Might be, if Shields can get back to being Shields of April and May.

We're not a play off team if we don't add some power to this team.

That lineup today was an abortion. No excuse to sit arguably your best player - when you had a freaking day off on Thursday.

This. 4 mother ****ing hits. Bullshit

Welp, we are still 3 or 4 wins ahead of last years win pace at this time.

86 wins is like winning the World Series!

Gordon is batting 263. Hardly the team's best player right now.

You're right. Moose made some solid plays today.

Salvy is the best player so far

Yep, and Cain.

It's a miracle if we can put up 4 runs in a game.

Im ok, with most of the Royals hitters right now. If we could just find or acquire one "A" superstar batter i think it would make a world of difference. Im talking a 30+ HR and 120+ RBI guy. I could tolerate the rest of the "B" hitter lineup.


I was led to believe Hosmer was going to be that guy, but unfortunately it doesnt look that way.

I'd trade the Royals farm system for Giancarlo Stanton.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Might be good day off for Gordon, .105 road trip and .182 vs Kluber and Butler, .130 trip and .190 vs Kluber.</p>&mdash; Joel Goldberg (@goldbergkc) <a href="https://twitter.com/goldbergkc/statuses/485784170396807168">July 6, 2014</a></blockquote>
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So Moose actually on pace for decent power numbers.

If only he could hit some singles.

I think the Royals will only get two guys: Perez and Holland. Wade Davis deserves it, but I think he'll get shut out. Escobar won't make it because Jeter's gonna get that spot, although he doesn't deserve it. Damn Yankee assholes.

Or have some bat control. Hes got better lately at it tho. usually the entire left side of the in field is wide open for a slap hit. If he had the bat control of Escobar he would bat .350 with all those shifts on him.

There hasnt been a year since 2010 where Alex Gordon was not thia teams best player.

Alfonso Soriano anyone??


http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/eye-on-...for-assignment

Only if we trade Butler. (READ-not happening)

God no. Id rather have Butler. Soriano.has SIX walks all year, which by the way is the same amt of HRs he has as well. I get we are reaching for more Homers, but he has been atrocious...and hes 38

Gordon is the teams best player right now. I would put Salvy right behind him for now.

Gordon's only problem is that his bat is streaky as hell.

Salvador Perez will start the All Star Game, replacing Matt Wieters who won the vote but it injured.

Only 1 washed up 76 yr old outfielder signed per season please

Awesome awesome awesome. He is 100% deserving of it.

Right now.
Posted via Mobile Device

Holland in the AS game

Davis gets screwed out of a spot

At least Holland got in. I figured Davis might lose out to Betances. They're both pitching out of their mind this season. Betances is on pace to strike out almost 150 guys out of the bullpen.

Gordon gets in too. That's three.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Moose bangs his 10th HR of season.
That&#39;s 5 times as many as Billy Butler has.
Butler, 3-26 and Gordon 3-40 both ride the pine in 4-1 loss.</p>&mdash; JACK HARRY (@JACKHARRYKSHB) <a href="https://twitter.com/JACKHARRYKSHB/statuses/485888234635796480">July 6, 2014</a></blockquote>
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Gordo, Holland, and Perez are your All Stars

Karl Ravich is such a douche.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>(Cont.) It’s the 1st time since 1987-88 that KC has had 3 players selected to the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ASG?src=hash">#ASG</a> in consecutive years. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Royals?src=hash">#Royals</a></p>&mdash; Kansas City Royals (@Royals) <a href="https://twitter.com/Royals/statuses/485932269010313216">July 6, 2014</a></blockquote>
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Why?

Alexei Ramirez over Alcides Escobar is the only AL selection that really jumps out to me.

Escobar has been better in every single phase of the game (though their offensive numbers are nearly identical).

Nice to see Gordon made it in too.

He seems really fake to me. I don't buy his act.

Well, the Rays could sweep Detroit.

However, we play TB, who has been hot next.

Awesome.

We're playing a hot team? Chalk us in for a sweep of the Rays.

Depends. Will be Shields be pitching? :D

This is what I was about to add on.
We have major pitching advantages in 2 of the 3 games. The least advantageous game to us is tomorrow's game. Shields (3.93 ERA) vs Odorizzi (4.18 ERA)

There is no excuse to not get 2 of 3 from the Rays. No excuse. It would be nice to make up any ground we can on Detroit before we play them during the last series before the break.

Agreed.

Let's pray our boys forget about this last series.

These next two series, going into ASG are HUGE.

Very fair. Gordon and Salvy are y the best or nearly best at their spots. Holland, Cain, esky are in the next tier of "if someone gets hurt they can go". Happy that Holland did get the call. Now we just need our segment of weirdo fans who want him traded to pipe down.

Why? He didn't deserve it.

We did get swept by the Stros.

So... :shrug:

Gordon? He's hitting 263.

Everyone seems so busy crying about Hosmer and Butler to notice Alex is sucking shit.

The only OF in baseball with a higher WAR than Alex Gordon is Mike Trout. Every team in the AL knows what Alex does on defense even if his offense isn't there all the time.

Who would you have given the invite to instead of Gordon?

Gordon has had a bad couple of weeks. Hosmer and Butler have been bad all season.

Couple of weeks?

He hit 265 last season.

Defensively, sure.

And yet, posted a 4 WAR.

Just like the Astros, we're going to catch the Rays when they're on fire. They are pounding Porcello tonight.

Hosmer hit 302 last season. Yet, people shit on him and make excuses for Alex.

Would you rather have him hack at every ball so he can hit .280 instead? He's one of the very few Royals that has at least some plate discipline, which leads to some power. Thank god for it

LMAO Uh, yeah. 280 is higher than 263.

