This. Infante will be fine. To compare to Chris gets is chiefs planet douchebaggery.

It's 3 and 3. Try to keep up.

No we have 4 with the Tigers. You better keep up.

When you try and correct someone, please do your research first.

Regarding our next 7 games that KCChiefs1 mentioned. I am expecting a 4-3 record over the next 7 games.

I hope that the Tigers can keep stumbling until we get to them. I'd give us the pitching advantage in Saturday and Sunday's games vs the Sox. Never know what to expect from Guthrie, but he is usually pretty good against the Sox.

I expect we take 2-3 from the Sox (winning the two games in which I am not in attendance of course :D) and split with Detroit.

Shit, man. I thought we squashed that.

Here's a pic of Cristin Milioti being adorable... we good now?

http://www.hawtcelebs.com/wp-content...New-York-6.jpg

6.5/10

The numbers are comparing the two. Argue with the numbers if you wish, but the numbers won't care.

I saw "Chavez" won recently for Oakland and the first thought I had was the old 3B Eric Chavez who played for the Yanks last I heard. I looked up te Oak pitcher and its Jesse Chavez, 30, who pitched for us a few years back and got cut. He's 7-2 with a 3 era and like 70-25 ratio in 75 innings. I don't have any idea how Beane does it

First of all, I never said I wasn't happy. Please read my posts before you comment on them and make assumptions. My statement was simply that when it came to pitching, there was nothing I saw that I didn't see as sustainable for the rest of the year...whereas we have several position players who are far below the norm and are bound to bounce back towards that...and even with that as the case, we're only 2.5 games out of first and just played pretty well against 4 good teams. It was an optimistic post.

I don't want more. I'm pleased with Duffy. And I have no reason to believe that there's going to be a correction other than the occasional bad start. I never said anyone (other than Guthrie) has been down, and that has been discussed. Duffy has long been considered a top prospect, who along with Ventura, is panning out at the big league level nicely (a Royals rarity but not unexpected).

NO.

All that was remind me how aggravating the final season was AND remind me how a girl like Cristin is out of my league.

Clearly, neg reps don't affect you so I must resort to asymmetrical warfare.

I'm inviting Mark Mangino over to your next family outing.

And you might have heard rumors that Mangino has lost weight. Ho-ho, my friend, those rumors are just that. RUMORS.

With my own two eyes I saw Mangino shut DOWN a HuHot after going through the chow line for sevenths.

No bullshit, saw it two weeks ago in Joplin. And this was AFTER the ****er had brunch at Golden Corral.

May God have mercy on your poor soul.

SHE'S A 15/10. Neg rep!

I need some background here.

No background neeed! Neg rep!

I will eat my shame with dignity.

Season's on the line this weekend.

In for righting the division ship!

Bro, anybody would do a Davis for Pederson deal. It'll take WAY more than that.

Yes, but I'd be more happy if they went 5-2.

I would imagine we would have to part with 2-3 other pieces along with Holland to get Pederson. Just conjecture, but yeah Wade Davis isn't bringing Pederson back.

We aren't getting Joc Pederson. They have 3 fat contracts in their outfield, 2 with ~.700 ops (Crawford+Ethier) and one with ~.750 ops (Kemp). They would be more inclined to pay an asston and free up their expensive logjam of mediocrity.

That said, i would like to see what it would take to get a guy like Luis Valbuena from the cubs. 17 doubles and opsing .859, plays 2b and 3b, cheap, and wouldn't pry away too much in the way of prospects.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>The <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Astros&amp;src=hash">#Astros</a> are tied w\ the <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Athletics&amp;src=hash">#Athletics</a> in MiLB walks at 1112. Been drafting for OBP. Last place is <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Royals&amp;src=hash">#Royals</a> at 780 <a href="http://t.co/raemP0UXVV">pic.twitter.com/raemP0UXVV</a></p>&mdash; Daren Willman (@darenw) <a href="https://twitter.com/darenw/statuses/477462159702495233">June 13, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

"OBP? I don't get this newfangled obsession over walks by Sabr nerds!"

/royals

I looked at our minor leaguers last night. All of our "prospects" are pretty awful, other than maybe Hunter Dozier. That Sean Manea that everyone was jazzing about has a 5+ ERA. Not to mention, he's walking the house according to the numbers.

You do realize that Manea is on a very short pitch count right?

Yeah, and?

You can't base everything off of statistical performance, as it doesn't take into account their age for the level, scouting reports, development schedule, etc. You're working with unfinished products in a lot of cases, especially at the low minors. A lot of pitchers have their bread and butter second pitch taken away from them at A+ by the Royals, to work on developing additional pitches.

Manaea's scouting reports have been universally glowing. Everyone who has seen him in person has walked away from the experience gushing about him. His biggest issues right now are building up his arm strength and endurance (he didn't throw from July on last year after having hip surgery) and developing his changeup. His strikeout numbers are off the charts... walks are high, but when a guy is working to develop a pitch, you're going to see some of that. He's also been working on strict pitch counts for games and for innings, so there have been several times he didn't get an opportunity to pitch out of trouble.

