20 replies to this topic

[SoxScout]

Starting Lineup
1 3B Mike Aviles
2 CF Melky Cabrera
3 LF Alex Gordon
4 DH Billy Butler
5 1B Kila Ka'aihue
6 RF Jeff Francoeur
7 C Brayan Pena
8 2B Chris Getz
9 SS Alcides Escobar

Bench
C Matt Treanor
IF Wilson Betemit
OF Jarrod Dyson
OF Mitch Maier

Starting Rotation
1 RHP Luke Hochevar
2 LHP Jeff Francis
3 RHP Kyle Davies
4 LHP Bruce Chen
5 RHP Vin Mazzaro

Bullpen
CL RHP Joakim Soria
SU RHP Robinson Tejeda

LHP Tim Collins and MID RHP Aaron Crow are also in the pen to start the season.
Collins is from Worcester, Crow was drafted 9th in 2008, 12th in 2009.

Info provided by mlbdepthcharts.com

[SoxScout]

Coming attractions:

1. Mike Moustakas, 3B
2. Eric Hosmer, 1B
4. Mike Montgomery, LHP
5. John Lamb, LHP
7. Danny Duffy, LHP

Moustakas will probably be up in June after the arbitration cutoff. With a few of the others throughout the course of the season.

[SoxScout]

The Royals at 10-4 and 1st in the Central.

B Butler........... .373/.484/.569 1.053
A Gordon........ .373/.403/.559 .962
J Francoeur... .327/.339/.509 .848
W Betemit...... .387/.474/.613 1.087

Starters not walking anyone:

L Hochevar.. 4.21 ERA, 1.01 WHIP.......... 5.6 K9 1.4 BB9 4.0 K/BB
J Francis...... 2.61 ERA, 1.16 WHIP.......... 5.7 K9 1.3 BB9 4.3 K/BB
B Chen......... 2.37 ERA, 1.11 WHIP.......... 5.2 K9 1.9 BB9 2.8 K/BB

Soria struggling:

7.7 IP, 7.04 ERA, 1.57 WHIP, 3.5 K9, 4.7 BB9, 0.8 K/BB

[SoxScout]

WOW! Eric Hosmer, not even on the 40 man, is getting called up on May 6th.

[SoxFanSince57]

Reporter takes his own recommendation.
http://royals.kansas....com/games/203/

[maufman]

Rany Jazayerli on the Hosmer call-up.
Excerpt:

So at least on the surface, the Royals made a move which improves the major league team immediately, gives a clear signal that they're going to take their chances of contention seriously until proven otherwise, and gives their long-suffering fan base a glimpse of a brighter future to come. And they did so without compromising their farm system at all.

That's not to say that Hosmer's promotion is entirely cost-free, because it's not. The most obvious cost of promoting Hosmer on Thursday is, well, the cost. Under the current rules, by being promoted exactly five weeks into the season, Hosmer is almost guaranteed to be a "Super-Two" player at the end of the 2013 season....

That's not chump change. And even if the cost only winds up being $5 million – Sam Mellinger thinks it could be a lot more – that's a hell of a lot of money for the next six weeks of Hosmer's career. But the caveat here is this: the Collective Bargaining Agreement between the players' union and ownership expires this winter. Everyone expects a new agreement to be hammered out peacefully, but everyone also expects some changes to be made in the agreement. One of the areas where changes may be seen is in the area of Super Two players. There's probably a 50/50 chance that the rules will be changed substantially, in which case Hosmer either won't be a Super Two after all, or he would have been a Super Two even if he had stayed in the minors for another six weeks.

It's still a big risk, and I'm not sure it was risk the Royals needed to take. If they think they can stay in contention all season, then it's a risk they can justify. But they better be right.

Edited by maufman, 10 May 2011 - 09:34 AM.

[SoxScout]

Agent Scott Boras on Thursday shot down any hopes the Kansas City Royals had of signing burgeoning star Eric Hosmer(notes) to a long-term extension, telling Yahoo! Sports he expects massive increases in television revenue to change the landscape of salaries in baseball.

