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?

[Chiefspants]

Originally Posted by Prison Bitch

Cleveland sends down 3B Lonnie Chisenhall. He was hitting .213 with 3HR. Chisenhall, 24, was ranked in Baseball America's top-25 overall prospect list and topped the Indians chart in 2011:
http://www.baseballamerica.com/today...1/2610943.html




(I take it you are all smart enough to know where I'm going with this one)

We should send Billy to Arkansas.

[alnorth]

Here's a fun game, try to guess which one of these players is Lonnie Chisenhall.

Hitting in May

Mystery Player 1: .211/.279/.447
Mystery Player 2: .205/.239/.295
Mystery Player 3: .295/.340/.409

edit: Frenchy in May: .133/.188/.167

[duncan_idaho]

Jarrod Dyson's slugging percentage is 168 percent of what Jeff Francoeur's is.

So not only is Dyson a far superior defender and baserunner, who hits for a higher average and is better at getting on base, but he has more pop than Francoeur, too.

Francoeur has 8 XBH in 117 ABs. Dyson has 7 in 37. That's less than 1/3 the at bats.

Adios, Frenchman. Adios.

[Chiefspants]

Originally Posted by duncan_idaho

Jarrod Dyson's slugging percentage is 168 percent of what Jeff Francoeur's is.

So not only is Dyson a far superior defender and baserunner, who hits for a higher average and is better at getting on base, but he has more pop than Francoeur, too.

Francoeur has 8 XBH in 117 ABs. Dyson has 7 in 37. That's less than 1/3 the at bats.

Adios, Frenchman. Adios.

How does dyson stack up on the grit metric?

[duncan_idaho]

Originally Posted by Chiefspants

How does dyson stack up on the grit metric?

He doesn't grimace-smile enough, so it's low.

[Chiefspants]

Originally Posted by duncan_idaho

He doesn't grimace-smile enough, so it's low.

Now I don't even want to ask about where Dyson lands on the "clubhouse leader" statistic.

[Prison Bitch]

Originally Posted by alnorth

Here's a fun game, try to guess which one of these players is Lonnie Chisenhall.

Hitting in May

Mystery Player 1: .211/.279/.447
Mystery Player 2: .205/.239/.295
Mystery Player 3: .295/.340/.409

edit: Frenchy in May: .133/.188/.167

Chisenhall being demoted kinda sorta destroys the laughably bad argument, "Moose needs to learn at this level!" Looks like other management doesn't agree whatsoever - that MLB is you know, about winning ballgames and not development.

[Chiefspants]

Originally Posted by Prison Bitch

Chisenhall being demoted kinda sorta destroys the laughably bad argument, "Moose needs to learn at this level!" Looks like other management doesn't agree whatsoever - that MLB is you know, about winning ballgames and not development.

One team's decision does not set a precedent for the rest of the league, especially when Moose has been performing significantly better over the month of May.

[Prison Bitch]

Originally Posted by Chiefspants

One team's decision does not set a precedent for the rest of the league, especially when Moose has been performing significantly better over the month of May.

But when it's the IDENTICAL situation, it kinda sorta does. Especially when it's an organization who has had a ton of success developing bats is the one doing it, while we pull our puds and watch our guy flop around like a fish washed up on the shore.

[alnorth]

Originally Posted by Prison Bitch

Chisenhall being demoted kinda sorta destroys the laughably bad argument, "Moose needs to learn at this level!" Looks like other management doesn't agree whatsoever - that MLB is you know, about winning ballgames and not development.

You are being really damned dumb about this.

No one gets demoted in April. After April, no one, barring some hot blocked prospect, is going to get demoted when they have been doing well recently, especially when they have been working on what you told them to work on, and they immediately began to see results from that.

Saying Moose "doesn't care enough" is clearly wrong given how fired-up he gets, and he doesn't need to be "sent a message".

[alnorth]

Originally Posted by Prison Bitch

it's the IDENTICAL situation

Like hell it is. He sucked from the opening whistle, and has consistently been doing poorly to the present day.

[alnorth]

There is obviously the possibility that the last couple weeks are a mirage and Moose will be scuffling to a ~.500 OPS in June. If that happens, he may get demoted, but you won't get to say "finally" or "I told you so", since demoting him will not have made sense until then.

[Prison Bitch]

Originally Posted by alnorth

Like hell it is. He sucked from the opening whistle, and has consistently been doing poorly to the present day.

Whoa whoa buddy - are we allowed to talk about the facts here? You're living in a dream world if you think Moose has turned it on lately. He hit .195 in April and .211 so far in May. He had a 9-11 walk ratio last month that's dropped to 3-9 this month.



He's been a steaming pile of shit all year long. He has the exact same 0.1 WAR as Chisenhall does. Let the facts sink in before you respond.

[Chiefspants]

Originally Posted by Prison Bitch

Whoa whoa buddy - are we allowed to talk about the facts here? You're living in a dream world if you think Moose has turned it on lately. He hit .195 in April and .211 so far in May. He had a 9-11 walk ratio last month that's dropped to 3-9 this month.



He's been a steaming pile of shit all year long. He has the exact same 0.1 WAR as Chisenhall does. Let the facts sink in before you respond.

Prison, if his average hovers around .220, would it be acceptable to send him down by the end of May?

[Prison Bitch]

Originally Posted by Chiefspants

Prison, if his average hovers around .220, would it be acceptable to send him down by the end of May?

Let's ask the following: when will it be acceptable to release Frenchy? Because essentially that's the question. If Moose is allowed to work through his hideous start why isn't Frenchy? I mean that guy makes $7M. If it's early for Moose it's early for Frenchy. You can't play it both ways here.


Will we improve without Moose? Hard to say. He's not producing any value right now above replacement anyway. The Indians decided Chisenhall wasn't producing either, but they don't have a GM who falls in love with players on a personal level and gets blinded by loyalty.