Kendrick would be a coup, but Rany makes a great case for swapping prospects with the Cards for Wong.

What do the Chiefs have to do with it?

I thought Kendrick was an outfielder for some reason. OK then!

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/blog/da...-wont-be-moved

Nothing really surprising here... but a CBS Sports article tonight saying the Royals are not going to sell, according to a "source." Won't move Santana or Hoch unless they get overwhelmed by an offer... and are looking for 2B/RF help. Ideally players who are under control next year too.

RF help. OK...

Who? Better be legit slug? Classic DM would be acquiring a ****ing scrub like Rios, while expending solid prospects to get him. Honestly, I'm not sure if I can handle that type of move. And I'm not saying that Lough is the long-term answer, either.

Well, what other RFers are available? Realistically.

I'm assuming Pence would be too much.

I don't know who else is out there.

Maybe no one. And that's OK. Stay with Lough for the time being.

Are the Royals in on Utley? And RF what about Tabata from PIT?

And focus on acquiring a 2B, yes?

3rd or 2nd baseman, yes.

Yes. Holes at 3B and 2B must be addressed. I'm not officially giving up on Mouse, but he's going to have to start playing bigger to get upgraded in animal.

Moose needs to be sent down, he sucks right now. He needs to know his job is not safe.

i thought I had read somewhere, maybe even here, that CU and the Phils were working on a long term extension.

I'm okay with addressing either one or two (both would be fantastic, but I'm afraid it will devour the farm system, or they'll be asking our best prospects) but I'm okay with addressing a 3rd baseman, ship Moose to Omaha/NW Arkansas, and give Tejada the job at 2nd base. Or addressing the 2nd baseman, move Getz to the bench, and have Tejada at 3rd. Tejada is still an improvement over Moose or Getz, one way or another, it's just somewhat criminal that he's not getting much PT that he should be getting, since he's been producing better than either of those two.

Ya I heard that just wasn't sure. Utley seems like a bad deal IMO because of a). his age b). injuries to go along with cost

I don't disagree with the logic here; Tejada is a more productive player. The problem is that I want any move in the next few days to benefit the club in the future, too, and the Royals are not giving up on Moose soon. That's why I'd prefer to get someone at 2B, and there are several possible targets.

In the interim, Tejada goes to third.

Acquring Kendrick may be easier than we're thinking, a few people on the Royals board suggested shipping Guthrie and Escobar straight up for Aybar and Kendrick.

Make it happen, DM!

Oh I agree. I just strongly believe that Moose really needs to go back to Omaha/Arkansas to rebuild his confidence and redo his plate approach/discipline, because his plate approach is just utter dog shit.

But looking up on the Baseball Reference, Moose is OPS'ing .621, and Getz is at .561....

Yet, on WAR, Getz is 0.2 and Moose is -0.3.

Pass. While Escobar offense is terrible, I would not want to give up his defense. He has saved our asses many times on SS. He just simply does not need to be batting 2nd under any circumstances, but unfortunately, that's the dumbassery of the manager, not the player.

Would rather just give up some prospects for Kendrick.

As long as it's not Zimmer, Ventura, Mondesi, and Duffy, I'm cool with it. There might be one or two more that the names are escaping me at the moment.

I was mostly being sarcastic with my post, I don't believe Guthrie has any substantial trade value at this point.

http://www.chiefsplanet.com/BB/showt...re#post9822521

So I got the 2-3 out of Detroit nailed. Royals did +1 better against Baltimore. And sweeping Chicago was icing on the cake. So they did 2 games better than what I was hoping for. And both Detroit and Baltimore are better than .500 team, fighting for playoff spots. That 3 out of 4 against Baltimore did us a big favor, looking towards the WC spot.

Plus don't we play Boston at the K in the first week of August?

I don't understand why 3B isn't being screamed for a replacement. No playoff caliber team has ever had someone like Moustakas on their everyday roster. Players that bad simply aren't on those teams.

Nice work Luke.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...pse45f6256.png

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...pse592abc7.png

(Clockwise from top left) Herrera, Collins, Crow?, Mendoza, ?, Coleman?, Hochevar.

The other one is Will Smith.

Most are open to a replacement, but it is less of an issue than 2B is. Moustakas at least has shown high-level talent in the past, and has been trending upward since June 1. the .741 OPS he has posted in July is not all-star caliber, but it is positive movement.

As for the statement about playoff-caliber teams...

Look at what Detroit is trotting out behind the plate (Alex Avila).

Look at what the Giants trotted out last... 3 members of its postseason lineup posted sub-.700 OPS for the Giants in the regular season. One of those was Hunter Pence.

