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.

[tk13]

Yeah, but there's this fallacy that spending more money = wins. That's simply not true. Everybody always says if he'd just spend more money it would take care of itself. He did that, and it didn't. You have the spend the money intelligently. He did bump up the payroll with guys like Meche and Guillen and whatnot and didn't make a difference. The team spent 75-80+ million in payroll and was still losing 90 a year. Numerous playoff teams spent less.

And to be fair, the payroll would've been even higher if they'd been able to sign Torii Hunter, Kuroda, and Orlando Hudson. But that's an entirely different issue... getting guys to agree to sign in Kansas City.

[DeezNutz]

Meche was an outstanding signing and exactly what we should be looking to do this off-season. Guillen, on the other hand, was an enormous mistake.

If you're trying to convince me that DM is a ****ing moron, you're going to have to work harder. I don't think you've ever been in the vaunted Pats...errr...Braves organization.

Oh, and the Royals have one hell of a lineup today: Dyson, Betancourt, Frenchy, Pena, Getz. Power.

[Nightfyre]

Originally Posted by tk13

Yeah, but there's this fallacy that spending more money = wins. That's simply not true. Everybody always says if he'd just spend more money it would take care of itself. He did that, and it didn't. You have the spend the money intelligently. He did bump up the payroll with guys like Meche and Guillen and whatnot and didn't make a difference. The team spent 75-80+ million in payroll and was still losing 90 a year. Numerous playoff teams spent less.

And to be fair, the payroll would've been even higher if they'd been able to sign Torii Hunter, Kuroda, and Orlando Hudson. But that's an entirely different issue... getting guys to agree to sign in Kansas City.

You have to have a young player base to win with a 90 million payroll. You can't just spend 90 mill and be competitive. We have the young player base now. Now we need to bump the payroll to fill a couple of gaps on the team. It's really not that difficult of a concept to grasp.

[tk13]

I don't think he's a moron, he's done some great things but also made some mistakes. I just think he deserves as much credit as Glass does for what has happened. Maybe that's wrong... but there have been plenty of teams who have been successful spending as much, or less money than the Royals. I liked the Meche signing, they did a great job with that. Hopefully we can do it again.

But to be fair, they probably overpaid for him at the time. And they'll have to do it again, and it might not matter. That's the scary part to me. They can offer the most money to some guys and it just won't be enough. It may have to be through trade.

[DeezNutz]

FOX Watch for game:

No one picks the Royals to hit a single home run. .

Frenchy getting a single hit gets the most votes. .

This team provides so much unintentional humor.

[tk13]

Originally Posted by Nightfyre

You have to have a young player base to win with a 90 million payroll. You can't just spend 90 mill and be competitive. We have the young player base now. Now we need to bump the payroll to fill a couple of gaps on the team. It's really not that difficult of a concept to grasp.

No I agree. We're about ready to strike. But you have to find a legit pitcher or two. Seems like a lot of people are ready to see Glass spend money just to spend money. And then at this point you have to convince them to come to KC.

[DeezNutz]

Originally Posted by tk13

I don't think he's a moron, he's done some great things but also made some mistakes. I just think he deserves as much credit as Glass does for what has happened. Maybe that's wrong... but there have been plenty of teams who have been successful spending as much, or less money than the Royals. I liked the Meche signing, they did a great job with that. Hopefully we can do it again.

But to be fair, they probably overpaid for him at the time. And they'll have to do it again, and it might not matter. That's the scary part to me. They can offer the most money to some guys and it just won't be enough. It may have to be through trade.

As a GM, he's pretty stupid.

And we're absolutely going to have to overpay for any FA (more so than other teams, since FAs are always overpaid) because Moore has continued to put a terrible product on the field.

Finally, Moore is pretty gutless, IMO, because of his constant changing of "The Process" timeline. When he was hired, he said 8-10 years to win a World Series. Now, he's saying year 8 to be in a position to win. Just win.

CYA Herm style. Again, as long as DM is the GM, the team will be mediocre at best.

[Nightfyre]

I think DM can be successful, but he needs a pitching consultant. the guy flatout rakes hitting talent into the organizations he works for. He also needs to get over his Yuni/Frenchy obsession. I really can't see how he hasn't already.

[tk13]

Yeah, I don't care about all the process stuff though. I've said for a few years now that the prime years we should be looking at are the 2014-2017ish zone. That's when guys like Hosmer and Moose will have some experience under their belt, Butler and Gordon will be veterans... and then guys like Myers following them up.

[tk13]

Originally Posted by Nightfyre

I think DM can be successful, but he needs a pitching consultant. the guy flatout rakes hitting talent into the organizations he works for. He also needs to get over his Yuni/Frenchy obsession. I really can't see how he hasn't already.

I think the Braves organization has a pretty outstanding reputation for developing pitching talent.

[Nightfyre]

He's brought in a lot of pitching talent, but our development process has wasted far more talent than its produced thusfar.

[DeezNutz]

Originally Posted by Nightfyre

I think DM can be successful, but he needs a pitching consultant. the guy flatout rakes hitting talent into the organizations he works for. He also needs to get over his Yuni/Frenchy obsession. I really can't see how he hasn't already.

If he had responsibly managed the farm system he developed, the ML club with be far more advanced. In other words, he didn't utilize his assets. You don't stock players on the farm to expect them to come up together; you stock players to use as chips to trade for proven ML talent.

Keeping all of the pitching prospects was beyond absurd.

But that's always been Moore's weakness: ML roster construction.

Blind loyalty and inability to use statistical analysis are the prime deficiencies with DM.

[Nightfyre]

that is not how the braves worked, is it? There is more than one way to skin a cat. He stocks up the farm system, keeps it as rich as possible, and pulls players up as needed and they are ready. You will get no argument from me on his blind loyalty to some really shitty players, though.

[DeezNutz]

Originally Posted by Nightfyre

that is not how the braves worked, is it? There is more than one way to skin a cat. He stocks up the farm system, keeps it as rich as possible, and pulls players up as needed and they are ready. You will get no argument from me on his blind loyalty to some really shitty players, though.

That sounds great, but most pitching prospects don't work out.

[Nightfyre]

The braves made it work. Sure, it's anecdotal evidence, but DM was a part of that equation.