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.

[lewdog]

Originally Posted by Dr. noonanbeermefever

Yea... and no one get me wrong... I hate that he's out. I'm a big fan of the guy. But luckily we planned ahead signing Broxton and Holland stepped up last year and Crow could be in the mix so we should be fine even without Soria.

Hopefully he'll be one of those guys who comes back even better from Tommy John if that's what he has to have and we'll bring him back for his triumphant return.

Yea not a huge loss, and as mentioned, the closer position is hugely overrated.

I am more concerned about our 2B happenings.

[Dr. Johnny Fever]

Originally Posted by lewdog

Yea not a huge loss, and as mentioned, the closer position is hugely overrated.

I am more concerned about our 2B happenings.

I don't find myself too worried about 2B... more Catcher for the first half of the year at least. That's just me.

[lewdog]

Originally Posted by Dr. noonanbeermefever

I don't find myself too worried about 2B... more Catcher for the first half of the year at least. That's just me.

Well let's just lump them both together

I just don't know if we can have some ham hands out at 2B and have to watch Betancourt get 500 ABs.

[Dr. Johnny Fever]

I'm not as down on Yuni I guess as a lot of Royals fans. That said I want Gia to win the job and perform well.

On the Catcher front, the Royals sent a scout to the Astros game yesterday to look at Humberto Quintero. He's coming off injury and playing catch up for the second catcher slot for Houston and could be out of the mix for them. Said to catch a good game.

[lewdog]

Originally Posted by Dr. noonanbeermefever

I'm not as down on Yuni I guess as a lot of Royals fans. That said I want Gia to win the job and perform well.

On the Catcher front, the Royals sent a scout to the Astros game yesterday to look at Humberto Quintero. He's coming off injury and playing catch up for the second catcher slot for Houston and could be out of the mix for them. Said to catch a good game.

See this is the inside info I like! Thanks Beerme. Please keep me informed.

[Dr. Johnny Fever]

Originally Posted by lewdog

See this is the inside info I like! Thanks Beerme. Please keep me informed.

It's not hard to read www.kcroyals.com each day.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by DeezNutz

Multiple? Hosmer and Allseedeez are potential Gold Glover winners, and Moose isn't a butcher.

Hell, with a healthy Perez and a competent 2B, the Royals would have one of the best infields in the league.

Soria is done. Should have traded him a couple of years ago, as many advocated, but it's understandable to hang on to a player who was A.) inexpensive and B.) ****ing dominant for several years.

Close the book on that discussion - I was wrong.

I still don't think Montero sticks at C and that the Royals are full up on DH type players, but Montero's trade value was evidently Pinieda.

Trading Soria for Pinieda would be pretty damn nice...

Sorry 'bout Jack, Royals fans. You guys are about as fond of him as we are of Wainwright. The WW loss was brutal from a pure fan standpoint as you couldn't find anyone that had anything but great things to say about him.

[SnakeXJones]

Not surprised to see him get injured I just lost complete hope in him maybe it was a injury last year and it just worsen during spring? hell I dunno ....I am moving on from Soria

[Al Bundy]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Close the book on that discussion - I was wrong.

I still don't think Montero sticks at C and that the Royals are full up on DH type players, but Montero's trade value was evidently Pinieda.

Trading Soria for Pinieda would be pretty damn nice...

Sorry 'bout Jack, Royals fans. You guys are about as fond of him as we are of Wainwright. The WW loss was brutal from a pure fan standpoint as you couldn't find anyone that had anything but great things to say about him.

This is the Royals fan lot in life.

[DeezNutz]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Close the book on that discussion - I was wrong.

I still don't think Montero sticks at C and that the Royals are full up on DH type players, but Montero's trade value was evidently Pinieda.

Trading Soria for Pinieda would be pretty damn nice...

Sorry 'bout Jack, Royals fans. You guys are about as fond of him as we are of Wainwright. The WW loss was brutal from a pure fan standpoint as you couldn't find anyone that had anything but great things to say about him.

The value you were associating with elite relievers certainly wasn't wrong, but the Royals were just too damn far away from contention to make it a pertinent point for this particular franchise.

In '09, when I was crying for the team to move Soria at the All-Star break, the idea of playoffs was so remote as to be indiscernible for the KC Walmarts.

Still, it's going to be a shame if Soria never pitches again for the Royals or never pitches to the level that we've been accustomed to seeing in the past.

