I like the way you think....

LMAO

Gordon was the third batter in an inning 4 times yesterday.

I would prefer to see more Dyson/Cain than Cain/Frenchy. Maybe platoon that combination half way and if doing an uneven platoon, I would definitely prefer to see Dyson more than Frenchy. Dyson and Cain make that outfield look much smaller than it is.

Oh, and I'd still leave it as is for at least a few more weeks. If Perez and/or Moustakas starts hitting, I leave Gordon right where he is.

Should have mentioned that in my previous post but got carried away.

Hosmer hitting in front of Butler is a good thing. Hosmer hitting in front of Butler when Alex Gordon is already on base is even better.

Just glad to be able to watch the team put on watchable baseball. Those years where they lost 100+ really shook my interest.

With the obvious early nature of things, it's probably an overstatement. But these next 8 games will tell us what kind of moxie this team has.

Atlanta, Boston, Detroit all on the road. 8 games against above-average opponents.

If somehow we can win 4 of those games, you'd have to consider that pretty good at this point. As much attention as Atlanta is getting right now, if we can find a way to take both of those games, heads shall turn.

Ken Rosenthal ‏@Ken_Rosenthal 10m

Diamondbacks, Royals RT @bumbacobrandon: @Ken_Rosenthal potential dark horses in AL/NL ? #bingit”

Where do I apply?

Off-day baseball trivia:

What is Hall of Fame shortstop Joe Sewell (active 1920-33) best known for?

The amount of ground Dyson and cain covers I need to see that every day.

Sewell is also well-known as the toughest player in history to strike out. He whiffed 114 times in in 8329 plate appearances.

The modern day sewage system?

I guess he really did See-Well.

I went to all three games this weekend, so I'm sub-.500. Sitting at 1-2 for the year. Shit.

That's pretty lame.

He is the yang to Frenchy's ying.....

Actually I thought that was quite impressive :)

You should probably just give all of your tickets to me.

All Your Tickets Are Belong To Us

I almost went yesterday. That is like being 1-0. w00t!

He invented something, right?

No...wait...he's the guy that supposedly used one bat his entire career, right? Who is the old player who invented something major? It was a stump the chumps question a couple months ago...

:eek:

I find that very hard to believe unless the bat had adamantium in it or something.

Sewell never struck out. Outside of that, don't know much about him

He also set the record for fewest strikeouts in a full season with 3.

If only, Frenchy. If only...

the point of putting him at 3rd is to surround him by better hitters...rather than him following up our worst hitters (Francouer, Getz, Dyson, Johnson, etc...)

the idea is to score runs

putting your two best OPS guys at 3 and 4 is done with the idea that, statistically, lumping those two together will equal doubles, RBI's, and homeruns (with one another on base etc...)

I don't give a shit about Gordon at 3 I'd just rather have him batting directly in front of Billy Butler

I wonder if recent events will affect the scheduled Royals/Red Sox series?

Checking the Directv guide for 672-1 & they don't have the Red Sox game on Wednesday morning on the schedule. They have tonight's game on it though.

We play the Braves Wed, Bosox series as scheduled won't start until Fri.

I'd be very surprised if our games vs the BoSox is rescheduled. I've always thought that when things like this happen everyone needs to resume their normal lives as quickly as possible. The more that the tragedy affects things like this the more sick people think they accomplished something with their behavior.

So, if we're in "win now" mode, how about Moose for Chase Headley?

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2013/0...y-suitors.html

* The Royals appear set at third base with Mike Moustakas, but they could upgrade to Headley and include Moustakas in the trade. This is another team that has invested a lot in winning now.

Reposting here, because some may be done with that last game thread.

The Royals are convinced that Herrera must have been tipping his pitches.

He had to be tipping them, and once it got out of control he had no shot.

I would do this immediately. I would give them Hosmer as well.

I'm going to meet Frank White in a couple of weeks and I'd like to have him sign a jersey. Does anyone know a good place to buy an old replica jersey?

I wouldn't.

Headley is a nice player, but you should take a look at his career stats BEFORE last season.

He has been a largely punch-less hitter from the 3B spot before last year. I'm not convinced the uptick in HR and slugging a season ago is more than a one year flap.