Almonte, also at A+, is in the same boat to a certain degree. He's working on developing a breaking pitch to complement his excellent fastball/changeup combo, and his numbers have suffered a little.

Last guy at Wilmington whose numbers don't tell the story is RA Mondesi. He was dominating until missing a few weeks due to back spasms. Looks like that was bothering him both before he sat down and still a bit when he got back, too. He's also an 18 year old playing against guys 4-5 years older than him, on average.

Bonifacio and Cuthbert have been mildly disappointing at Northwest Arkansas (Boni probably more so out of those two). That's the level where you really want to see hitters start producing. Cuthbert is still showing strong OBP skills... just hasn't hit with the authority you want from a corner guy. Still... power develops with age. OBP skills like that usually don't.

Orlando Calixte and Christian Binford are far exceeding expectations so far. Calixte, whom I've been high on for 2-3 years, is an intriguing bat and probably the closest bat to helping in the major leagues.

Binford is a guy who, if you looked at just his stats, you would expect is a future ace of the staff... but bring in his scouting report, and he becomes more of a middle-back-end rotation guy. Kind of shows the other end of the spectrum when 'scouting' from numbers alone.

BTW, will update my top 15 and maybe stretch it to a top 20 by the All-Star break. It looks like Blewett is a lock to sign, as well as Finnegan, but I'll wait to make sure.

Brandon Downes is the only really intriguing signability guy. I imagine they'll give him enough that he won't return to VA for his senior year, but I'd probably slot him in the Royals top 20 (I think the guy can hit, and just had a small sample size-driven off year).

Great piece from Rany.
http://www.ranyontheroyals.com/2014/06/turnaround.html

Thanks for the info!

The thing that scared me the most about the bats in the minors is lack of balance. Guys that had decent homer totals hit .260 or less. Guys with 300+ averages had zilch in the power department. Are we still teaching guys how to be slap hitters?

http://kingsofkauffman.com/2014/06/0...m-danny-duffy/

Good read on Duffy since he pitches today:

This has been a really funny season so far.

The Dodgers, who everyone thought would annihilate the NL West, are 7.5 games back and barely have a winning record. The Rays are the worst team in baseball. The Astros aren't too terrible, the Blue Jays look good, Milwaukee is the 2nd-best team in the NL, the Red Sox are 8 games back, and... the Tigers have been falling apart, but only after they first looked like world-beaters for 2 months before the debt that is their horrific bullpen and gaping hole at SS finally came due.

Strange season indeed, al. I've witnessed some strange things, but this week, I was at the game where we scored on 4 SF's. I'm going to continue to sell this team short. They don't have the brains to make it the post season.

EDIT - I should learn to read.

This Tigers team looks a lot more like what I thought it would than their early season showings.

Didn't expect Verlander to be this mortal (he might have honestly fallen off the same cliff Tim Lincecum did), but other than that, the Tigers are - overall - about what I expected at the start of the year.

They're vulenerable.

The AL Central is wide open for any of these teams. I can't remember many years where someone could make that statement and have it be true.

The team that winds up winning the AL Central will likely get worked over in the playoffs.

1 pm game today.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Beer Drinkers &amp; Hell Raisers Lineup: Aoki 9, Infante 4, Hosmer 3, Butler DH, Gordon 7, Perez 2, Cain 8, Moustakas 5, Escobar 6, Duffy 1.</p>&mdash; Andy McCullough (@McCulloughStar) <a href="https://twitter.com/McCulloughStar/statuses/477831870978088960">June 14, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Shows how important a good to great pen is especially with a dominant closer. Imagine swapping pens with the Tigers... I'm guessing an 8 game swing easy for both Teams.

Who woulda thunk that in Year 2 of "The trade", neither Shields nor Myers would be the most valuable piece? Baseball is weird that way.


Speaking of weird whatever happened to Chiefs O's Fan? That turd was trolling all year about the trade, but this year he's completely disappeared. Ran off to the hills. I wanted to ask him about it but alas, he jumped ship.

Well, Oakland signed the venerable Jim Johnson to a megadeal to close games and he was so awful they dumped him into middle relief. They're still able to make do with a backup plan. What is Dombrowski's problem building a decent bullpen?

The Tigers defense is shit. The Royals is the best I have ever seen.

They banned him from the Royals thread, just like you got banned from the KU basketball thread, moves that have vastly improved both.

Probably Q but you can now stream mlb.tv thru chromecast

Ok. Deadlines trades. Moose seems to be cementing his spot as at worst a platoon with Valencia so what would we possibly aquire? A RF'er? Utility middle infield guy? Potential back of the rotation starter if someone goes down since Chen is looking like shit? Backup catcher worth a shit?

Need to get rid of aoki the guy blows

The trade deadline could be a real letdown this year. The 2nd wild card team has brought more teams competing for a playoff spot... but this year it's brutal.

