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.

[Dave Lane]

Originally Posted by DeezNutz

Guthrie's peripheral numbers look like shit, so I'm not considering taking on someone else's trash and salary as any type of win.

I think getting a bucket of warm spit for Sanchez would be a win.

[mr. tegu]

Alright so who is going to start the thread tonight? I tried for two in a row yesterday and failed miserably. Someone needs to get a streak of wins going.

[stonedstooge]

Originally Posted by mr. tegu

Alright so who is going to start the thread tonight? I tried for two in a row yesterday and failed miserably. Someone needs to get a streak of wins going.

It's already up

[BigMeatballDave]

No UCL or ACL is safe in KC

[mr. tegu]

Originally Posted by stonedstooge

It's already up

Thanks. How do we force Deez to start the game thread of Guthrie's first start?

[stonedstooge]

Originally Posted by mr. tegu

Thanks. How do we force Deez to start the game thread of Guthrie's first start?

WINNING STREAK STARTING TONIGHT

[Fansy the Famous Bard]

Originally Posted by stonedstooge

WINNING STREAK STARTING TONIGHT

for the twins... that's just great.

[Wilson8]

A couple of comments from Jeremy Guthrie‏.

@JGuthrie46
I just told Dayton Moore on phone that the 1st player I would've chose for HR Derby would've been Billy Butler.

@JGuthrie46
Apparently I woke up as ROYALTY this morning. Disappointed w/how things went in CO. Optimistic for future.

[chefsos]

Guts is a nice guy, a class individual. But that Butler tweet makes absolutely no sense.

[Wilson8]

Originally Posted by chefsos

Guts is a nice guy, a class individual. But that Butler tweet makes absolutely no sense.

Jeremy wants to be popular in Kansas City, so unlike Robinson Cano, he would pick Billy Butler for the All-Star Home Run Derby.

Guthrie will be liked in KC if he can do a good job at pitching and winning some games.

As captain of the American League Home Run Derby team, Cano had picked Prince Fielder, Jose Bautista and Mark Trumbo for his squad, skipping over Billy Butler, the Royals' lone representative in the All-Star Game. Butler is tied for 16th in the AL in home runs with 16.

The sellout crowd at Kauffman Stadium chanted Butler's name before Cano came up to hit, then booed the Yankees second baseman mercilessly as he failed to hit a ball over the fence, becoming the first Derby contestant to get skunked since Brandon Inge in 2009.

The treatment continued Tuesday as the Kauffman Stadium crowd booed Cano lustily as he was introduced before the All-Star Game
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseb...oed/56137526/1

[Sure-Oz]

Guthrie has a solid track record of being a 4/5 starter...this team desperately needs an arm. who knows we if he finishes well enough re-sign him cheap

[Wilson8]

Below is a small part of Rany writing about Jeremy Guthrie...

http://www.ranyontheroyals.com/

There’s definitely some upside here. Guthrie’s a former first-round pick who flopped with Cleveland – but the Orioles picked him up on waivers before the 2007 season, and was one of the great waiver-wire finds of recent times, basically the healthy version of Felipe Paulino. From 2007 through 2011, Guthrie averaged 31 starts and 197 innings a season, with a 4.12 ERA, pitching nearly half his games against the four giants of the AL East. Last winter, I had him on my list of possible acquisition targets for the Royals, albeit at the bottom of my preferences, given his age (33) and the fact that he was under contract for just 2012.

But I didn’t expect him to fall apart like he has, and unlike Sanchez, there is an extenuating circumstance here that at least gives you a little hope he can turn things around. Coors Field – when it’s playing like Coors Field – can turn even star pitchers into mincemeat. Darryl Kile had finished 5th in the Cy Young vote in 1997, having thrown 256 innings for the Houston Astros with a 2.57 ERA. He signed a free-agent contract with the Rockies, and was beyond awful. In 1998, he had a 5.20 ERA and led the NL with 17 losses; in 1999, he was much worse, finishing with a 6.61 ERA and leading the league in earned runs allowed. At the time, his collapse was so profound that it didn’t look like it was simply a Coors Field effect – in 1999, he walked 109 batters and struck out 116, which is untenable.


But the Cardinals correctly surmised that if they could just get him away from that ballpark – and work with Dave Duncan, I’m sure – he would be fine. They traded four nobodies for Kile after the 1999 season; in 2000, he threw 232 innings with a 3.91 ERA, and his strikeout-to-walk ratio improved to 192-to-58 – MORE THAN TRIPLE his ratio the year before. He was even better in 2001, and was pitching well in 2002 when he tragically died of a heart attack.


Jeremy Guthrie is no Darryl Kile. But it’s not unreasonable to think there’s a chance that he can be Jeremy Guthrie again, and Jeremy Guthrie was a solid starting pitcher. Jonathan Sanchez is not.

[Mr. Laz]

Originally Posted by Wilson8

Below is a small part of Rany writing about Jeremy Guthrie...

http://www.ranyontheroyals.com/

If you're a guy that pitches to contact and gets a lot of pop fly outs then you don't want to go to Coor Field.

[BigMeatballDave]

I puke in my mouth a little when I think that a few weeks ago they were only 4 games under...

[Fansy the Famous Bard]

Originally Posted by Dave

I puke in my mouth a little when I think that a few weeks ago they were only 4 games under...

a little? I feel like a Bulimic pulling an all nighter at Ryans.