BigBattingAverageDave

HipsterReaper

Im not sure youre getting it.

Gordon has ****ing 9 HRs. That's not 'some' power.

Time for a reassurance post:

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Totally off-topic, but didn't the Giants go to the superbowl that year only to get slaughtered by the Ravens?

I am raising the ante. Anyone that wants out, can get out. This team is going to the playoffs, okay? The Royals are going to the playoffs.

On Tuesday, the Royals face Bedard. He's a LHP. When the Royals face a LHP, I never assume they are going to win.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Mike Moustakas is hitting .250/.308/.469 since coming back from Omaha. That&#39;s a .776 OPS, and that will certainly play.</p>&mdash; Andy McCullough (@McCulloughStar) <a href="https://twitter.com/McCulloughStar/statuses/486140847302672384">July 7, 2014</a></blockquote>
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Sounds like Hosmer needs to go to Omaha for a few days too.

Butler can join him.

Moose's numbers are going up because the Royals only let him play against RHP now. Hosmer's numbers would be better if you only counted his bats against RHP. Several of the starters on the team have substantially lower batting averages against LHP versus RHP.

I love when Moose gets a hold on a ball. Every homer he hits is a no doubter.

I'm going to assume no one knows because I've yet to see it posted.

Gordon, Perez, and Holland are back to the all-star game. Escobar and Wade Davis were left out.

Perez is actually going to start because of the injury to Wieters. (how the hell did he get voted in? Are MLB fans reeruned? Seriously, he hardly even played.)

Since June 1:

Hosmer - .226/.278/.316
Butler - .289/.344/.395
Gordon - .229/.331/.440

Bout time Perez gets some love.

Last page, but it's worth mentioning again for sure. Congrats to the 3 of them. Escobar and Wade were both deserving and its a shame that at least one of them didn't go. Right now, Esky is far, far better than Jeter.

Cespedes was the third OF instead of Adam Jones until somehow the Orioles fans stuff the ballots over the last 48 hours of voting.

The entire fan voting thing is just dumb. How did Perez and Gordon even get in anyway with the voting system? Wasn't Gordon not even in the top 15 in votes for AL outfielders?

Player's picks, I believe.

Sam Mellinger ‏@mellinger 1m
Yadi Molina, age 24: .275/.340/.368, 85 OPS+, 2 yrs from 1st All-Star game. Sal Perez, age 24: .285/.332/.443, 112 OPS+, 2nd All-Star game.

<3 Salvy. I think I need to buy his jersey.

Didn't get a chance to respond to this before I left for the weekend at the lake but wanted to finish the discussion since good points were being made.

It's not about Jeremy Guthrie (though I do have issues with the way they figure their WAR for pitchers, which is incredibly dependent on FIP and strikeouts... Wade Davis was nearly 2 WAR starting pitcher according to Fangraphs, and his WAR stayed flat even after being moved to the bullpen last year). It's about their formula in general. I just tend to find Baseball Reference to be a little more reliable and less likely to make me go "Wait, that makes no sense."

Fangraphs only has Marlon Byrd - who has the 10th-most HR in MLB and is 26th in MLB in slugging - as being 7 runs above average offensively on the season. That's incredibly low for a player with those profiles. His baserunning is not THAT bad.


There's a difference between a proven everyday day hitter going through a long slump and a part-time guy like Dyson. Dyson has never proven he can hold up a high level of production when given more PT (in fact, he has shown that more PT=lower offensive numbers).

If Dyson could play everyday, with a day off against lefties, and put up .300/.350/.350, I'd take that all day long. That's basically what I was hoping for from Nori Aoki. Just haven't seen him prove he can be that type of guy yet. With a guy that would likely rip off 50 bags in that situation, I can live with a .350 SLG. Because I look at SB as a way to adjust SLG - basically, I add those stolen bases - and subtract caught stealings- to the total bases used to derive the slugging percentage... Don't know if anyone else uses that statistical measure, but I think of it as Total Base Percentage, and I think it's a way to compare the extra offensive value a speed guy offers with his ability to swipe bags. .300 BA with a .350 SLG would normally be looked at as an empty .300, but if you have the speed to turn 30 of the singles you're using to get to that average in 2Bs (or 2Bs into 3Bs, etc), that's just as good for run creation as hitting a 2B in the first place.

There's really no argument in support of Butler at this time. His juice is gone, his ability to get on base is gone, and he's hurting the team. He's been better offensively than Hosmer, but that's not saying much (and Hosmer at least is a run-preventer at 1B.

Side note (file this for the "you can't judge a High A prospect just by his stats" case):

Baseball Prospectus released its midseason Top 50 today. I disagree with some of the rankings (for instance, leaving Byron Buxton atop the list despite his lack of PT this year, and despite Kris Bryan'ts unbelievable offensive display at AA and AAA - he's slugging nearly .800 at AAA), but they have both Mondesi and Almonte in their top 30.

Reports on Almonte's progress with his breaking pitch are particularly pleasing. It seems he's progressing towards a plus breaking ball to pair with a plus fastball and plus-plus changeup.

So it's good for prospect hounds like me. It's also good for the Royals trade prospects. If those guys are showing out that well in live looks, their trade value is just as high as it was entering the season.

The Royals have trade chips, should they choose to use them. Not David Price level trade chips (If the Rays won't move him for a package built around Addison Russell, I don't know what they'll move him for... Addison Russell, Jarrod Parker and Dan Straily would have seemed to be pretty good value for him). But more than enough to go get a player that can help them offensively.