The Tigers of 2012 had .700 OPS guys in RF and at DH (Delmon Young and Brennan Boeschs/Quentin Berry/Ryan Raburn/etc).

The Moustakas of June/July is not the star we hoped he would be, but he is
.265/.316/.381. Still not good, but less concerning than what they're getting out of 2B, at least to me.

Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa..........Whoa.

Angels asking price for Kendrick seems extremely high.

I've seen some Angels fans talking about a trade with KC and saying they'd want Ventura+Mondesi+Bonifacio.

Which is just a crazy amount of talent (two top 50, one top 100) to give up for a guy who is a nice player but not a star.

No thanks.

I think most everyone expected Moose to become a .275 hitter with power and play near gold glove caliber 3rd base. That was basically what was projected. No, his power numbers aren't there and he still strikes out too much but it's easy to forget that he's still really young. Those jokers that started the season as the hitting coaches really screwed all these guys up, they've all been much better since they left other than Escobar.

If Moose is hitting .265 I don't think we're having this conversation, yet that's what he's hitting over the last two months.

Moose's power outage has been depressing. 36 bombs his last minor league season at 21, now at age 24 he can't hit the ball out.

Does anyone know of any good royals podcasts? I mean, one's that aren't reeruned fans squealing in a high pitched voice.

The hard reality is, Moustakas is breathing down the neck of his 25th birthday and he may not he may not realize his full MLB potential until the '15 or '16 season. I just hope he's with the Royals at that time.

If the experiences of Davies, Hochevar, Getz, Gordon, Francouer, etc show anything, is that "yes. Yes he will."

If he doesn't start producing like his potential suggested he could next season, the only way he isn't in KC those years is if he is traded. Because he certainly won't be too expensive.

Moustakas is a big disappointment at this point. His D is better than I expected it to be, but I also expected him to hit for power that must be respected.

He's trending up, but it isn't a drastic or especially speedy trend. If he can get through August/September hitting .260 with 8-10 HR, I'll feel a lot better about starting Opening Day 2014 with him at 3B. This team can get along fine with Moustakas at 3B if he's a .260/20 HR hitter. He wouldn't be more than an average 3B at that point, but that would be a step up for him for most of this year.

The damage the dynamic duo of Jack Maloof and Andre David did to the major league club can't be overstated. I'm not normally a "blame the XXX coach" guy, but it's pretty clear those jackwagons did a LOT of harm to the younger guys.

You don't like his 4-57 or whatever he now is, with RISP?

I would trade Ventura for him, plus Kyle Smith or whatnot. But Zimmer and Mondesi are off the table for me.

Would we rather trade this type of package for Kendrick or for Wong?

Kendrick

I'd take either one.

Rany said it would likely take 1 really good prospect. Possibly Ventura, it just depends on if a team views him as a reliever or starter.

Tigers picked up a bullpen piece, Jose Veras from Houston. Traded away AAA prospect, Danry Vasquez and player to be named later.

A) A few people on a Royals board is not a realistic trade offer
B) That is a stupid trade anyway

I think he was joking.

Howie Kendrick for Danny Duffy, let's do it.

THAT WON'T GET IT DONE UR STUPID.

If we stand pat, I'm probably going to stomp around and hold my breath for a really long time.

We either need to get a bat (Kendrick plz), or sell high on Santana and Hoch. Since we aren't doing the latter, we need a bat to even have a prayer.

If the Angels want a AAA SP for Kendrick, I'd much rather do (from a Royals perspective) Yordano Ventura as the main piece. I'm with Rany on this one. Duffy is lefthanded and more seasoned, and probably ready to play a significant part next year.

Sure it would. Maybe Duffy and a lottery ticket, but I would rather give up Ventura.

If Detoilet loses Peralta and we gain Kendrick in the same week, I won't be able to post anymore as my keys will be stuck to the keyboard.

As long as they are confident Duffy isn't Affeldt 2.0, I agree.

Yeah man, I thought the all caps gave it away.

It seems that every time someone makes a somewhat reasonable trade suggestion, there's always someone who essentially says that.

May explain his lack of production this time.

:deevee:

My bad. I don't see that too much on this board so I didn't pick that up.

FU Buddy!! :D

I thnk there are fewer questions with Duffy than with Ventura.

Size is not an issue. He's also a LHP who sits at 94-05 and can pump 98-99 from the left side. Good changeup and solid/improving curve to pair with that makes him pretty valuable.

Ventura has absolutely electric stuff, but his stature is a concern, and he has had more control problems than Duffy. I love the guy, but if choosing between the two, I take Duffy.

He has come back from the injury and shows no concerns there. He also is on a different level as a prospect and in terms of potential than Affeldt, IMO.

