The Rays turned down that deal, but yet Al Bundy falls hook line and sinker for a rumor they'd do it for Joey Votto. Who's:

1). Hitting .255 with 6 homers
2). On the disabled list
3). Owed a whopping $229 million over the next TEN years

As bad as Moose has been, he has a virtually identical OPS to Hosmer.

Hosmer: .648
Moose: .644

Going forward, I'm not sure that I have any more hope that Hosmer will develop into an average player than Moose. In fact, Moose plays a tougher position, and is better at it.

Forget about these guys being stars. I don't even think it's likely that they can be MLB-average at their positions.

MLB average for 1b around .850, around .800 for 3b.

Moustakas returned from the minors on June 1. Since that time, he is:

.250/.308/.469 (6 HR, 18 RBI). Paired with his defense, that's a very playable major league player, and an above-average guy overall. Dayton Moore said before the season his expectation for Moustakas was for him to hit between .250/.260 with good power and above-average defense. He's succeeding - so far - since his return at meeting those expectations. Project Moustakas out over 550 ABs, and you'd be pretty happy with the results you get - 34 HR and 100 RBI.

Of course, this is Moustakas, so we need to see that sample size grow before we can believe he can sustain it. But he has not been a problem since returning (in fact, he's actually been a plus and would be a very, very effective No. 6 or No. 7 hitter if he can sustain it).

Since June 1, Hosmer is .226/.278/.316. It's just awful, and there's not enough lipstick in Orange County to make it look any different. No power, no OBP. Nothing.

Pair that with Yost and Dayton Moore coddling him more than the worst over-protective mom AND insisting on batting him in the first 3 spots in the lineup, and you've got a production bomb.

I know that I'm hardly alone in thinking this, but I always appreciate your takes on the Royals and baseball in general. I think I've become a much more knowledgeable fan from reading your posts. :thumb:

Hosmer had a good series against the Twins. No power but he was getting on base.

And Hosmer cost us the game by swinging at the first pitch with the bases loaded one out located down and away and rolled it over to 2nd. He has no patience at all.

Amen, Duncan is the shit.................even if he is a mu fan:evil:

If Moose maintains his post-callup OPS for the remainder of the season, he's a nice player.

Agreed, I've stopped bashing him for the mean time. He's risen his average and he's still providing the very little power this team has. He's worth playing every day at this point.

If only he was better at starting game threads...

Its truly amazing how the Royals are even "in the hunt" with the type of seasons they have gotten from the 4 main guys who were supposed to carry this team.

Butler
Gordon
Hosmer
Moose


My prediction is for 84-86 wins. same as it ever was........

And that record will buy you a lot of free time in Oct.

I think the last AL WC playoff spot takes 88 wins

I think the AL Central Winner needs 91 wins.

Therefore, the Royals have to play .573 ball (9 games over .500) in the Second Half for a WC Spot, and have to play at a ridiculous .613 pace to take the Central. In short (with our weak-assed Offense), we have uphill battle to climb for a WC spot, but nothing crazy. Given what DET has been able to amass in the last 2 weeks, I think they are starting to show why they were the prohibitive favorite to win the ALC.

I'll get laid before the Royals earn a playoff berth.

will you post in the butt sex thread before you post in the royals playoff GDT?

They do have some things I quibble with, I pointed out they undervalue closers IMO (Greg Holland example). They postulate - correctly as I've come to believe - that your best pitchers are always in the rotation and hence should get a boost for it. But I don't think that holds for closers if I read them right because Holland was 48/51 (94.1%) last year in saves and the average has been 65% for years. I don't think you can put Crow in there and get 94% so shouldn't Holland have a boost for being the best reliever?


He's surely better than our 5 starter. And if he converts 65% that equtes to 33/51 saves or 15 more blown. If the Royals win 1/2 of those that's still a net shortfall of (-7) and his WAR was only 3.3 or something, which is understated.


That said I think they do a great job of ridding statistics of their inherent white noise and their articles are top notch.

My cornhole is exit only Chief.

Not unless you fix that self loathing. And I don't see that happening anytime soon.

Royals to playoffs two years before you get laid.

Gordon's game tonight made me think again that players need more rest to play well. I think we have overplayed Escobar this year and Cain as well. Perez needs more off days than we give him. Even Hosmer would do well to get a rest, since Moose might prove he's staying slmewhat rested with occasional days off via his platoon. 90+ heat is approaching.