I'd be all for trading for Headley, still. But I'm not convinced he's a major upgrade over Moustakas immediately, and having him for only a season and a half is a problem. I probably wouldn't swap Moose straight up for him. And certainly would not include Hosmer in addition.

If you could get it done for prospects, however... fire away.

When the pressure is off I fully expect Moose and Hosmer to play well.

Call up Seratelli!

Hosmer, Moustakas not looking good so far

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/po...ng-good-so-far

Snippet:

In Hosmer's case, he just isn't driving the ball -- at all. He had his one double to deep left-center and one fly out to deep left, but after flying out twice and striking out twice on Tuesday, he now has 12 ground balls in play and six fly balls. He has hit seven line drives, but those lines drives aren't being driven into the gaps.

This is somewhat similar to the issue he faced last year when he had trouble pulling the ball with much authority -- he only pulled three home runs all season (he hit seven to the opposite field and four just to the right of center). You can be a good hitter even if your natural stroke goes to the opposite field, but unless you possess the raw power of someone like Ryan Howard or David Ortiz, you're not going to develop into a big home run hitter unless you pull the ball more. Hosmer hit .284 and slugged .444 against fastballs last year, which sounds pretty good, but the major-league averages were .295 and .485 for qualified regular. Hosmer ranked in the 42nd percentile in batting average and 32nd percentile in slugging percentage against the fastball. The trouble is, he was even worse against "soft" stuff -- he hit .177 and slugged .245, well below the .242 and .393 marks of the 144 qualified regulars.

I would argue that it all stems off hitting the fastball. If he can't catch up to the good fastballs, he's going to struggle much more against offspeed stuff. So far in 2013, he's 0-for-14 in plate appearances ending in fastballs. Until he shows he can hit the hard stuff with authority, Hosmer isn't going to meet the lofty expectations everyone had for him after his rookie season.

:facepalm:


Please Lord, bring me at least 1 legit Royals Superstar with power again before i die......pretty please...

That is really bad news, actually. Hopefully its just small sample size. There are a lot of things you can learn as a hitter, especially with plate discipline or recognizing off-speed stuff or adjusting your swing mechanics, but you either have the reaction time to catch up to the fastball, or you don't. I'm pretty sure thats just something you are born with.

I think Hosmer might need to open his stance back up.

He didn't have any problem getting around on inside pitches in his rookie year or in the minors. His stance was more open at that time, and that typically helps you see/recognize and respond to inside pitches. Especially if you're a guy with a good opposite field approach.

I'm not sure why they haven't opened up his stance already. Every time hos is at two strikes, the pitchers start feeding him inside fastballs because its well known that he has a hole there.

Meanwhile, in the minors:

Bubba has 55 ABs and has struck out in 26 of those. I check the box tonight and see a 2 for 6 with an RBI and a run. Not bad I think to myself. Then I see he struck out in his four other at bats. Yikes.

Many of our other hitting prospects aren't doing much better. Looking at the list of our top guys, I'm seeing many sub .600 OPS's and zero home runs. Calixte, Bonifacio, Cuthbert, Mondesi, etc.

Jason Adam has been awful in his first taste of AA ball, with an ERA over 17 (24 hits in 10 innings !). On the other hand, Ventura, Zimmer and several other pitching prospects have been pretty good so far.

It's early yet, but the struggles of our young major league hitters, with the struggles of some of our minor leaguers has me questioning our player development (probably unwarranted, but they need some guys to come up and succeed).

Right. If he's going to have a hole, I'd rather it be on the outside corner than the inside corner. At least he could (theoretically) turn on the inside pitch with power if he were opened up.

Damn, Detroit won in overtime.

In baseball it's referred to as extra innings. And **** my Seattle Mariners for letting those assholes strike out that many times in two games and then letting them win both anyways.

Ah I knew it wasn't called "overtime" but I couldn't remember the correct term. Thanks.

Not sure what was going on in that Lexington game, because they struck out 19 times as a team last night. Very weird game.

Starling is lost at the plate right now, though. We've talked about it a lot in here already, and I don't think there's much to add other than... his swing mechanics look awkward. And the longer they look bad, the more it looks like it is about him and not about a new batting stance/approach/mechanics.

