KC Royals - Offseason

[SubGod22]

GMDM Goes Stealth, Signs Broxton

After the flurry of Colby Rasmus rumors the night before, we should have known something was up. Smoke screen style.

Because really, who saw the Jonathan Broxton signing?

No one, that’s who.

My initial reaction to the trade was this is exactly the kind of thing Dayton Moore has done over the last couple of years… Kick the tires on a relatively low cost guy with a bit of upside. Most recently, he did the trick with Melky Cabrera and Jeff Francoeur. With the Melk-Man, it netted the Royals a starting pitcher. With The Frenchman it bought us two more years of the French Quarter in right field.

Hopefully, the Royals will get fair value for their efforts here.

Yet there’s considerable risk involved. The guy hasn’t pitched since last May 3. And that was the feather in a whole cap of ugly that stretched back to the end of June in 2010. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Last May, when Broxton exited the Dodgers game against the Cubs in early May he had been brought in to hold a 1-1 tie, retired the first batter, but was pulled after missing the strike zone with eight consecutive balls. Following the game, Dodger manager Don Mattingly affirmed Broxton was still his closer, but he hit the DL the following day, with fluid buildup in his elbow. He also revealed that in 2010 he had an MRI that revealed a bone spur.

Ah… 2010. Now, back to the Dodger game on June 27, 2010. In that game, LA held a lead against the Yankees 6-2 in the top of the ninth when Broxton made his appearance. Strange that he would pitch in this game, since it wasn’t a save situation. Stranger still given the fact that Broxton had thrown 19 pitches over 1.1 innings in a 9-4 Dodger blowout the night before. You probably know the story of the June 27 game by now. Broxton retired the first batter before allowing the next five to reach as the Yankees tied the game.

Especially notable was how then manager Joe Torre sat on his hands and allowed Broxton to pile up 48 pitches in that appearance. Combine that with his 19 the day before and you see that Torre allowed his closer to throw 67 pitches in about 24 hours.

And as the story goes, Broxton hasn’t been the same since.

[SubGod22]

Jonathan Broxton setup to a loss

The Royals signed Jonathan Broxton today to what most described as a team friendly 1 year 4 million dollar contract. While most on the surface say it is a decent low risk possible big reward deal that could possibly free up either a deadline trade if out of the race or even a possible Soria deal prior to the season I see a different deal all together.

If you take a quick peak at Broxton’s Baseball Reference Similarity Scores you will find his most similar pitcher is Rob “Nasty Boy” Dibble while the one he most resembles through age 27 is Mark Wohlers. These are bad omen’s in my opinion, as both pitchers like Broxton sliced and diced through major league hitters before hitting a wall very similar to the one Broxton has encountered the last eighteen months. Both power pitchers dominated for about a five year period and after hitting that wall they never reached their previous peak again with Wohlers putting up a half of a season of acceptable pitching for the Reds only to be out of the majors within two years.

Reasonable concerns in this article, but one has to wonder if the bone spur is what caused the dip in production and if it's been taken care of he may return to being a very productive piece in the pen.

Center Field Still in Flux

Writer’s Note: This was actually written on Monday night/Tuesday morning, but news of the Jonathan Broxton signing broke and that became a little more important. I just wanted to make that known since some of the times seem a little off now.

A report in the Toronto Sun last night indicated the Royals aren’t entirely thrilled with turning over the reigns in center field to Lorenzo Cain. If they’re talking defensively then they’re crazy because i think Cain is quite good in center field. Plus, if they were willing to live with Melky Cabrera for the whole season, then they’re clearly not that concerned with defense in center. Still, some may wonder why the Royals would trade Melky Cabrera if they were not convinced Lorenzo Cain could start in center field, and I believe it was Greg who answered that question on Twitter last night. The short of it is that the Royals need pitching badly and Melky Cabrera was able to net Jonathan Sanchez while Lorenzo Cain was not.

I think there’s potential that this is stemming from the ability to use Cain in a trade to get more pitching, someone of the Jair Jurrjens caliber and then needing a replacement for him. If the Royals are able to acquire a number two starter (and no, Jurrjens is not it), they are a contender in the American League in 2012 with the addition of the second wild card team. And teams who expect to contend need someone better offensively in center field than Mitch Maier or Jarrod Dyson, which leads to the Royals needing to acquire someone else if they were to trade off Lorenzo Cain. And it may turn out that contending teams need someone better than Lorenzo Cain in center field as well. His track record in the minors indicates that he’ll hit, but every report I see indicates he has a hole in his swing and may not translate to the big leagues well. I saw it to an extent in his brief debut in September, but it’s difficult to base anything on that.