Man, the Fatty and Hos were getting ripped on AM radio today. It was LOL to say the least.

I was listening to it. Boddicker was ripping Hosmer and Butler to no end. They deserved every bit of it.

Not to mention he was spot-on. Billy will be lucky to play anywhere in the league after this season, and will have to take a HUGE pay cut, and Hos has to just grow up...

I don't get the current Hos hate. His last week has been at least respectable. Should he be in the 2 spot? No, but that ain't changing

eh, its understandable. This team was supposed to make the playoffs. If we had a 5 game lead things would be different, but we're down, the reason is offense, and whoever in the lineup is struggling the most is going to get the hate.

Films released year of last Royals post season appearance:

Fletch
The Goonies
Back To The Future
Teen Wolf

Hosmer should get hate considering he doesn't listen to coaching or get dropped in the lineup

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Royals?src=hash">#Royals</a> announce that they&#39;ve signed LHP Joe Saunders to a minor league contract. He will be assigned to Triple-A Omaha.</p>&mdash; Kansas City Royals (@Royals) <a href="https://twitter.com/Royals/statuses/486581606560198656">July 8, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>The Royals see Saunders as a useful piece for rotation depth. He also could aid their bullpen down the stretch. Low-risk move. No-risk move.</p>&mdash; Andy McCullough (@McCulloughStar) <a href="https://twitter.com/McCulloughStar/statuses/486583503732350976">July 8, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

These would be awesome signing in 2007

Yes....

Let's continue to stock pile pitchers, and continue to ignore the offense.

Pure genius, Kansas City Royals.

:rolleyes:

LoCain is dominating.

Dude, but Raul?

You mean that guy almost old enough to be my dad? He was pretty good 5-10 years ago.

I guess i kinda see Butlers point.......But sorry, the Royals are choosing upside over peaked and over the hill.





The last thing this eight-years-in-the-Processing Royals season needs is drama, but here it is anyway. One of the team’s highest-paid and longest-tenured players feels singled out and is going passive-aggressive to make his point and subtly call out a teammate.

Ego and self-interest are on both sides of this, team and player each having legitimate beef. Billy Butler justifiably sees himself as the club’s most established hitter, and wonders why he’s been occasionally benched and now moved down in the lineup for the second time while Eric Hosmer appears to have birthrights to the top of the batting order every day.

The truth is that Hosmer’s spot in the lineup is being evaluated, but for now, the team sees Butler as an underperforming and now overpaid hitter on a roster in desperate need of consistent production, exposing an ego that’s always simmered just beneath the surface.


Ned Yost has final say on the lineup, which is put together with the input of the coaches and front office, including sabermetric specialists. None of them would say it publicly, but moving Butler down in the lineup while keeping Hosmer higher is as clear a sign as the team can give that — track record or not — they have more faith in Hosmer reaching his potential than in Butler regaining his past.

This is not what Butler or the Royals wanted to happen in what is effectively his contract year.

For Butler, he must know there is little chance the Royals will pick up a $12.5 million option for next season. He is a full-time designated hitter in a modern baseball world that no longer values full-time DHs, and is having his worst career year at the worst possible time.

For the Royals, they are let down by the hitter they’ve always viewed as their most reliable, an unforeseen problem in a season in which they can’t afford unforeseen problems. The club has always viewed its best future without Butler clogging the DH spot and is slowly taking steps to embrace that future sooner than later.

This is all a dramatic shift for a player and team that once seemed such a good match. Two years ago next week, fans here made a national spectacle of booing Robinson Cano for not picking Butler to the Home Run Derby. Several long and loud ovations for Butler during All-Star week left an impression, too.

“The way the people of Kansas City treated me on those nights made me want to run through a brick wall for this city,” he said last spring about the memory.

All other things equal, Butler is a great fit for Kansas City. He was the rare homegrown star from the sad pre-2006 era, so excited to be drafted in the first round that he signed below the going rate almost immediately. He married a nice girl he met during his first stop in the minor leagues, and she’s helped him become one of the city’s most charitable athletes, helping feed Kansas City’s hungry through the Bishop Sullivan Center.

Even before reaching the big leagues, Butler talked openly of how Kansas City was the type of place he would like to stay his entire career. He was among the first to sign a long-term extension with the Royals. Kauffman Stadium’s big gaps and long fences fit his line-drive tendencies, and Kansas City’s slower ways fit his Country Breakfast style.

