2013 Kansas City Royals Repository Thread

[duncan_idaho]

Proposed 2013 Slogan: Tigers: They're what's for dinner
Actual 2013 Slogan: Come to Play
A better, more accurate, or alternative slogan: All in, no panic, we promise.

Dayton Moore has pushed all his chips in and is riding on King/Jack suited, hoping it comes together, he gets some good luck, and he hits the nuts by the river card. There's potential, oh yes, there's potential. There's also risk.

At the midway point, Dayton is left counting on the river card. The flop and turn didn't help him, and he's looking at the Tigers holding a pair of Queens and the Indians holding a pair of 9s. His 2013 plan hasn't failed - yet - but the odds are not in his favor.

Burning questions updates below.

Burning Questions for 2013:

1) Will the improve rotation be improved enough? Does James Shields pitch like a fringe No. 1 away from Tampa Bay? Does Ervin Santana pitch to his highest upside in his walk year? Can Jeremy Guthrie build on his strong performance as a Royal in 2012? Can Wade Davis bring his new mentality- and velocity - back to the rotation?

Midseason check-in: Yes, the rotation is certainly improved enough. Shields has pitched like a fringe No. 1 and Santana is having his best season. Guthrie has horrible peripherals but has continued to perform well at his home park and eat innings on the road. Davis brought neither his kick-ass mentality or improved velocity back to the rotation and is in Luke Hochevar/Hiram Davies territory.

2) When will Luke Hochevar be shown the door?
Midseason check-in: It appears, never, at this point. Hochevar has been solid in non-leverage situations, though pretty much every time he has been used with men on base in an inning, it has been a disaster.

3) Does Hosmer bounce back?
Midseason check-in: It took some time, but Hosmer's performance from June 1 on is probably the most encouraging thing about the 2013 season so far.
4) Can Moustakas hit for a whole season like he did in the first half of 2012?
Midseason check-in: Nope. Moustakas was god-awful, then great for about 3 weeks, then god-awful again. He has been better since he started working with Brett and Grafol but still has a long way to go.
5) Who regresses?
Midseason check-in: Welp, Alicides Escobar is not a surprising name here (though Yost's stubborn insistence on hitting him second is ridiculous). Billy Butler is a surprise. He isn't having a terrible year - still contributing a lot to the offense - but he's not hitting for the average or power he has displayed over the past several years.
6) Who plays 2B?
Midseason check-in: A whole bunch of people, and not that great. Gio is at least getting a shot, though he once again is not doing much with it.
7) Can Jeff Francoeur be at least replacement level, rather than epic horrible level?
Midseason check-in: Hahahahahahahahahahaha
8) Will Dayton Moore survive to see 2014?
Midseason check-in: Outlook uncertain. Probably still around, unless the team completely tanks in the second half and he does something foolish. My guess - he sacrifices Ned Yost this offseason and gets one more shot with a new manager in 2014.
9) Will Danny Duffy come back healthy? And if he does, is he the same, better or worse?
Midseason check-in: Yes. Velocity looks the same, and it looks likely he is the same guy as before.
10) And the big one: Has KC added enough to run down the big-money Detroit Tigers?
Midseason check-in: Doesn't look like it, does it?

[Hootie]

Originally Posted by The God Hypothesis

Francour, Hochever, Chen = 15 Million in salary for a team spending $80. Smdh GMDM.

Meh. That's pretty much how things work. You lowball the young talent because you get them for 6 years...and then you have to overpay the vets when they start getting to their 2nd and 3rd contracts.

Smart organizations, and we do this, just extend the youngsters right away and buy their first two or three years of free agency for a huge discount.

If you're 1 year of service in and know you won't get paid diddly for 2-5 years...you might as well take $6M per year up front in case you start to suck or you get drilled in the face by an Arodlis Champman fastball.

[gblowfish]

Maybe we can trade Frenchy, Hoch and Chen for 1/2 of the Pittsburgh Pirates?
Seems like a fair deal.

