*****Official 2024 Royals Season Repository Thread*****

[ChiefsCountry]

Year Two of the Matt Quatraro tenure. Time to take a step up this year. Active in free agency and trades this offseason. A new look pitching rotation and bullpen. Will the young players take the leap up offensively? Bobby Witt extension? New stadium? Will Vinny recover from injury? Salvy taking aim at the Royals record book? Will Cole Ragans turn into the best Royals starting pitcher since Greinke 1.0?

Free Agents/Trades Acquisitions
Seth Lugo, SP
Michael Wacha, SP
Kyle Wright, SP
Hunter Renfroe, OF/DH
Will Smith, RP
Chris Stratton, RP
Nick Anderson, RP
Adam Frazier, 2B
Garrett Hampson, INF/OF
Matt Sauer, RP

[ChiefsCountry]

Cross was chosen right where he was suppose to as well. He was always in the 8-10 range on all the prospect lists.

[WhawhaWhat]

Originally Posted by ChiefsCountry

Cross was chosen right where he was suppose to as well. He was always in the 8-10 range on all the prospect lists.

A lot of mock drafts had either Cross or Justin Crawford and the difference was whether the Royals would want a college or high school bat.

Crawford is the son of Carl Crawford and, as you might guess, has a ton of speed.

[Nightfyre]

Can we call up Waters yet? If I have to suffer through much more Isbel...

[BWillie]

Welp turns our lobbing it over the middle and praying only works for so long for Lugo

[dlphg9]

Originally Posted by Nightfyre

Can we call up Waters yet? If I have to suffer through much more Isbel...

Isbel just isn't good. He's an automatic out and a stupid base runner. He's got great defense, but holy shit he's so bad at hitting that its not even close to being enough.

He's just not a ML hitter.

[TLO]

I want a series win against Toronto. A split would be acceptable.

I just want h this team to keep winning and competing.

[KC_Connection]

Originally Posted by TLO

I want a series win against Toronto. A split would be acceptable.

I just want h this team to keep winning and competing.

That’s difficult to imagine.

[lewdog]

Originally Posted by Nightfyre

Can we call up Waters yet? If I have to suffer through much more Isbel...

This. I can't stand Isbel. He's reminding me of my hate level for a guy like Chris Getz!

[WhawhaWhat]

Dude was diagnosed with melanoma at the beginning of spring training and now he's back.

Tyler Duffey being promoted to Royals today

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) April 22, 2024

[BWillie]

Vinne Pasquantino is the next Victor Martinez.

[TomBarndtsTwin]

Originally Posted by KC_Connection

That’s difficult to imagine.

Ahh, yes.

The fan of the 'most talented young' team in baseball since 2020. All those playoff appearances, averaging 90 wins a season, and STILL haven't achieved more playoff success than the Royals in that same time span. That must hurt.

You should take a lesson from the Royals on how to win when you manage to land the 'most talented elite prospect group' in baseball.

But, alas, you're a Blue Jays fan . . . . . .

[Ocotillo]

Royals' pick in Baseball America's just released mock draft.

6. Royals — Hagen Smith, LHP, Arkansas

In terms of strikeout rate and batting average against, no pitcher in the country has been as dominant as Hagen Smith this spring. His 48.3% strikeout rate is tops among qualified D-I arms and so the .136 opponent average he’s posted. Smith allowed three earned runs in his first outing of the year (just one inning against James Madison) and since then he has allowed just six earned runs in 40 innings.

He’s currently generating a 47% miss rate on all of his pitches, sitting 94-96 with his fastball from the left side and batters are hitting just .087/.125/.152 against his slider. He’s a nightmare matchup at the moment.

Potential critiques include the Tommy John survey on his resume, a walk rate that is higher than you’d like for a top-10 pitcher (10.6% this season and 12.7% for his career) and perhaps some questions about what his third pitch is going to be beyond the fastball/slider combo. Even with those, he fits as a tier-one arm in the class. It wouldn’t be shocking if he were the first pitcher off the board.

https://www.baseballamerica.com/stor...or-every-team/

[RockChalk]

Originally Posted by lewdog

This. I can't stand Isbel. He's reminding me of my hate level for a guy like Chris Getz!

I really don't understand why he's part of this team. His Defense is fine, everything else is complete shit. And he runs bases like I imagine a MMA dude would.

[Mecca]

Originally Posted by RockChalk

I really don't understand why he's part of this team. His Defense is fine, everything else is complete shit. And he runs bases like I imagine a MMA dude would.

Because CF is a bit of a hole in the entire system. They are basically hoping he can be a Kiermayer type, but you do need the rest of the lineup to basically pick him up.

Ideally he should be a 4th OF late game defensive replacement type but there really isn't anyone else ready to play CF either.

[KC_Connection]

Originally Posted by TomBarndtsTwin

Ahh, yes.

The fan of the 'most talented young' team in baseball since 2020. All those playoff appearances, averaging 90 wins a season, and STILL haven't achieved more playoff success than the Royals in that same time span. That must hurt.

You should take a lesson from the Royals on how to win when you manage to land the 'most talented elite prospect group' in baseball.

But, alas, you're a Blue Jays fan . . . . . .

Make no mistake, I have no love for this iteration of the Jays. Sadly for you, though, even a mediocre Jays team will annihilate the fraud Royals this series.

It turns out that even if you're in the joke division that is the AL Central you can't play the White Sox every single week.