But all things are not equal, of course, and no matter the other stuff, these things are always about production. Kansas City is no different than anywhere else in that way, a town that cheered Andre Rison and booed Mike Sweeney.

The rub of it is that the Royals need to keep Butler productive if not entirely happy, because the organization still considers him vital to whether the team can take advantage of its best chance at the playoffs in a generation. Perhaps even more than Hosmer.

During the 10-game win streak that changed the scope of the season, Butler hit .389 with five extra-base hits and 10 RBIs. In June, the Royals went 17-10 with Butler going for an .811 on-base-plus slugging percentage. Over the same stretch, Hosmer’s OPS was .532.

So by now, even with both sides understanding they are likely breaking up at the end of the year, both sides also understand their mutual dependence. The Royals need Butler hitting to win, and Butler needs opportunities in the lineup to hit. Neither team nor player expected to be in this situation, but as much as any sport baseball is about adjusting to surprises.

For now, the drama is not holding the team back but is a growing conversation point among rival evaluators.

Butler hasn’t always had a heads up when he was demoted or omitted from the lineup, a common courtesy for veteran players of a certain stature. Yost and the coaching staff failed him there, but Butler needs to be mature enough to handle it better.

Neither team nor player can fully succeed without the other, and in a season that each side has spent so much time working toward, ultimate success will depend heavily on recognizing that simple fact.

Butler and the Royals have been united for too long to let their last and most important season together be affected by any unnecessary drama.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt...#storylink=cpy

It was sarcasm. The team is better with Dyson starting.

Fun Stat of the Night:

Royals record in one run games this year . . . . 9-17. Worst mark in baseball.


Last year the Royals were 31-25 in one run games.

Bullpens and managers typically have the largest affect on one run games.

These single hitting slap hitters are killing me.

I'm sorry but you could have a team full of Ichiro's and it's highly unlikely that you are going to slap three singles in the 8 or 9th inning to score a run and win a ball game. This team loses because of hitting.

And yet we have the best 1-2 back of the bullpen and one of the best managers......oh wait, nevermind.

The largest role a manager plays in the AL is scapegoat. The problems people have with Yost are the same problems 13 of the other 14 fan bases have with their manager.

I Just saw last night's boxscore.

3 runs on thirteen hits. Because Royals.

Impressive.

"Butler hasn’t always had a heads up when he was demoted or omitted from the lineup, a common courtesy for veteran players of a certain stature. Yost and the coaching staff failed him there, but Butler needs to be mature enough to handle it better."

On this Yost failed. How hard is it to communicate with your players? If your Butler, and your only chance to contribute is your bat, and then you find yourself surprised by lineup demotions or omissions you are going to start pressing and lose focus. Watching Butler this year has been painful, but damn the guy deserves a veterans heads up. The Royals are a strangely ran organization from my perspective.

I don't really see any issue with Ned's management of the bullpen.

There's truth in this. Ned gets no passes for a few reasons:

1) He's not tactically consistent. He goes by his gut rather than having a pretty solid thought process and sticking with it. One time he'll drop the sac bunt in the key spot late in a close game. Another time he'll have his guy swing away. It's akin to being a blackjack player who constantly changes his mind about hitting on 16.

So because Yost flip-flops his decisions around based on his gut, there's no sense of reasoning, and his decisions become harder to defend when they go wrong.

2) Which leads to the biggest problem for Ned... he's an arrogant dick who treats people in the media like shit, and who condescends towards the fans really badly (not very Christian of him!). We've seen this with a lot of people, but his treatment of Andy McCullough really stands out.

As a friend of mine says: "You can be an asshole and be good at your job, and people you work with will tolerate you. You can be a nice guy and be bad at your job, and people you work with will still tolerate you. But if you're an asshole who's bad at your job? You're gone."

You may be right on the higher level, but I always got the vibe that Andy and Ned were just yanking each others' chains.

Here is a effin idea Butler, should worry more about hitting the ball and getting into shape then worrying about his feelings being hurt becuase he was moved down in the batting order. He doesn't deserve anything. He is a grown man who should know his place and when he is not hitting should expect to be moved down in the effing order just like any other player would expect that. Eff Butler and Yost, neither one are doing a very good job.

I think McCullough does a good job of making it come off that way... but if they truly were just yanking each other's chains, I don't think Andy ever remarks about any of that stuff publicly. (As someone who has been in the locker room/clubhouse during those interviews)

Ned's conduct towards McCullough (and many others, including Josh Vernier and Nate Bukaty) is incredibly unprofessional and petulant.

