Team of the Day: KC Royals

Discuss all things Cardinals Baseball
User avatar
cardsfansince82
is shooing asian children away from his fridge.
Posts: 27873
Joined: May 17 06, 10:23 pm
Location: at the gettin' place

Team of the Day: KC Royals

Post by cardsfansince82 »

2013 in quick review:
Played 8 games under .500 the first two months, fired their hitting coach, played 18 over the rest of the way to finish 86-76. Best record since 1989, underperformed pythag by one game.


Losses
Ervin Santana to free agency
Some other spare parts via trade and cut.


Additions
Signed Jason Vargas 4/$32
Signed Omar Infante 4/$30
Traded for Danny Valencia and Norichika Aoki

Prospects who could make an impact
Yordano Ventura and Kyle Zimmer are two highly regarded pitching prospects with #2 starter upside, but it's a bit of a tradition for Royals starting prospects to get hurt or otherwise not meet expectations. Ventura probably has the best shot at making the team out of camp, but both could/should be contributors this year. The Royals have some decent position prospects but none are close to big league ready.

Pitching
James Shields is a solid rotation anchor, this is a contract year for him. Vargas, Jeremy Guthrie and Bruce Chen form a fairly uninspiring bulk of the rotation, but all hover around league average. The fifth spot is up for grabs, with Ventura, Zimmer and Danny Duffy in the mix. Duffy was a highly rated prospect prior to TJS. He's further removed from that operation but still a question mark medically. Wade Davis and Luke Hochevar are other underwhelming options.

The bullpin should be one of the best groups in the league, with Holland/Crow/Hochevar/Collins/Herrerra all returning.


Defense

This should also be one of the best Ds in baseball, with every starter a neutral or better glove. Sal Perez at C and Lorenzo Cain in CF are the best of the group.

Lineup
Sal Perez has quietly developed into one of the best two way catchers in baseball, with a criminally cheap long term contract. 1B Eric Hosmer had a much better second half in 2013, after being a train wreck for about 18 months. They need him to be more Goldschmidt than Loney going forward. Infante is a solid signing at 2B and solves what was a black hole at that position for years. Alcides Escobar at SS had a horrific year at the plate last year and is unlikely to get much better. 3B Mike Moustakas also had a down year but is a solid bounce back candidate. Alex Gordon in LF was phenomenal for two years before finally getting noticed last year, his worst of the three. Still one of the 5 best LFers in the game. Lorenzo Cain in CF is a tick below average offensively but plays stellar D. Most Royals fans wanted a power bat for RF after the Jeff Francouer Experience finally, mercifully came to an end. Instead they got Aoki, who is decent and has passed the Leadoff Hitter Certification course. Billy Butler seemed kind of underwhelming at DH last year, but apparently all DHs kind of suck now so he's a solid option. The bench will be terrible outside of maybe Valencia. They have basically zero room for error on injuries with nothing ready in the minors.

This lineup has a lot of guys who aren't bad individually, but might struggle to score runs as a group. They are going to need more power from Hosmer, Moustakas and Butler to be anything better than average.

Aoki
infante
Hosmer
Butler
Gordon
Perez
Moustakas
Cain
Escobar

Coaching
Ned Yost is a terrible in game tactician, but seems genuinely well liked by the players. Royals fans unanimously wanted him gone but he was given an extension.

Overall 2014 projection
Average-ish starting pitching and offense, good to great defense and relief pitching. Infante and Vargas make this team a great bet to at least get to .500, but it's also hard to imagine them being significantly better than that. I think they are a hair better than the Indians for second in the Central, but still well behind Detroit. They would need a breakout year from Hosmer as well as a good performance from one of the wild cards in the starting rotation to seriously contend. Some injured Tigers would help. Most projections have them right at .500, Vegas is more optimistic with the over/under at 85.5. I will lean toward the under and say 84 wins, but still a successful season for a surprisingly supportive fanbase. A lot of these players came up together a few years back and are all about to get more expensive through arbitration so it's a pivotal year to figure out who they want to keep long term.

