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?

[KevB]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Duncan,

The Cardinals are getting some great returns on Matt Carpenter at 2b and his bat has always profiled extremely well for the next level, especially if he can stick at 2b. So with Carpenter looking more and more like a long-term possibility at 2b, we have a top 50 prospect 2b of our own named Kolten Wong that appears to be buried or at least expendable in our pursuit of a SS.

If you're DM and the Cards come calling with Wong, who's arguably ML ready right now at 2b, would you give up Calixte or Mondesi for him? You fellas still don't appear to have a great long-term 2b option on your roster and our needs appear to match up nicely here.

Christian Colon = Kolten Wong (or, at least close enough that we're not dealing one of our high upside SS for him)

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by JASONSAUTO

no and no lol

Fortunately Duncan generally has more than "LOL" to say.

There are arguments for and against; Calixte and Mondesi have higher ceilings but also significantly lower floors. The odds suggests that one or both of them never take a major league at-bat. Meanwhile, Wong really could step in today and be a better big league 2b than Chris Getz.

Wong's ceiling is probably Jose Vidro (minus Vidro's 2000 campaign; I don't think Wong will ever have 20+ pop). He could reach that as soon as next season and be under team control for another 5 years. You're really not willing to give up the 3rd best long-term SS option you have for that guy?

The Royals would be silly not to move one of those guys at this point with their biggest holes being at 2b and RF. You could fill one of those holes damn nicely with a very good young 2b prospect.

[Fansy the Famous Bard]

Originally Posted by mr. tegu

Don't be trying take Getz out of our lineup! He had an almost HR yesterday. That is MOAR POWA!!

Edited for clarity.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by KevB

Christian Colon = Kolten Wong (or, at least close enough that we're not dealing one of our high upside SS for him)

That's fair. I don't know that I'd say Colon is on par with Wong, but there may be a small enough gap between them that you'd want to save your powder for a different trade.

Colon's sure failed a lot, though. He's had a couple of brief spurts of productivity, but he's otherwise been a pretty shitty minor leaguer. I know he was a high value draft pick, but you eventually want to see some production and Colon's offered very little thus far. I think you improve the odds of getting a legitimate big-league 2b pretty substantially by moving for Wong, but I've been wrong before.

[Fansy the Famous Bard]

Mondesi is one of those guys that you wait and see on as he could be superstar caliber, Calixte I'd be more willing to part with for the right guy... I don't know enough about Wong to say 'yay' or 'nay', though...

[Fansy the Famous Bard]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

I think you improve the odds of getting a legitimate big-league 2b pretty substantially by moving for Wong, but I've been wrong before.

[Ebolapox]

Originally Posted by Zeke

Mondesi is one of those guys that you wait and see on as he could be a superstar caliber, Calixte I'd be more willing to part with for the right guy... I don't know enough about Wong to say 'yay' or 'nay', though...

This.

Mondesi--yeah, it would take a LOT to pry mondesi from our grip. calixte... yeah, more doable. not sure I'd make the move, but still more palatable than mondesi

[duncan_idaho]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Duncan,

The Cardinals are getting some great returns on Matt Carpenter at 2b and his bat has always profiled extremely well for the next level, especially if he can stick at 2b. So with Carpenter looking more and more like a long-term possibility at 2b, we have a top 50 prospect 2b of our own named Kolten Wong that appears to be buried or at least expendable in our pursuit of a SS.

If you're DM and the Cards come calling with Wong, who's arguably ML ready right now at 2b, would you give up Calixte or Mondesi for him? You fellas still don't appear to have a great long-term 2b option on your roster and our needs appear to match up nicely here.

I could see Calixte being moved as the season goes on to bolster the roster, but I doubt they'd move him for a guy like Wong when Christian Colon is there and extremely similar. They put up nearly identical numbers in AA, playing in the same league (and Wong had Oscar Taveras hitting behind him all season, vs. Colon hitting in front of Wil Myers for a half season.

Colon also adds the benefit of being able to play SS as your backup guy there, while Wong really can't slide over there.

I don't think there's very much at all that would get them to budge on Raul-formerly-officially-listed-as-Adalberto Mondesi at this point. And there shouldn't be.

[duncan_idaho]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

That's fair. I don't know that I'd say Colon is on par with Wong, but there may be a small enough gap between them that you'd want to save your powder for a different trade.

Colon's sure failed a lot, though. He's had a couple of brief spurts of productivity, but he's otherwise been a pretty shitty minor leaguer. I know he was a high value draft pick, but you eventually want to see some production and Colon's offered very little thus far. I think you improve the odds of getting a legitimate big-league 2b pretty substantially by moving for Wong, but I've been wrong before.

His numbers at AA last year are nearly identical to Wong's.

Colon: .289/.364/.392 | .756 OPS | 16 XBH in 270 AB | 12/18 SB
Wong: .287/.348/.405 | .754 OPS | 38 XBH in 520 AB | 21/32 SB

Wong hit for slightly more power (Colon projected to 31 XBH in same number of AB as Wong) but Colon was slightly better at getting on base. Neither is a guy who should be trying to steal bases in the major leagues.

Colon was actually BETTER at Omaha than he was at AAA, too, in an extremely small sample size (17 AB).

If Colon was shitty last year, so was Wong...

That's why I can't see them moving even Calixte for Wong. Christian Colon is practically the same player, and he has more positional versatility.

[CaliforniaChief]

Originally Posted by duncan_idaho

I don't think there's very much at all that would get them to budge on Raul-formerly-officially-listed-as-Adalberto Mondesi at this point. And there shouldn't be.

[duncan_idaho]

Side note: Who ranked WOng as a top 50 prospect? BA and BP both had him in the top 100, but down around the 80-90 area.

[duncan_idaho]

Originally Posted by CaliforniaChief

Well, yeah.

Don't know if the Marlins will move him, though. They already are on the verge of all-out fan revolt down there. And they'd need some major-league ready talent back in return to do it.

[AndChiefs]

Originally Posted by duncan_idaho

Side note: Who ranked WOng as a top 50 prospect? BA and BP both had him in the top 100, but down around the 80-90 area.

He meant a top 50 second base prospect.

[CaliforniaChief]

Originally Posted by duncan_idaho

Well, yeah.

Don't know if the Marlins will move him, though. They already are on the verge of all-out fan revolt down there. And they'd need some major-league ready talent back in return to do it.

Would we have the pieces to get a deal done? I mean, the Marlins could just go the Astros' route at this point. I think they're past the revolt stage.

Mondesi, Ventura, Duffy, Crow, and Bonifacio for Stanton?

[duncan_idaho]

Originally Posted by CaliforniaChief

Would we have the pieces to get a deal done? I mean, the Marlins could just go the Astros' route at this point. I think they're past the revolt stage.

Mondesi, Ventura, Duffy, Crow, and Bonifacio for Stanton?

Sure, if they were willing to trade him.

I'd swap Mondesi and Starling in the asking price there and see if I could get away with it. Rest of the package looks reasonable, I guess.

If they managed to trade for Stanton, you'd hope part of the trade is an immediate extension that buys out at least a year or two of FA for him. He's only controlled through 2016.