Will Duffy be better than 17-22 and 4.77 ERA in five years of service? That was Affeldt's production for the Royals. Affeldt missed time due to injury as well.

Kendrick is a 4 WAR player at a premium position with a club-friendly contract signed for the next two years after this one. Let's be realistic abotu what it would take to get a player of that caliber.

If the Royals don't make some kind of a trade for a 2nd baseman, I think it's time to bring up Colon. He batted .311 in July. He's batting .334 with four homers over the last ten games. Colon is not on the 40 man Roster so a move would have to be made. The Royals have Giavotella, Getz, and Falu on their 40 man roster. If Giavotella is hurt and he goes on the disabled list, the move could be made to add Colon to the 40 man roster.

I think his floor is what we were seeing last year before he went down with the TJ, probably with a little bit better control (4.00 ERA, 1.30 WHIP, 1 K/IP seems like a decent target for his floor). I refuse to talk about W-L in any way other than to deride it, so I'll ignore that part of the equation.

I'm pretty confident Duffy will be better than Affeldt was.

Ceiling is still that of a No. 2 starter. His curve is inconsistent, but lefties who throw his type of heat and have a good changeup can get by with an inconsistent breaking pitch.

Tampa has two of them.

Not saying I disagree with you and I think a trade for Kendrick should happen if they ask for either one. If the Royals worry that either guy will turn out to be a reliever then they shouldn't be bothered trading them away.

You know what Kendrick brings, but you have no clue what the Duff-man, Zimmer or Ventura bring. To me Zimmer is the guy I'd never trade because he's in the rotation next year regardless. Duffy would be 2nd, and Ventura the most likely I'd trade. Probably a Ventura + Colon + Crow. Something like that could work for them.

Realistically?

One top 50-type prospect who is close to MLB-ready + some additional pieces.

I wouldn't balk at Ventura being the main piece... I would balk at another top 50 prospect (especially Mondesi) and another top 100 prospect being the other pieces that go that way. I can't say this enough re: Mondesi... what he is doing at his age is MORE impressive than what Jurickson Profar did. Look at their ages, their league affiliations, and what they did. Mondesi is putting up the same numbers Profar did at age 17... but he's doing it an entire level HIGHER than Profar was at age 17.

Ventura + Cuthbert + Kyle Smith seems about right. Orlando Calixte, Brett Eibner, Jason Adam, Christian Colon, Johnny Giavotella also could be mix/match pieces for that trade.

Gordon
Kendrick
Hosmer
Butler
Perez
Lough
Cain
Moustakas
Escobar

Not a murderers row, but a pretty good lineup. And gives them that additional RH bat they really need to balance things out.

I wouldn't shit myself if it was Duffy... just would prefer it wasn't, if it's between those two guys. My secondary pieces are probably lesser if it's Duffy, to be honest.

I don't think there's real concern Duffy will end up in the pen. He has pretty successfully returned from TJ.

Howie Kendrick would be tied for first place in HRs and second in OPS if he joined the Royals.

:doh!:

Marco Scutaro anyone?

The giants are shopping vets.

Agreed, he'd be our new 2 hitter. If I'm Anaheim I'm getting 1 can't miss (as best you can know) SP and at least 1 other pitcher pref one with MLB experience and controlled. So Ventura + Crow seems sensible.

Hadn't even thought about including Crow (or Collins) as part of that deal.

Hell, if it's Ventura+Crow+Brett Eibner/Christian Colon/someone similar, I do that tomorrow and don't look back.

Colon would be a nice added piece because he would be blocked with Kendrick in place thru 2015.

I'm trying to think of what they'd need. They're 11th in ERA, 13th in runs allowed. So obviously it's pitching. Their rotation and pen seen equally bad so I'd guess they'd need 1 from each area. At 48-55 they're done for this year in all likelihood so they'd at least take your calls on Kendrick.

If the Royals were in World Series mode, yes. But if they have to give up anything significant, I don't think it would be worth it since Scutaro is 37.

Angels just traded Scott Downs to the Braves for a younger reliever, Cory Rasmus, brother of Colby.

Bonifacio promoted to AA.

Duffy up, Davis to the pen.

Sounds good to me.

Glad to see people are back on the trade wagon.

Wild card standings as of today:

Tampa Bay: +4.5, in
Baltimore: -, in
Cleveland: -1
Texas: -1.5
NYY: -2.5
Kansas City: -5

Only four teams to jump over! I think our best bet is still the Central though. In the wildcard race, not only are you competing with those teams listed, you have to worry about the division leaders who may fall back into the wildcard race.

As long as you're off the Rios wagon. ****, man.

Our FO said they aren't selling, so we really don't have a choice.