Try Kansas Sampler. Their web site has pretty much everything.

Once Omar Infante comes back, if Moose continues to struggle, I'd consider playing Giavotella at 3rd. So far, I'm not impressed with Valencia.

Baseball teams typically don't "Send a message" when it comes to performance issues.

Demote a guy who's hurting the team? Sure.

Demote a guy who's scuffling and can't fix it at the major league level? Yes.

The only type of player who typically gets demoted to the minors to "Send a message" is the player who isn't working hard enough.

This is why Butler was demoted early in his career. He wasn't working and was acting pretty spoiled.

From all accounts, Moustakas is a hard worker (Even if he doesn't like watching tape) who tries really hard (too hard, in fact, which is probably his problem) and has the right attitude.

The leash with Moustakas is not endless. They have a decent option in Valencia if Moustakas continues to struggle (would have a better one had they found a way to keep Bonifacio). But they're not going to jump on something after 8 games (And should not). Especially when he's putting in the work AND is showing the good approach.

The results are ugly, but the fact that he's seeing a lot of pitches and maintaining the approach they want to see is going to give him a little more leeway than the results alone would.

Now, if we get to the end of April and he's still a disaster at the plate, things might start to change. I would hope they would, but it's hard to say with this team.

In his defense, I do like that's he's being more selective and taking some walks. Sometimes too selective maybe. I've seen him take a few down the middle it looked like he could have mashed.

He does get a lot of high pitch-count AB, but it really doesn't matter since he can't make contact when he does swing.

I hope you are correct about Valencia but watching him take that third strike the other night was painful.

You mean taking all 3 straight down the shitter, with the bases loaded in a 0-0 game in the 8th? You mean you didn't enjoy watching that?

I wanted to hop the fence and kick his ass when that happened. That was inexcusable. You have to swing at anything even remotely close with 2 strikes in that situation. Not only were all three of those taken pitches close, they were all directly over the plate.

Results have to follow, no doubt.

Just saying he will get more leash when he's at least taking at bats like a big leaguer rather than flailing away at a bunch of early pitches.

I was already pissed because Billy popped out to the catcher with two on. And then, Valencia's bat never leaves his shoulder for three straight strikes.

Here's the play by play for the bottom of the 8th.

Defensive Substitution: Ryan Hanigan replaces Logan Forsythe, batting 8th, playing catcher.

Pitching Change: Jake McGee replaces Chris Archer.

1.Nori Aoki singles on a line drive to left fielder David DeJesus.

2.Eric Hosmer strikes out swinging.

3.Salvador Perez singles on a soft fly ball to center fielder Desmond Jennings. Nori Aoki to 2nd.

Coaching visit to mound.

4.Billy Butler pops out to catcher Ryan Hanigan in foul territory.

Coaching visit to mound.

Pitching Change: Joel Peralta replaces Jake McGee.

5.Alex Gordon walks. Nori Aoki to 3rd. Salvador Perez to 2nd.

6.Danny Valencia called out on strikes.

Pitcher
J. Peralta
Batter
D. Valencia

Speed Pitch Result
1 76 Curveball Called Strike
2 90 Fastball (Four-seam) Called Strike
3 80 Splitter Called Strike

The funny thing was that he stood there and argued with the ump as if all three pitches weren't right down the middle. The crowd was spitting fire at that point. I think I insulted his mother but I can't be sure.

They pretty much have to keep Valencia or it will look like they gave David Lough away for nothing.

Heh. I mean...

Valencia should've been given a "code red" by his teammates after the game for that. Closed door team meeting, police themselves.



Hey Duncan: what on earth is up with Brent Eibner? I just looked up the Omaha stats and he is killign it. 5-5, 2hr and a double with 9 RBI Wednesday? I thought he was no longer a real prospect
http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats...=true&sid=t541

He's kind of old, but I still considered him a prospect (had him in my top 15 in the OP).

He's had a lot of problems with strikeouts and making contact against RHP, but seems to have made some progress on that.

He's passing the test in Omaha so far, and I wouldn't be surprised to see him as part of the plan in the OF in 2015. Maybe even sooner if Maxwell does not make a positive impact again or if Cain gets hurt.

It looks like Matt Fields could do what Billy does. He's batting .469 (I know, small sample size) at Omaha. He hit 31 homers at AA last year.

Calvin Pickering changed his name again?

He also spent a lot of time pitching at Arkansas. He hasn't been a full time position player for very long.

Its beyond small sample size, I'm not even interested in a player's stats at all in the first 2 weeks of April, to the point where I don't even want to know what they are.

This. Baseball fans are funny.

LMAO

Its different if its a scouting thing, if a hitter is not seeing the ball or is hacking away at pitches outside of the strike zone thats one thing. But if a player is doing what you want, you gotta give the results a month or so.

I'm always amazed at how quickly stats turn from "joke" to "serious thing we should draw conclusions from" for some people. After game 1, everyone pretty much agrees the stats are a joke, we all like to chuckle at a hitter batting zero or 1.000 or 0.500 or 0.667. But 8 games is different?

\
The 31 HR at AA last year has me keeping an eye on Fields.

I've always contended that you can start to draw some conclusions after the first twenty games of an everyday starter. It's BS, but that's generally my own personal rule of thumb.

rally house too

I like May 1st. Its an arbitrary date on the calendar, but its simple and clean.

I also can't draw any strong conclusions from a month, a bad player isn't suddenly good and a good player isn't suddenly bad, but I am more willing to support pulling the trigger on a player who started out the year on a very short leash and really sucked in April.