I always liked the playback of all of Ned's responses to Nate on the 810 morning show. Too bad be isn't on FSKC anymore to be there on a regular basis.

Nate: "Why did you bunt in the first inning with a man on second and nobody out?"

Ned: "Well, NATE, I was trying to score a run."

He will say "Nate" at least 4-5 times during the course of responding to a single question, any time he deals with Bukaty. His disdain is very awkward...

Maybe he repeatedly says his name because he's so used to saying the exact same name in the throws of passion during sex (?)

To be fair, Moose has been platooned with Valencia mainly since returning from Omaha. Hosmer doesn't get to platoon with anybody. Hosmer's numbers would be much much better if he was platooned. Bottom line, Moose still needs to improve to be an everyday player.

Valencia spent the first 3 weeks of that time sitting on the DL and only recently became an option again. He also has only started 6 games since returning. It's a platoon, mostly, but not a straight platoon.

Hosmer is actually only a .680 OPS guy against RHP (He is .616 against LHP). So playing in a straight platoon actually wouldn't help him that much.

I was just pointing out that for as much crap as Moustakas takes, he has been a beneficial player (still not a superstar like he was thought to possibly be coming out of MiLB, but a solid starter) for the team since his demotion and emergency promotion.

Perhaps the Royals should see if a similar wakeup call can jar Eric Hosmer out of his shit-tastic season. Because remaining calm and saying all is well sure as shit isn't working.

Glad Ibumanez is starting again.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Aj pierzynski will be DFA'ed. Christian vazquez getting call. Will catch de la rosa tonite. <a href="https://twitter.com/Ken_Rosenthal">@Ken_Rosenthal</a> 1st on aj news</p>&mdash; Jon Heyman (@JonHeymanCBS) <a href="https://twitter.com/JonHeymanCBS/statuses/486944442004172800">July 9, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Salvy Backup? Although he has a rep of being a shithead.

http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/...qamgnpoaby.gif

Kevin Kiermaier Hit A Liner Straight Through Eric Hosmer's Glove

If he'd be willing to be a backup, it's a good move. He'd also call out the young shitheads on being young shitheads.

God, I hate that asshole Pierzynski. But I agree, he'd be better than Hayes, and I'm all about winning NOW.

we need an asshole in the clubhouse. someone with some REAL attitude. not the douche attitude they have now

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Masahiro Tanaka flying back to NY for an MRI on his right arm, The Post has learned <a href="http://t.co/bKbWhn37nO">http://t.co/bKbWhn37nO</a></p>&mdash; George A. King III (@GeorgeAKingIII) <a href="https://twitter.com/GeorgeAKingIII/statuses/486954669584175104">July 9, 2014</a></blockquote>
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Why was this put in the Royals thread?

Baseball.

Tigers win again btw.

Get it done Dayton.

I doubt DM signs a guy like AJ. Just doesn't seem to fit him.

How many times have we heard "being a good clubhouse presence" being involved in DM's evaluation of a player?

Gordon apparently sprained his wrist in Cleveland, will undergo MRI.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>New lineup due to Alex Gordon having to sit with right wrist sprain. <a href="http://t.co/cYjGCeJvIF">pic.twitter.com/cYjGCeJvIF</a></p>&mdash; Mike Swanson (@Swanee54) <a href="https://twitter.com/Swanee54/statuses/486972673537236992">July 9, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

ouch.

I like this lineup a lot but I would put healthy Gordon at 3, Hosmer at 7 and Ibanez on the bench.

Gordon with a wrist, Vargas with an appendectomy and Moose with the flu.

Jesus, what the hell is going on?

Extended vactation

Vargas is having an appendectomy? How long will he be out? How did I not hear this?

Should only miss a start or two

Thanks. I didn't mean for my post to sound as dramatic as it did.

Good deal with All-Star break coming up, Varg has time to rest.

You're correct.

Dayton wants nice-guy, aw shucks, Christian country boys like Jeff Francoeur and ol' Nedley and Jon Brox.

Probably a big reason why the Royals are so Charmin soft mentally. They've got a bunch of pussies running around the clubhouse.

Gordon getting an MRI

Oh I definitely agree, but leadership 101 begins and ends with communication. I believe the lack of communication to one of your prior key players is a microcosm of the real problem with our beloved Royals, terrible leadership. Is it Glass, GMDM, Yost, the veterans, who ****ing knows, bit it's time someone steps up and gets this organization righted.