, CLE vs KC: KC wins

ALDS KC vs TB: TB sweeps KC in 3, KC out in the ALDS.

I think that could be very accurate for this season.

FYPROFL

With our luck, the first two games were at TB, and in the one and only playoff game played at the K in 2014, we have to watch Wil Myers go 3/4 with 1HR and beat us.

I'd like to see Ventura put one in his ear; I realize the trade wasn't his fault but I feel some irrational animosity toward him.

You forgot one crucial stat.

OUR TIME BABY!!!!!!!

Oh crap I just noticed that that MLB Opening Series game is on today at the SCG. I've gotta go into the city in a couple hours so hopefully there aren't tens of thousands of people walking around before the gates open.

You should be at the game man. How many chances are you going to get to watch an MLB game live?

Not many, but it's fairly expensive. But yeah, it would've been good to go to but I know jack-shit about most MLB teams. If the Roayls were playing I definitely would've shelled out the money. If they got a couple NFL teams over here I'd be on that in a heartbeat, regardless of the teams. Hell, I'd pay even to see a shitty game between, say, the Jags and Vikings.

EDIT: Besides, I'll be over in the US some day. Seeing an MLB game can be added to the list of stuff to do there.

Eh, they are NL games. That is barely baseball, anyway.

Heh, true. It's mainly the price thing though. I'm fairly busy right now, but if the tickets were cheap, I'd be happy to spend some time sitting there watching Major League Baseball in person. The decent seats are ridiculously priced too, so for someone like me, who's baseball knowledge doesn't extend very far past the Royals, it's not really worth it.

How much? Are they selling out?

Not sure if the tickets sold out, but there were a fair few people going to the game in the city today. More D-backs jerseys than I expected. Still mostly the popular teams being worn though. I did hear a couple American accents around though, they really stand out in a crowd.

Yikes

Wouldn't they have shaved Chapman's head before surgery?

I'm not a doctor, but he posted that photo himself on his Instagram account. It's definitely him.

Ok, thanks

At some point they need to mandate helmets or some hybrid on pitchers. I read that McCarthy refused to wear the new protective hat even after getting drilled. Somebody is oging to get killed out there and when it happens we'll all say "Why didn't they see this coming?"

I think there was a minor league 1B coach recently that got hit and killed by a liner, so you know that pitchers are far more likely to get it.

That game last night looked to be almost sold out from the highlights i'm watching. A lot more people than I thought would show up.

I was trying to stay up for the game, but I fell asleep about 30 minutes before the start. Whatever, they play again today at 9 PM CT which I think is 1 PM in Australia.