“Athletes have to know that you have to look at the market you’re in,” Boras said. “You can’t look at the markets of the past. For players like Hosmer, as you go back and look, as [Mark] Teixeira had his own market and [Prince] Fielder had his own market, Hosmer will have his own. And something tells me it’s going to be a rather eventful one.”

He scored Teixeira the largest contract for a first baseman (eight years, $180 million), could eclipse it this offseason with the 27-year-old Fielder and expects Hosmer to reach free agency in the middle of a ripe financial era brought about by new local television contracts in large markets and a new national TV deal come 2013.

“The arbitration markets and free-agent markets are going to be vastly different,” Boras said.

http://sports.yahoo...._contract_51211

[The Mainahh]

Good to see Boras isn't getting ahead of himself or anything.

[Rough Carrigan]

Good to see Boras isn't getting ahead of himself or anything.

And there's absolutely zero chance of Hosmer getting hurt. He's a Boras client. So there's absolutely zero chance that signing a deal that goes through his arb years and gives an option for one or two of his free agent years at pretty big money but not the most possible that he could make will ever happen. Security? That doesn't have any value.

I don't wish hosmer ill but I half wish he'd get hurt to show how Boras's inflexibility on this issue is ill considered.

And theres's NFW Fielder gets a deal bigger than Teixeira's with the perception that he'll have to be a DH and that he has real negative baserunning value on top of fluctuation in his hitting value.

As to his dumb blowhard certainty of an endlessly rising economic tide, that's just ridiculous.

Edited by Rough Carrigan, 15 May 2011 - 12:31 PM.

[Jimy Hendrix]

On the one hand, I do get that Yahoo are the ones who asked him to talk and what else is Boras gonna say?

But for fuck's sake, can KC fans just enjoy the guy for two fucking weeks before he's getting pushed out the door?

Edited by Jimy Hendrix, 16 May 2011 - 06:06 AM.

[SoxScout]

The Royals may have got curbed stomped 19-1 last night, but that lead to roster shuffling and the second in the wave of talent will be pitching Wednesday as Danny Duffy gets the call.

AAA numbers: 36.0 IP, 3.00 ERA, 1.11 WHIP, 10.75 K/9, 2.50 BB/9

[Sea Dog]

Sad day for Royals fans: Paul Splittorff dead at 64 after a bout with oral cancer and melanoma.

Long story short, he was drafted by the Royals in 1968, before the franchise played its first game. Pitched for 14 seasons, retired in 1984, then become a beloved announcer for the Royals until his death. He will be missed.

[maufman]

And there's absolutely zero chance of Hosmer getting hurt. He's a Boras client. So there's absolutely zero chance that signing a deal that goes through his arb years and gives an option for one or two of his free agent years at pretty big money but not the most possible that he could make will ever happen. Security? That doesn't have any value.

I don't wish hosmer ill but I half wish he'd get hurt to show how Boras's inflexibility on this issue is ill considered.

And theres's NFW Fielder gets a deal bigger than Teixeira's with the perception that he'll have to be a DH and that he has real negative baserunning value on top of fluctuation in his hitting value.

As to his dumb blowhard certainty of an endlessly rising economic tide, that's just ridiculous.

I used to hate Scott Boras. Now, in the wake of the A-Rod fiasco, I figure players who retain Boras as their agent know what they're doing. If you're willing to take an Evan Longoria-type deal, Boras shouldn't be your agent. If Hosmer is unhappy with Boras's representation, he can fire him -- but we all know that's not going to happen. So if you must blame someone, blame Hosmer -- Boras is just the mouthpiece.

Also, while Boras might be wrong about the particulars, I think he's right that MLB will likely be in better financial condition in 2017 or 2018 than it is now.

You are, of course, right about Prince Fielder.

[jon abbey]

Soria and his 6.55 ERA get dropped from the closer role in favor of Aaron Crow.

KC looks like they missed their window on moving him, they should have done it right after Greinke.