User avatar
MrCrowesGarden
'Burb Boy
Posts: 23630
Joined: July 9 06, 11:33 am
Location: Out of the Loop

Re: Team of the Day: KC Royals

Post by MrCrowesGarden »

I'm not sure how much it really means to a major league squad, but the Royals promoted their AAA manager Mike Jirschele to a coach with the MLB team. He's part of the reason the Storm Chasers won the PCL Championship 2 of the past 3 years (especially last year)

I want to believe in the Royals, but I could see them being anywhere from right on the heels of Detroit to sub .500. 85.5 seems pretty fair to me.

I got to see Ventura in AAA, and he is a sight to see. Pretty sure I saw him hit triple digits in one of his starts.

Anyhow, I've had the fortune to see Hosmer, Moustakas, Giovatella, Ventura (and Brett Myers before he was traded) et. al pass through Omaha, and if I get this job in KC, I'd be more than happy to see them succeed again in person.

User avatar
33anda3rd
Replies Authoritatively
Posts: 8418
Joined: April 7 13, 9:45 am
Location: Chicago, IL

Re: Team of the Day: KC Royals

Post by 33anda3rd »

Wild projection I actually believe in: they win the Central.

Vidor
You've just been hit by...VidorSmarm™
Posts: 22965
Joined: June 10 10, 7:50 pm

Re: Team of the Day: KC Royals

Post by Vidor »

http://www.baseball-reference.com/draft ... ype=junreg&

Finally hit on draft picks with Gordon and Butler. They finally gave up on Luke Hochevar as an SP after years of suckitude and he was actually an effective reliever. Aaron Crow also arrived as an RP instead of an SP. The list from 1993-2004 is Zack Greinke and a lot of ghastly failures.

User avatar
Jocephus
99% conan clips
Posts: 63652
Joined: April 18 06, 5:14 pm

Re: Team of the Day: KC Royals

Post by Jocephus »

pretty sure crow was a FROSH when i was big man senior on campus at WASHBURN RURAL@!

User avatar
cardsfansince82
is shooing asian children away from his fridge.
Posts: 27873
Joined: May 17 06, 10:23 pm
Location: at the gettin' place

Re: Team of the Day: KC Royals

Post by cardsfansince82 »

33anda3rd wrote:Wild projection I actually believe in: they win the Central.
Because you think they're that good or the Tigers aren't as good? Are you high on Ventura? I could see the offense being better than expected, but that rotation is not very impressive.

jim
Red Lobster for the seafood lover in you
Posts: 50608
Joined: May 1 06, 2:41 pm

Re: Team of the Day: KC Royals

Post by jim »

I think KC is going to make things very interesting in the ALC. I think between CLE/DET/KC it's a three way crap shoot. I don't know if I can get on board to project them winning the division, but I say they at least get a WC.

Vidor
You've just been hit by...VidorSmarm™
Posts: 22965
Joined: June 10 10, 7:50 pm

Re: Team of the Day: KC Royals

Post by Vidor »

jim wrote:I think KC is going to make things very interesting in the ALC. I think between CLE/DET/KC it's a three way crap shoot. I don't know if I can get on board to project them winning the division, but I say they at least get a WC.
I kind of agree. I think they'll be in the WC mix in September again, but absolutely everything would have to break right for them to actually win that division. Maybe we could ship them some pixie dust.

Vidor
You've just been hit by...VidorSmarm™
Posts: 22965
Joined: June 10 10, 7:50 pm

Re: Team of the Day: KC Royals

Post by Vidor »

Natives getting restless over the failure to beef up the rotation

http://www.mlbdailydish.com/2014/2/13/5 ... ilure-2014

User avatar
StL Dan
banned
Posts: 8166
Joined: June 14 06, 9:40 pm
Location: St. Louis in spirit

Re: Team of the Day: KC Royals

Post by StL Dan »

Hoss had a really good 2nd half last year. Wouldn't be surprised to see him put it all together in 2014.

Post Reply