Mondesi's stats don't matter that much. He's a 17-year old in full season league. For comparison, when Profar was that age, he OPSed .696 in the Northwest League. The scouting reports are what you have to rely on with him (and so far, they still glow).

I would expect young hitters to struggle in the Carolina league (High-A Wilmington). That's a terrible hitters park, and the league is full of them (it also is extremely cold up there for baseball).

So I wouldn't put much stock in the overall numbers of guys in Wilmington. I believe that includes Cuthbert and Bonifacio. That's a tough environment, and both of those guys are STILL young for that league. Especially Bonifacio.

I'm a little surprised Calixte hasn't taken off at AA, after a strong year at Wilmington in 2012, but he typically has been a slow starter. I'll give that another 15 games, at least, before I start worrying about him.

Sum: Starling is really the only hitter I'm concerned about at this point, and maybe a little with Cuthbert. It's still too early to take much from the hitting stats. Unless they're striking out in half their at-bats. Which is always bad...

On the flip side, the Royals pitching performances have been pretty great so far. Still a small sample size, but...

Omaha
Will Smith has been excellent so far in this tough pitcher's league (23 Ks in 16 IP, 23:6 K:BB), and Chris Dwyer looks to have found himself all of a sudden (He's walking guys at only a league average rate - 3 per 9 - which has always been his issue. If that improved control sticks around...)

NWA
Yordy Ventura has been outstanding so far, and Noelle Arguelles has been surprisingly effective (seems to have recovered some of his lost velocity.

Wilmington

Again, this is a pitcher's league, but the Royals have received great returns.
Kyle Zimmer has been dominant, which was expected. Kyle Smith has also been dominant, which probably was not expected. John Lamb is pitching well so far and still is building up velocity. Angel Baez has control issues, but his results and stuff are dazzling. And Sam Selman has also been very good, though the walk totals are dangerously high.

Lexington

Bryan Brickhouse seems to be finding himself at Lexington, and pitching well, and early returns on Miguel Almonte have been GLOWING (Baseball Prospectus saw him this spring and proclaimed he was equivalent to Zimmer as a prospect afterwards).

Side note: I feel like I should mention something about Fred Ford, who is also at Lexington. Late-round pick out of a mid-MO JUCO is Starling's mirror from a physical standpoint (6-5, looks like a stud) and has been the superior hitter so far at each level (They've come up together). He doesn't have the hall of fame upside Starling does (not a GG-level defender or super-elite athlete), but if he continues to hit, that takes some sting out of potential failure from Starling.

Will be fun to keep an eye on over the next few weeks.

Remember that shitty Twins team we swept? They are 8-4 when not playing the Royals.

They're still shitty.

They are in 2nd place.

Good job Royals! Since my White Sox are a big bag of suck, I'll be rooting for ya guys to do well.

The Twins are ****ing bad, real bad. That won't hold up.

They took 2 from us. We just aren't hitting, outside of Rios.

Early season wins won't matter for a team with that shitty of pitching. The Twins are just garbage.

Tigers have lost 4 in a row. Would love to see them have a streak like we had last year to start the season. We can make it 7

Ya we have a good pitching staff. Bats need to wake up.

I think the Angels are starting to wake up, explaining DET's struggles.

I'm really curious to see how this series goes.

And frankly, my hope was that they could split the roadie at 4-4 considering the quality of teams played. All we have to do now is win 1 game at DET to accomplish that, and call me greedy now, but I'll be disappointed if that's all we get.

Detroit's ****ed because of their pen.

John Buck has 7 HRs.

Your CP posts are like blog posts... you should have your own Royals blog somewhere, man. They are too high of quality to just leave in a 3500 post thread on a Chiefs forum. LOL

There are multiple teams with 10+ wins in all of the divisions except that AL Central.

14 teams overall have 10 wins or more.

Our current record puts us in 3rd place in virtually every other MLB division. We're fortunate our division rivals haven't gone on a winning streak. We apparently have major league starting pitching and good defense...BUT WE NEED TO HIT THE FREAKING BALL!!!

