2012 Kansas City Royals Repository Thread

[alnorth]

2012 Slogan: Our Time

A better, more accurate 2012 Slogan: It is Finally Next Year
(from Great Expectations)

An alternative slogan if you don't like that one: Someone has to win this crappy division
(from alnorth)

With the beginning of a new year, it is time for the 2012 version of the Royals Repository Thread. We've got Hosmer, we've got a 2011-dominating Gordon, we've got Moose, we've got hopefully a killer bullpen, we've got a stereotypical slow slugging DH, we've got easily one of the best defensive shortstops in the AL, we've got a promising catcher in Salvador Perez. Hell, we've got offense and promising prospects galore.

We do not have starting pitching.

Oh yeah, we've also got this:



Get ready for, (as of January 2012 anyway), one of the most confusing puzzles of a baseball season in recent Royals history. Will they suck? Maybe, I don't know. Will we be given a year of 0.500 baseball? Possibly, I don't know. Will they win the division and go to the playoffs for the first time in 27 years? For the first time in a long time, it could happen, I don't know. 92 losses, 92 wins, or anything in between would not surprise a lot of us.

Everything goes here except Gameday threads and really big news. If a giant story breaks, the Royals achieve some awesome milestone, or we sign/lose a highly significant player/coach/mascot/whatever, then it might also deserve its own thread. This being Chiefs Planet, please do not clutter the board with new threads about trivial Royals news or you will only annoy those who come here for just Chiefs football. If you aren't sure and its not a Gameday thread, it goes here.

What sort of stuff often goes here? SPchief explained it well, so I'll just copy that:

If you locate something of interest.. ANYTHING.. deals on apparel, best ways in/out of the stadium, giveaways, great stories from this season or from seasons gone by, rumors, trades, anything.... feel free to post it here.

[mr. tegu]

Originally Posted by duncan_idaho

I was making tea for my wife, who is sick and had just run a bath. Got a text from a buddy about this (who is Jeff Passan's neighbor, and Passan apparently thinks this is a great deal).

15 minutes later, my very cranky, sick wife wanted to know where the hell her tea was.

I hope you responded by telling her that you are far more sick after tonight's events and that she better make you something to feel better.

[KevB]

Originally Posted by duncan_idaho

I was making tea for my wife, who is sick and had just run a bath. Got a text from a buddy about this (who is Jeff Passan's neighbor, and Passan apparently thinks this is a great deal).

15 minutes later, my very cranky, sick wife wanted to know where the hell her tea was.

When I first read about the trade on Twitter:

[KevB]

Originally Posted by mr. tegu

I hope you responded by telling her that you are far more sick after tonight's events and that she better make you something to feel better.

Don't think there's medication that exists to make him feel better about this one

[bobinkc]

Originally Posted by DeezNutz

Wife walks downstairs. Sees my listless look on the couch:

"What's wrong?"
"Royals made a trade."
"Was it bad?"
"I feel like I've been raped."
"You haven't been raped; that's a terrible analogy."
"I've been emotionally raped at the very least."

Walks back upstairs annoyed.

Had a quick discussion with my wife. She loves the deal. Good enough for me.

[KevB]

Then I jumped on Chiefs Planet to discuss, knowing the reaction would be:

[alnorth]

[Ceej]

So a legitimate question. What does this do to the rotation?

in no particular order:

Shields, Chen, Hochevar, Davis, Guthrie, Santana and maybe Mendoza?

Then Paulino and Duffy may return.

Maybe those two will replace Luke and Bruce (which should have already been done).

[alnorth]

Originally Posted by CJizzles

So a legitimate question. What does this do to the rotation?

in no particular order:

Shields, Chen, Hochevar, Davis, Guthrie, Santana and maybe Mendoza?

Then Paulino and Duffy may return.

Maybe those two will replace Luke and Bruce (which should have already been done).

Shields, Guthrie, Santana, Davis, who knows

[clyde05]

I would go Shields, Santana, Davis,Guthrie and Chen

[BWillie]

Originally Posted by DeezNutz

IT DOES NOT MAKE THE ROYALS BETTER NEXT YEAR.

Mother****. Do I have to post like Deb caps to convey an opinion so grounded in evidence that it's damn near ****ing fact?

THE ROYALS ARE NOT BETTER IN '13 BY SUBTRACTING MYERS AND ADDING SHIELDS AND ****ING WADE.

Oh come on now, that is not true and you know it. Shields will make this team immensely better on day one, the only problem is we only have him 2 years and he's not younger.

[bobinkc]

Originally Posted by BWillie

Oh come on now, that is not true and you know it. Shields will make this team immensely better on day one, the only problem is we only have him 2 years and he's not younger.

He's only 30!

[alnorth]

Originally Posted by BWillie

Oh come on now, that is not true and you know it. Shields will make this team immensely better on day one, the only problem is we only have him 2 years and he's not younger.

What he's talking about is the enormous WAR swing when you replace Frenchy with Myers. Even if Shields is worth 3 WAR, he's not going to counter going from almost -2 to almost +2 or higher.

If I were assigned the task of arguing the other side, I might point out that Frenchy was very unlucky in 2012 (and very lucky in 2011), so his true value might be slightly above replacement. So, maybe the Royals do net out 1 win overall in 2013.

The counter to that, is we might not be 1 or 2 wins away. We had a lot of ground to make up on the Tigers when the winter started.

[Cephalic Trauma]

Originally Posted by BWillie

Oh come on now, that is not true and you know it. Shields will make this team immensely better on day one, the only problem is we only have him 2 years and he's not younger.

Better on day 1, but worse on 2, 3, 4, and 5. Rinse and repeat.

[Chiefspants]

Calming down.. Stole this from a Royals board.

Just some food for thought....

Shields is 22 months older than Greinke.

Career IP

Greinke = 1492
Shields = 1454

Career ERA

Greinke = 3.77
Shields = 3.89

Career WHIP

Greinke = 1.247
Shields = 1.223

Career SO

Greinke = 1332
Shields = 1250

Career BB

Greinke = 379
Shields = 340

Career SO/9

Greinke = 8.0
Shields = 7.7

Career BB/9

Greinke = 2.3
Shields = 2.1

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by BWillie

Oh come on now, that is not true and you know it. Shields will make this team immensely better on day one, the only problem is we only have him 2 years and he's not younger.

It will make the Royals better 1 day out of every 5 and significantly worse on the other 4 days.

That's why I often think people overvalue SP in trade discussions unless you're a legitimate post-season contender.

Starting pitching is the key in October, but it takes 162 games to get there. The Royals have just made themselves a better post-season team (potentially), but have made it much much harder for them to get there at all. A team that makes this trade needs to be a team that already had the regular season roster to make the playoffs without the move. The Royals aren't that team.

It wasn't necessarily an awful trade in a vacuum (though it wasn't a good one), but it was an awful trade for the Royals.