[Sea Dog]

Not so sure the Royals needed to trade Soria. Torii Hunter seemed to suggest the other night that Soria's tipping pitches. If that's the case, that's correctable. And for whatever reason, he's abandoned that seemingly unhittable curve for cutters, which aren't fooling anyone.

If Soria can solve those issues and he reverts to his old form, great, no worries. If the Royals were offered Jesus Montero in the offseason -- no one ever confirmed that -- they should've taken it. Even if he's blocked by Hosmer at first base, he would've been a nice trading chip. Even so, I don't blame the Royals for keeping him. Heck, if Soria doesn't blow those five saves (three in the past week), the Royals would be 29-25 right now, four games out of first place.

[SoxScout]

Top prospect John Lamb is undergoing Tommy John surgery today.

Soria's velocity is down about 1 MPH across the board and here are his curveball % over the last 4 years: 14%, 13%, 7%, 4%. Unless throwing them ruining his arm which I think is plausible, he might want to get back to throwing it.

Split	W	L	RS	RA	WP
March	0	1	2	4	.000
April	14	12	133	130	.538
May	10	17	117	141	.370
June	1	1	4	8	.500

Edited by SoxScout, 03 June 2011 - 10:39 AM.

[Sea Dog]

Moustakas is the Royals' new third baseman; Aviles demoted to Omaha.

Can't wait to see what the Royals' lineup looks like tomorrow night in Anaheim. To make room for Moustakas, the Royals will need to clear someone from the 40-man roster -- Moose wasn't on it. Betimet will become a full-time backup.

I know the Royals are still terrible, but it's exciting to see the kids coming up to KC.

[Jinhocho]

Aviles out Navarro in. Who starts at second base going forward - Navarro, Giavotella, Getz?

[maufman]

The Royals have been a hideously bad clutch-hitting team. What's worse, they have had an unusually high number of high-leverage situations at the dish. Combine those two facts, and you have a big part of the reason the Royals currently sit six games below their Pythagorean W-L record.

The Royals have, by far, the highest team leverage index in the AL. Among players with enough PAs to qualify for the batting title, 5 of the top 6 players in the AL in pLI are on the Royals -- Francoeur, Hosmer, Escobar, Cabrera and Butler. Of those 5, only Hosmer has a positive "clutch" rating, and 3 of the other 4 (Escobar, Butler and Francoeur) are in the bottom 25% of the league. Escobar is especially bad -- he has the 4th-worst clutch rating in the AL. I wouldn't have thought it was possible for someone who's as bad as Escobar overall to be even worse in the clutch.


Of course, for a team building for the future, all this is good news. The Royals can expect to improve in 2012 just by virtue of their luck evening out.

(Note: all stats from Fangraphs; I wrote this a couple days ago and didn't update the stats before posting, on the assumption that nothing has materially changed in such a short time.)

[Rough Carrigan]

Doesn't that just mean that they never blow anyone out but don't have horrendous pitching so that they're always batting with the game close? But because they never blow anyone out they're probably not that good offensively so it's not a huge surprise that they don't do very well in all these high leverage situations they create by not doing very well.

Edited by Rough Carrigan, 07 September 2011 - 02:30 PM.

[maufman]

Doesn't that just mean that they never blow anyone out but don't have horrendous pitching so that they're always batting with the game close? But because they never blow anyone out they're probably not that good offensively so it's not a huge surprise that they don't do very well in all these high leverage situations they create by not doing very well.

But they do have horrendous pitching -- only the Orioles have a higher team ERA. And iirc, the Fangraphs "clutch" stat accounts for the player's baseline performance level. So, for example, saying Alcides Escobar is a bad clutch hitter doesn't simply mean that he doesn't come up big in the clutch (duh), it means he's a lot worse in the clutch than you would expect a guy with a 611 OPS to be -- which is a mind-blowing standard of futility. (Escobar is 9-for-73 with 1 XBH in "high leverage" situations this season.)

The Royals are tied for the AL lead in one-run games (54). Their record in those games is not good (23-31), but neither is it notably awful for a team with a .419 winning percentage overall.