I was a bit curious, so I took the liberty of adding the royals into all the other divisions to see where we'd be. We'd actually usually be 2nd, not third.

http://i.imgur.com/VPe3anR.png

But dont get me wrong. Youre definitely correct about the WE NEED TO HIT THE BALL thing.

Watching Moose "try to figure it out" is painful to say the least. Is it time to let him take a trip to Omaha and swing the bat some yet?

I know Moose isn't making good contact but he is having a pretty rough time finding holes. His BABIP is only .184 to go with his .158 average. Whereas Hosmer is only batting .261 but his BABIP is .343. Hosmer has at least been making more consistent contact. And IIRC Moustakas has had a label in the past of being a slow starter. Hopefully he picks it up soon. We don't need him to necessarily hit for average but we need power from him.

I wonder if he can play 1st or 3rd base :shrug:

Rany said no in his Friday column.

Rany:




Troy Caswell (@OldSoulTCas23): Is Hosmer the next James Loney?

A LOT of questions about Eric Hosmer this week. That will happen when you start the season hitting .242/.359/.273 after 12 games, after hitting .232/.304/.359 last season.


Loney is kind of a worst-case scenario for a first baseman who comes up and immediately rakes. In 2006 and 2007 Loney played in 144 games and hit .321/.372/.543. He then completely stagnated as a hitter, batting .281/.341/.411 over the next four years, and despite playing in at least 158 games each year, he never matched the 15 home runs he hit in just 96 games in 2007. He then completely collapsed in 2012, and is now a Tampa Bay Ray.


The Rays undoubtedly were willing to take a chance on Loney because they had already taken a chance on his doppleganger, Casey Kotchman, in 2011. Like Loney, Kotchman was a top first base prospect without huge power but with a sweet swing, and after some initial success (Kotchman hit .296/.372/.467 in 2007) had fallen apart (.254/.316/.378 from 2008 to 2010). With the Rays in 2011, Kotchman hit .306/.378/.422 while making peanuts. They let him go, Kotchman signed with the Indians last year, and he hit .229. And you wonder why I’m leery of dealing with the Rays…


I don’t think Hosmer is that comparable to Loney, for two reasons. One is that Hosmer was productive over nearly a full season at age 21, while Loney’s success came at ages 22-23. Even acknowledging Hosmer’s struggles last year, the ability to hit that well at age 21 is considerably more rare than the ability to do so even a year later.


But the other reason is that, from a scouting standpoint, they’re not that similar. Loney, like Kotchman, was considered to have an elite hit tool but only average power. Neither player hit more than 11 home runs in any minor league season. Hosmer was considered a step above both of them, as someone with elite hitting ability AND top-of-the-line power, which is why he was drafted #3 overall even as a first baseman. In his one healthy minor-league season, he hit 20 homers. Hosmer had 43 doubles and 9 triples that year, for 72 extra-base hits overall; Loney’s career-high in the minors was 44. Kotchman (who could never stay healthy) never had more than 41.


This is relevant because Loney’s success early in his career was highly dependent on his .321 batting average, and batting average is the most variable skill in a hitter’s arsenal. Hosmer’s skill set as a rookie was more diverse.


So no, I don’t think Hosmer is the next James Loney. His success came at a younger age, and he showed a more diverse and robust skill set. Also, it’s only been 12 games.


I’d sure like to see him pick it up, though.




Mouse in catspeak (@Meous): Is there any hope for Moose’s swing? Looks totally lost. Maybe an Omaha trip like it worked for Alex Gordon?

A LOT of questions about Mike Moustakas this week. That will happen when you start the season hitting .178/.245/.222 after 12 games, after hitting .211/.261/.325 after the All-Star Break last season.


Like Hosmer, in the long term I’m not really concerned about Moose. He’s young, and he was an above-average third baseman overall just last year. In the short term…um…I’m a little concerned.


Here’s why:


Year FB% IFFB% POP%

2010 41.2% 21.0% 8.7%2011 49.8% 17.6% 8.8%2012 60.5% 26.1% 15.8%

“FB%” refers to the percentage of balls that Moustakas puts in play (including home runs) that are fly balls. “IFFB%” is the percentage of those fly balls that are on the infield – a fancy way of saying “pop-ups”.