29 of the 30 teams are currently within 7.5 games of a playoff spot. Tampa Bay is probably the only guaranteed seller. The rest of the AL, including Houston, is now within 5 games of a playoff spot. There's another month to shake some of these teams out though. The Cubs/D-Backs/Padres will probably dump guys, but even they are within 6-7 games of a playoff spot. Some of these teams need to fall off or there'll be a few sellers trying to get prospects from the 22-25 teams in the hunt.

I'm taking my dad to college world series tomorrow and Finnegan isn't even pitching. That sucks.

Even though the Tigers won, their bullpen was so terrible that they allowed the Twins to come back from a 11-1 deficit to make it interesting

Absolutely correct.


And there isn't much on Tampa besides Longoria. There's also Loney, but he is a 1st baseman that hits for average and little power. We already have two of those so no on him.
There's no power hitter on that team either, Longoria leads them with 7.

The only hope to get another bat at the deadline is, as you mentioned tk, to hope some teams fall off and fall off hard.

If I were to bet, the team that you see right now is going to be what we see in August/September.

I agree. I wonder if they wouldn't look to grab a utility guy for a minor league arm or player to be named or cash or something. But I also wouldn't be surprised if we just ride this team wherever they take us.

what a great game that was today.

That is very probable. We did get Jamey Carrol and Emilio last year at the deadline IIRC.

Too bad we got rid of boni

I've been as critical of Aoki as anyone, but he isn't really a major issue right now. These are the type of issues "good" teams face. I personally want to see somebody lock down the 7th inning job. Crow, Herrera, whoever.

Wonder if Tejada's been staying in shape. His year suspension is up soon isn't it?

Aoki is a letdown and not nearly as solid as he has been with Milwaukee

He signed with the Marlins.

No doubt. But he's not AWFUL right now.

I wouldn'tbe ssurprised if we look for a little cheap bullpen help. With Coleman and Collins falling off, and Herrera and Crow a bit dicey, that could be what we target.

We can always use bullpen arms.

I've been pleasently surprised with Bueno thus far, but I'm not sure how he'd handle high pressure situations.

Thanks for the info. Is his suspension over?

I think it might be. It looks like he's played a few games for the Marlins AA team.

Herrera is at 2:5 ERA and Crow at 3. That is pretty solid for a 3 and 4 reliever. Bueno looks good to. Id like to see Chen be able to give something from the pen also.

Yeah, but I'd imagine even with Bueno they'd still look for a lefty if Collins continues to struggle. They'd leave Chen as the long reliever and find someone who can come into pressure situations.

I like the Carlos Quentin idea that was suggested earlier in the thread.

Finnegan will probably be up around late August.

I do to but hes a San Diego native with a no trade clause. I doubt he wants to go anywhere.

Thurman!

There's something weird going on with this team. I think I'll go ahead and start game threads at least until the Royals lose.

Still want to see what it would take to get Luis Valbuena. 2b/3b, killing it right now.

#winning!:thumb:

Excellent

Win or lose, I love the detail in the OP of your game threads. They are AWESOME! Keep going, please.

Danny Duffy is a guy you love to see do well. He seems like a genuine dude, and I thought it took a lot of class to praise Ventura after upstaging him in ST.

Now they're both killing it, and I could not be happier.

You've whooped our ass this series. Congrats.

My personal favorite guy, and I have said it for a long time.

Keep up the good work, alnorth. I'll 2nd that your threads are the best for Royals games with the updated info and all!

I'm eager and cautious about our series with Detroit.

Last year , it seemed like we had their number, and Cleveland was a thorn in our side.
I'd be happy with a split, ecstatic to take 3 out of 4, and off my rocker if they were to sweep a 4 game road series at "Day-twat".
Need to temper my expectations & enthusiasm!

Thanks. Can you post the updated division records now like you did a few days ago?


One cause for concern is our peripherals. Our expected production is actually better than our actual for both offense and pitching. I.e., today we won 6-3 but stranded 6 while they stranded 13. Long term that's a concern.

HR hitting asses? We don't need no stinkin HR hitting ass! :evil:

I can't help it, I'm super positive about this team right now.

We're above .500 and we have some real bright spots on this team. I'm stoked about seeing a rotation with Duffy and Ventura for years to come. Esky at short produces a web gem nightly. We have plenty of guys on this team who are performing well and even those that aren't (see Butler, Moose, Infante, Hosmer) seem to be trending up during this latest streak of ours.

We have a lot of these guys locked down for a decent time. I expect Butler to be gone next year, barring a new, cheaper contract. I also expect Aoki to be gone after this year. I think we are starting to see Shields come down from ace status a bit. He's still a workhorse, but I think he's no longer climbing the mountain, I think he's starting to come down from his peak.
Next year we can look forward to Dozier challenging for 3B in ST and Zimmer challenging for a rotation spot as well. I think if we actually make the playoffs this year, even if it's just the 2nd wildcard spot, you'll see Glass continue to put money into this team.

I could see us easily picking up a back-of-the-rotation guy in case Zimmer doesn't work out as well as a decent bat and a decent RF. This team, if ran correctly, could be fun to watch for the next few years.

ESPN MLB front page article:

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/po...n-weak-central