[alnorth]

Originally Posted by Peyton's Princess

If you're 1 year of service in and know you won't get paid diddly for 2-5 years...you might as well take $6M per year up front in case you start to suck or you get drilled in the face by an Arodlis Champman fastball.

yeah, and aside from the injury or failure risk, some kids who make it want the nice house and fancy cars right away. Boras might preach to his clients to be patient, but sometimes they don't want to wait and they'll give something up later to get paid more now.

[Hootie]

at least those contracts are one way for the "little guy" to compete.

[WhawhaWhat]

From Bob Dutton today:

#Royals list Johnny Giavotella as 2B at Class AAA Omaha but classify Christian Colon and Irving Falu as 2B/SS...

RHPs Yordano Ventura and Jason Adam will open at AA Northwest Arkansas along with SS Orlando Calixte and CF Brett Eibner...

John Lamb will begin first full season back from TJ surgery at Hi-A Wilmington.

Joins Kyle Zimmer, Sam Selman and Kyle Smith in rotation. Wilmington roster also includes 3B Cheslor Cuthbert and RF Jorge Bonifacio...

Lo-A Lexington gets three of #Royals' top young prospects: CF Bubba Starling, SS Adalberto Mondesi and RHP Miguel Almonte.

[Paniero]

Spring training is over. Time to get excited.

[alnorth]

Originally Posted by Peyton's Princess

at least those contracts are one way for the "little guy" to compete.

The best way is to not horribly miss on our draft picks for over a decade.

Baseball's economics are unfair, but its not quite as catastrophic as some Royals fans believe. What we went though in the 90's and 2000's is not normal. We are given the right to have every player we ever draft through his likely peak year. Any free agent that the large markets gobble up are on the decline. The large markets can still win because even though they are buying declining players, if they are all declining superstars, you'll still win plenty of games before they get too old.

If we keep drafting well and early-extend any good player we can who wants to be paid sooner, we should be able to at least generally be mediocre most years with some periods of crap and some periods of glory. Two decades of crap takes some supremely un-talented GM's.

[alnorth]

Mendoza will be made available on Monday as a long reliever. If we don't use him, he'll pitch on Saturday.

Not sure what we do on April 6th if for some bizarre reason we use Mendoza on opening day, hopefully we'd just skip #5 and let Shields pitch since there's a day off mixed in there.

[cabletech94]

Originally Posted by alnorth

Mendoza will be made available on Monday as a long reliever. If we don't use him, he'll pitch on Saturday.

Not sure what we do on April 6th if for some bizarre reason we use Mendoza on opening day, hopefully we'd just skip #5 and let Shields pitch since there's a day off mixed in there.

that'd sure be nice for those of us coming from out of town, and tired of the hoch treatment!!!

goooooooooooo royals!!!!!

[alnorth]

Originally Posted by cabletech94

[/B]


that'd sure be nice for those of us coming from out of town, and tired of the hoch treatment!!!

goooooooooooo royals!!!!!

Well, Shields wont pitch the home opener. That'll be either Santana or Guthrie, depending on whether we skip the #5 start.

[Great Expectations]

Originally Posted by alnorth

yeah, and aside from the injury or failure risk, some kids who make it want the nice house and fancy cars right away. Boras might preach to his clients to be patient, but sometimes they don't want to wait and they'll give something up later to get paid more now.

There is also the time value of money to consider.

[gblowfish]

Originally Posted by Paniero

Spring training is over. Time to get excited.

Yeah baby!

[gblowfish]

Hey, I've got a new drinking game. Every time James Shields gets inverviewed, you have to slam your beer every time he says "I tell you what...."

[alnorth]

welp, that sucked. (KU's loss to Michigan)

Oh, well. 2013 was always going to be the year of the Royals, it is destiny. If you are a casual, kinda sorta Royals fan, you should get on the bandwagon now because for the first time in over 20 fricken' years, this baseball team looks really, really good.

The lineup is powerful, the rotation is.... well, its not going to be the best but its the best we've had in a long time, and our bullpen this year is going to be absolutely rock-solid. I honestly don't think any team in the entire AL has a better bullpen than the Royals. Hopefully they can actually give them leads to hold.

[Shogun]

Royals season!