Interesting thoughts. I'm not sure what to say, but McCutchen interests me as well if they could get him. Not sure about trading away Monty, but for the right player, it'd be worth considering.

Old ideas implemented in new CBA

Sometimes ideas take longer to develop than prospects.

The idea of each team having a pre-determined “budget” to sign players, as that’s what it amounts to in the new CBA, was discussed in scouting director meetings as long ago as the mid-1990’s. Like most ideas bounced around in those meeting and in informal talks between scouts, those ideas were debated and vetted out but never acted on.

In fact, the tone of the scouting director meetings I’ve attended or talked to scouting directors about was always, “It really doesn’t matter what we recommend, it will get negotiated out when they get down to the really big issues.” At least that was the tone until recently.

Only with relations between Major League Baseball and the Players Union on historically solid ground and professional baseball hemorrhaging money amidst record franchise values, there really weren’t many “big issues” to negotiate. So the smaller issues of the draft and international signings, long swept aside, were able to be addressed.

The owners have spoken very loudly on the subject. They want cost certainty when it comes how talent enters professional baseball. And they want that cost to be lower than what it has escalated to in recent years.

And they have the undeniable right to want and execute those things.

The new CBA doesn’t contain a “hard cap” in defining exactly what teams can spend on amateur free agents, both domestically and internationally. But they’ve made the “Tax” (read “penalty”) for exceeding one’s budget punitive and excessive enough to dissuade even the most deep pocketed owner from entering those waters without significant forethought.

For the complete new CBA, including the detailed draft changes, click here.

I'm still torn.

[ShockTalk]

I would think McCutchen would be a much better get than Rasmus. Eventhough KC would need to give up more to get him, the chances of him bringing more in return down the road would also be much greater than Rasmus.

[vtshocker]

Id a be happy Royals fan if we traded for McCutchen

[SubGod22]

Diminutive reliever Collins deceptively strong

BOSTON -- Tim Collins' size will always provide a talking point and a measure of surprise, just as it did for David Eckstein. Certainly, seeing a 5-foot-7 pitcher -- the left-handed Collins has said he's just a quarter of an inch from 5-foot-8 -- must've felt out of the ordinary for opposing batters last season, his first in the Majors.

But a glance at Collins' physical build and his 2011 numbers, as well as an understanding of his work ethic, could shift attention to matters more central to his career.

Collins, 22, went 4-4 with a 3.63 ERA in 67 innings and 68 appearances for the Royals in 2011, posting an impressive 60 strikeouts. The walk total (48) is the only pockmark, and that's something he's aiming to fix.

If he can get his walks down, he'll be quite an asset. I think he'll be just fine.

Broxton drawn in by Royals competitiveness

KANSAS CITY -- It turns out that Royals manager Ned Yost is quite a recruiter. He helped snag relief pitcher Jonathan Broxton for the Royals by inviting him on a bow-hunting trip down in Georgia.

How could Broxton resist? He hunts and fishes around his hometown of Waynesboro, Ga., just south of golf mecca Augusta, and here was Yost inviting him to chase deer around Jeff Foxworthy's place over at LaGrange. Yeah, that Jeff Foxworthy; the comedian is Yost's pal. And, hey, the Royals' Jeff Francoeur was coming along, too. Just some good ol' Georgia boys out huntin' whitetail and talkin' baseball.

As Broxton tells it, this came at the height of the recruiting season, when he had 10 or 12 teams courting him. The Royals were among the first at his door, and so Yost said come on down.

Is Foxworthy on the payroll?

[SubGod22]

Soria v. Holland: The Rumble in the Left Field Bullpen

While the title of this battle needs a little work, there’s already some tussling going on among the fanbase regarding who is better between Joakim Soria and Greg Holland. This, of course, stems from the signing of Jonathan Broxton and what it means for the bullpen which already appeared to be a strength. Often in Dayton Moore’s regime, he’s made a move that looked great if he followed it up with something else. Almost as often, he never followed up that move. Now, I have no way of knowing if he tried or not all those times, but I do get the impression that Dayton gets impressed by the shiny things on the free agent market sometimes and signs them without thinking of the ramifications. I don’t believe the Broxton signing is an example of that as bullpen depth is always important, no matter how good you think your pen is. Relievers are volatile and with most of them, you don’t know what you’re going to get from year to year.