Thanks for the good thoughts.

[KevB]

I think you guys are under-selling the impact of losing Soria, for several reasons:

#1 - Who the hell knows what we have with Broxton. We're optimistic, but there's absolutely no guarantee he'll be any better than decent (and maybe not even that).

#2 - Crow is a possibility in the pen, but he wasn't great in the second half last season. Again, no guarantees there.

#3 - The depth of our pen was supposed to help offset the weakness in our rotation. Take away a bullpen arm and our depth is diminished.

#4 - There's something to be said for having a proven closer, despite our sabermetric tendencies that say otherwise. Soria has been a rock for this team the last several years; losing him isn't good for team psyche.

I think this hurts, I think losing Perez hurts equally, and I don't like the way this season is starting from a karma perspective. Frustrating.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by DeezNutz

The value you were associating with elite relievers certainly wasn't wrong, but the Royals were just too damn far away from contention to make it a pertinent point for this particular franchise.

In '09, when I was crying for the team to move Soria at the All-Star break, the idea of playoffs was so remote as to be indiscernible for the KC Walmarts.

Still, it's going to be a shame if Soria never pitches again for the Royals or never pitches to the level that we've been accustomed to seeing in the past.

Thanks for the good thoughts.

With all Dayton's talk about the 2013-15 plan, I really figured Soria would be in his peak years still at that time.

The idea that closers are overrated is to some degree dispelled every October. The Cardinals don't even make the playoffs without Jason Motte and they damn sure don't make the Series without him. Installing Motte as the closer really triggered the run that put the team into contention and eventually won them the title.

Closers aren't as difficult to find as an elite defensive SS or plus CFer, but they're every bit as necessary to have. That's where I often get into these arguments with folks. They want to say that having a hammer for the 9th just doesn't matter because by God, Bill James said so. But ultimately, all that simply ignores the substitution patterns of the 9th inning, the razors edge that a team walks for those last 3 outs and the ultimate psychological damage inflicted on a team slogging through a 162 game grind when they lose in the 9th inning of a game they had marked as but one of 90+ wins they'll need to make the playoffs.

You absolutely, positively, cannot be a top-tier team without a legitimate hammer in the 9th. That's the argument I kept trying to make with Soria - the kid was young enough to still be that hammer in 2012-2015 and if the Royals were really going to take that next step, they'd need him.

It appears I was wrong about his longevity/durability.

Well here's hoping Greg Holland kicks some ass for you fellas this year - I just drafted him in my fantasy league

(Though don't get too attached; guys with that frame that put that much tilt on a slider aren't long for this earth, especially not when they rely on it like Holland does. If you get 3 healthy years out of him, consider yourselves blessed...)

[Al Bundy]

Originally Posted by KevB

I think you guys are under-selling the impact of losing Soria, for several reasons:

#1 - Who the hell knows what we have with Broxton. We're optimistic, but there's absolutely no guarantee he'll be any better than decent (and maybe not even that).

#2 - Crow is a possibility in the pen, but he wasn't great in the second half last season. Again, no guarantees there.

#3 - The depth of our pen was supposed to help offset the weakness in our rotation. Take away a bullpen arm and our depth is diminished.

#4 - There's something to be said for having a proven closer, despite our sabermetric tendencies that say otherwise. Soria has been a rock for this team the last several years; losing him isn't good for team psyche.

I think this hurts, I think losing Perez hurts equally, and I don't like the way this season is starting from a karma perspective. Frustrating.

I don't know about underselling it, I expected it more than anything.

[alnorth]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

With all Dayton's talk about the 2013-15 plan, I really figured Soria would be in his peak years still at that time.

The idea that closers are overrated is to some degree dispelled every October.

No, not really. Many people rate closers so highly that a .500 team or a losing team is advised by their fans to keep him.

The marginal value of a great closer vs a pretty good or average closer is very, very low. However, if you are at 92 wins and you really need 93 or 94 wins to win your division, and you've pretty much maxed out your lineup and rotation, then and only then, might a closer, maybe, be your only spot remaining to eke out that last 1 or 2 extra wins, and if you really need those 1 or 2 wins, you might be advised to pay dearly for him.

[Mama Hip Rockets]

Originally Posted by KevB

I think you guys are under-selling the impact of losing Soria

Yeah, I don't get it. You would think that the fans of a franchise that has been so awful for so long would be a little more appreciative of the guy who has been their best player collectively over the last few years.