I'm OK with sending down Moose in May, but I'd need to see Butler suck for at least half a season before I start reducing his AB for the 2nd half. (and in any case there's no way we should exercise that 2015 option)

That was abysmal

At least in happier news the starting pitching rotation looks good, and actually stronger top to bottom, even with the loss of Santana. Ace seems like he will be a rising badass. Fastest pitch from his 1st start clocked at 102.4mph!
It feels weird to say, but Hochevar will be sorely missed this year.

Ventura against Sale will be good for years to come!

Kansas Sampler is actually owned by Rally House. When you go to the Kansas Sampler web site it just takes you to Rally House.

With the luck the Royals have had with young pitchers you can't help but think, "This is too good to be true".

That statement is a great example of why you can't just look at stats for minor leaguers. You have to look at age, and the scouting profile matters, too.

Matt Fields is a great example of an older guy who you just can't get that excited about. Yes, he hit 31 HR in a very hitter friendly league/park... he also hit .227, struck out 181 times (that's a 40 percent K rate) and posted an OPS under .800 (hard to do when you hit 30 bombs). And is 28 years old.

There's actually very little that indicates Fields could do what Billy does. He has extreme K problems at AA and he's an extremely old minor league player. Yes, he hits some HR, but he also is selling out to do so.

You don't think Fields could pop up to the catcher and ground out to the SS? :)

Crash Davis

Billy uses the 2nd baseman not the SS... Get it right! :p

LMAO

Fixed your post.

Repost.

what ever happened to him? I was at his first game and was really impressed, then never really heard about him again.

He hit around .220 for the Royals and got bounced, changed his name to Kila Ka'aihue, hit more HRs in the minors, got called up to the bigs and hits around .220 again, now he's apparently changed his name again and is hitting HRs in the minors.

His original name was Kit Pellow.

You know who is lighting AAA on fire right now? Eibner. Thank god his bat is starting to come around. It was getting a little late to try him on the mound.

o:-)LMAO

Didn't realize that he's all the way up to AAA. How close is he, if at all, to the majors? I haven't heard anything on him recently.

They don't have a current OF spot available for him. If he continues to rake all year, I'd imagine that Justin Maxwell becomes expendable.

If he hits, he's part of the plans at least as a reserve OF in 2015.

Was this before or after he was Ryan Shealy?

:LOL:

Where's the game day thread? I thought there was a regular rotation of CP users responsible for doing this task?

If he continues to hit, he makes Aoki obsolete in '15.

Yeah really, who's up?

Here we are with a 9 game stretch against Minny-Houston-Minny. I will be disappointed if we don't win at least 7 of these 9 games.

My expectation is that the offense will start to crank up and the bullpen will stabilize a bit with Coleman back.

Do that and we'll be 11-6 going into the Cleveland/Baltimore trip.

Ah hell, I can do it. I've got pretty good Minnesota mojo. I went to Minny last year and actually saw Moose hit 2 homers in one game.

Shealy actually hit .260 for the Royals and had 17 HRs. The other bozos wished they had that production.

You know you've missed Jeff Francouer. Here's an update about your favorite idiot...

Francouer Fooled by Month-Long Prank

Apologies, if it is a repost.

Is it possible GMDM may have assembled a team with less offensive prowess than last years American League worst?

Our opponents really only need to get 3 runs to have a fair chance at victory.


EDIT: KCR was last only in HR in 2013

JFC

Butler needs to be pushed out of the 4 spot though, he is awful.

No excuse

Frenchy, biggest dumbass alive. http://beta.thescore.com/news/479324

But,but,but he is a great clubhouse presence.

Ok, Frenchy is whatever but that was pretty damn funny! LOL

Was a bust at the game of baseball but he's a pretty good guy, and apparently a very gullible one.

Royals are .310 OBP, AL average is .315. So that means we should be scoring runs! OBP, walks, choppers, doinks, texas leaguers, bloops, hit by pitch, quarks, duck snorts. JUST GET ON BASE RIGHT!?!?!?


Wrong. Biggest misconception in baseball. If anything, DM fell too much in love with getting on base rather than acquiring guys who could actually hit it like a man.

Come for the acres of parking. Stay for the disappointment.

lol

@McCulloughStar: Asked if he was seeing positive signs from Billy Butler, Ned Yost laughed and said, "Not really."

Which guys are you referring to? Infante and Aoki? I wasn't aware the Royals ever valued OBP from what I've seen.

The biggest problem is the home grown guys that were expected to hit for power (Moose, Hosmer, Butler, Gordan) haven't. The pickups in the off season were great IMO.

At this point, I don't know what the Royals value. I guess defense in the field is about it. This team is frustrating as all get out. We pitch well against the Tigers ... We can't pitch when we play the Twins.

Our pen blows.

And our hitting is a joke.

The team values pitching and defense. The upper management doesn't give two shits about hitting, and it shows every year. I hope the team tanks and DM is axed.

FYP

15-4 vs the Twinkies last season.

The team doesn't value hitting? What? That is the narrative now?

Ned loves him some base hits - so does Dayton.

Tell me I'm wrong but the swing early and often in the count seems worse than the old approach of being more patient. If you are going to get pitches to drive (home runs) it's by working the count to a point where the pitcher must throws strikes. This is when you sit dead red and drive the ball. We've never been very good at that but this swing early shit surely isn't helping it seems.

Weve gotta stay in the division mix. Had we won the last two, we'd be in 2nd. Now we're in the basement.

Punchless

Nothing doing

wrong thread, chief.

#BeRoyal

Billy grounding out.

Wrong thread #2.

Less booze.