“POP%” is what happens when you combine the two – it’s the percentage of all balls in play that are pop-ups. As you can see, Moustakas has always been a flyball hitter, and he’s always been prone to pop-ups – about a fifth of the balls he puts in the air stay on the infield. Given that pop-ups – unlike outfield fly balls, ground balls, and line drives – are almost always turned into outs, minimizing pop-ups is a key to success a hitter.


This year, in an admittedly small sample size, Moustakas is hitting the ball in the air more than ever – and more of those fly balls than ever are on the infield. He’s popped up six times in just 45 at-bats. By comparison, Joey Votto has popped up four times since the start of the 2009 season.


I don’t think we’re anywhere close to a remedial course in Omaha. Moustakas is still contributing on defense, he’s a streaky hitter who could hit three home runs in the next week and calm everyone down. If you send him down, you’re looking at Elliot Johnson playing third base, or Miguel Tejada, or maybe Irving Falu. You could put up with that in order to help Moustakas out in the long run if you weren’t trying to win this year, but you are. The best thing to do is to just ride it out for now. Also, it’s only been 12 games.


I’d sure like to see him pick it up, though.

This isn't a development year. If we're "all-in", then we have no choice but to keep running him out there.

General thoughts:

-- Back in first place is pretty cool...

-- I think this is a team that is much tougher/has much more swagger than teams in the past. That's what having some good, veteran starting pitching can do for you.

-- Speaking of good, veteran starting pitching... it was pretty clear Guthrie did not have his best stuff yesterday. Lot of hard-hit balls early. But he adjusted and got them through 6 IP with the team still in it.

--Nice power surge last night. Needs to continue.

-- Holland looks to have found himself. Focusing on strike 1 and trusting that his fastball (even at 95) is good enough to get by guys in the zone is a big step for him.

-- The longer they stay in it, the better the chance they make a move for ONE more bat, I think. I saw Rany mentioning Chase Utley the other day on his blog, and that's a name that makes a tremendous amount of sense to me.

Gordon
Cain
Utley
Butler
Perez
Hosmer
Francoeur
Moose
Escobar

So let's hope for the Phillies sucking exponentially down the stretch...

And will probably finish the season with 15. He did this the year after the Royals let him go, too.

I'd love to land Utley. Not sure what it would cost us, but the odds of the Phillies being out of it near the deadline are good with both the Braves and Nationals playing like they are.

I'd also like Kendrick from LAA, but doubt he's available. Upgrading the offense from 2B would be huge. Of course, upgrading RF would be as well.

And here's the thing with Moose: Who else are you going to play at 3B? It's not like Anthony Rendon is sitting at Omaha, ready for his shot at the big leagues (side note: How awesome would it be to have Rendon there and available to play 2B/3B for KC this year?**)

Sending Moose down means you probably are playing either Elliott Johnson or Miguel Tejada every day at 3B. Johnson is probably as good defensively, but doesn't offer any real upside offensively. Tejada is worse defensively and offers little upside offensively, especially against RHP.

** The Royals could have drafted Rendon instead of Bubba Starling. Will be another interesting one to watch. Starling's bat showing some signs of life the past few days, though...

Buck even did it a year with the Royals. Once pitchers remember that he can't hit anything besides the fastball, he'll go cold for the rest of the season.

Our starting pitchers are just mentally tougher than in the past. Compare Wade Davis, James Shields, and Jeremy Guthrie when struggling to Kyle Davies, Luke Hochevar, and Jonathan Sanchez.

Wade Davis looked like shit against Minnesota and didn't give up a single run. These guys understand that sometimes you've got to keep it together with bailing wire and duct tape. We haven't had a guy like that since Meche.

I understand the whole who are you going to play argument for sure. And I get that baseball is a long season and every player goes through their share of struggles. Moose has looked really lost at the plate. It's not just hitting the ball hard, but not finding a hole. He is going up there and giving three lost swings and walking back to the bench with a confused look on his face.

I was just asking at what point is leaving him up to struggle this badly a detriment to Moose and the team?

I've lost confidence in Utley's ability to last an entire year after his last three seasons.