Whoever signs Santana is going to lose a 1st round pick. That's a biggie.

Plus Santana is HR prone, probably not a good fit in small ballparks... and has a history of being inconsistent from year to year. That's a concern even if the Royals were to sign him.

Pull the trigger... With Santana we have a SOLID rotation...

ZIPS projections out on Fangraphs. Here are a few projections with comparables to our current players:


Player IP K/9 BB/9 HR/9 ERA+ zWAR No. 1 Comp
James Shields 212.0 8.24 2.50 0.93 114 4.2 Bob Welch
Ervin Santana 185.7 7.12 2.67 1.31 96 2.2 Ramon Ortiz
Yordano Ventura 137.3 7.47 3.74 0.92 98 1.7 Matt Clement
Greg Holland 69.3 12.99 3.38 0.65 175 1.7 Bryan Harvey
Jeremy Guthrie 166.0 5.20 2.60 1.19 90 1.3 Walt Terrell
Danny Duffy 94.0 8.62 4.50 0.86 100 1.3 Erik Bedard
Jason Vargas 191.0 5.80 2.36 1.55 87 1.2 Scott McGregor
Wade Davis 140.3 7.57 3.46 1.03 90 1.1 Victor Santos
Luke Hochevar 70.7 10.57 2.55 1.02 134 1.1 Trevor Hoffman

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/2014-...s-city-royals/

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Royals&amp;src=hash">#Royals</a> fans: RT <a href="https://twitter.com/ChrisCotillo">@ChrisCotillo</a>: Source: <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Rockies&amp;src=hash">#Rockies</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Orioles&amp;src=hash">#Orioles</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Mariners&amp;src=hash">#Mariners</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Yankees&amp;src=hash">#Yankees</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Dodgers&amp;src=hash">#Dodgers</a> have expressed interest in signing Ervin Santana.</p>&mdash; Pete Grathoff (@pgrathoff) <a href="https://twitter.com/pgrathoff/statuses/427650751536439296">January 27, 2014</a></blockquote>
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There's a post on deadspin about the song "Royals" and it being inspired by a George Brett photograph. Nothing new, but this comment on Deadspin was hilarious.

It reads,"Ironically, "And we'll never be Royals" is included in every Scott Boras client's No Trade Clause"

Rockies , Os and Yanks seem like bad fits.

Odds that Santana signs with the Royals?

Zero

Tanaka.

No high-end pitcher outside of Kershaw was going to get anything until Tanaka was signed. Now that he's signed by the Yankees, things are going to happen.

Yep, they'd be really dumb to sign him.

Baseball Prospectus released its top 101 this morning.

12. RHP Yordano Ventura
29. SS Raul Adalberto Mondesi
34. RHP Kyle Zimmer
46. RHP Miguel Almonte
78. RHP Sean Manaea
96. 3B Hunter Dozier
99. RF Jorge Bonifacio

From a quick glance, it looks like only the Twins have more prospects in their top 100, with 8. The Cubs and Pirates also have 7 prospects. Don't see any other group with that many.

I'd expect the Royals to be in the top 5 range of system rankings, when Baseball Pro releases it.

The Twins clearly have the top system, with the No. 1 overall player in Byron Buxton and tremendous depth, but this is not as strong a system as the Cardinals last year or the Royals in 2011.

I think I might take the Cubs' system over all the others. Tremendous potential from their position players, with Baez, Almora, Bryant and Soler all cracking the top 50.

I think most of us gave up on this when "The greatest system of all time!" turned out to be an epic bust. Like all things Royals. I think it's the first time that BB America's top system didn't make the playoffs within 2-3 years (can't remember the time frame) of winning the top honor. I think we have to make the playoffs this year or else their streak is snapped.

I understand people getting less excited about prospects. The 2011 system was devastated by the complete collapse of Mike Montgomery and the injury to John Lamb (which is more bad luck than anything else...). They're still going to end up getting top 5 production out of it, long-term, in my opinion (as that system netted Hosmer, Perez, Duffy, Greg Holland, Aaron Crow, Kelvin Herrera, James Shields).

But it's a far cry from what many thought it could have been/should have been. The collapse of the top two pitching prospects is what really did it in... if either of Lamb or Montgomery makes it, I don't think that grouping is looked at as a failure (maybe still a slight disappointment, but not a failure).

One of the differences here is that we've already seen Yordano Ventura pitch at an extremely high level in the major leagues. And he has already posted tremendous success at AAA, which is more than any of the pitchers on the 2011 list could say.

And ultimately, the farm system is ALWAYS going to be important to the Royals, because they must re-stock talent - and especially pitching talent - from within, and because they must have young talent that can be moved in trades at times.

There's always going to be injuries to pitchers it's just the nature of the business. The Royals need a hit that no one expected to make up for it.

There is still a lot of pitching on the FA market. Maybe not in league with Santana and Jimenez, but if we needed another Guthrie type; I think we can find it.

Some of the pitchers on the market: Chris Capuano, Barry Zito, Scott Baker, Jason Hammel, Tommy Hanson, Bruce Chen, Jake Westbrook and Paul Maholm.