Up until last season, Joakim Soria was a part of the minority of relievers who were consistenly excellent year in and year out. We had a pretty good feeling that he was going to put up an ERA somewhere between 1.75 and 2.40, strike out about a batter per inning, walk about two per nine and just generally be fantastic. Something happened last season, though, and he simply wasn’t fantastic. I don’t think he was as bad as a lot of people seem to believe, but he definitely wasn’t as good as he had been in previous seasons. Taking a closer look at the numbers, let’s compare his 2011 season to 2008 when he posted the lowest ERA of his career at 1.60. His peripheral numbers were actually eerily similar with 8.95 K/9 in 2011 compared with 8.82 in 2008. He walked 2.54 per nine innings in both seasons. The big difference was luck. In 2008, Soria allowed a .207 BABIP while in 2011, that number was .312. The other big difference was the number of home runs he allowed. He allowed 3% more of his flyballs to become home runs in 2011 than he did in 2008. Of course, he allowed far more line drives in 2011 and obviously wasn’t as good, but the two seasons weren’t that far off from each other. I do think Soria will bounce back and while he may never be as good as he was in 2009 or 2010, he’ll still be in the upper tier of closers.

[SubGod22]

Giavotella, Herrera win Minor League Awards

KANSAS CITY -- Royals second baseman Johnny Giavotella and pitcher Kelvin Herrera reached the Major Leagues this year, and now they'll have awards to commemorate how they did it.

Giavotella was named the George Brett Hitter of the Year and Herrera was named Paul Splittorff Pitcher of the Year on Thursday by the Royals as the top players in the Minor League organization for 2011. Giavotella had a .338 average and led all of the Minors with 153 hits for Triple-A Omaha. Herrera, a reliever, had a combined 7-1 record with 14 saves and a 1.60 ERA in 45 games for Omaha, Double-A Northwest Arkansas and Class A Wilmington.

On Aug. 5, Giavotella became Kansas City's regular second baseman and had a .247 average in 46 games. On Sept. 21, Herrera was promoted to KC and made two relief appearances.

Moore to explore possible moves at Meetings

KANSAS CITY -- More and more, it looks as if the Royals have check marks next to the primary items on their wish list and will have a quiet Winter Meetings at Dallas. Two starting pitchers, check. A veteran reliever, check.

Not that general manager Dayton Moore will be idle. He'll be sifting through any possibilities that come up in the next several days, even in the pitching area.

"I like our rotation right now, I really do. I like what we've done, I like the depth that we have, I love our bullpen, potentially it's very strong," Moore said. "But we'll continue to search and be open-minded and rely on the judgment of our scouts."

[SubGod22]

Winter Meeting Prelude

The annual Winter Meetings open next week in Dallas. Normally, this is when the free agent field starts to thin out. And with all of the top free agents still on the market, this looks to be an especially active session.

So the question is, will the Royals be active? We know the lineup is basically set. The bullpen has been (hopefully) strengthened with the signing of Broxton. So that leaves the rotation. Currently, there are seven or eight candidates for a starting job in Kansas City, and none of them inspire much – if any – confidence.

Supposedly, the Royals don’t want to go the free agent route. I understand that. They want to keep their fingers crossed and hope their pitching prospects develop for the long term good of the franchise, while the guys in the mix this year routinely give them six strong innings per game. But the Royals could really make a splash if they found a decent starting pitcher on the open market to slot into their rotation. In a weak AL Central, this could be the tipping point between being competitive and making this another year of development.

And from the sounds of it on Twitter, Frank White has been fired by Dayton Moore from the TV crew. So has the producer (Kevin Shank). Not a big fan of that move. White was very good in the booth.

[SubGod22]

Rule 5 Draft - Minor League Storage Wars

The Winter Meetings are right around the corner for the major league clubs and while most of us will take our time refreshing MLBtraderumors.com and twitter for the latest rumor spit out by Ken Rosenthal or Buster Olney there is also a rummage sale known as the Rule 5 that will also go on. I like to think of the Rule 5 draft as the Storage Wars of player aquisition. Most the time in Storage Wars you purchase lockers that are full of junk hoping to just get your money back but every now and then you start to toss **** out of it to discover that you have a painting by Picasso beneath that dirty blanket. Joakim Soria has been that Picasso for Kansas City, painting corners since being taken with the 2nd pick of the 2006 rule 5 draft becoming an All Star and valuable commodity to the organization after picking him up for just 50K. Teams don’t expect to find that Picasso for $500 but if they are lucky maybe they’ll find a Rolex or a guitar they can hock for some dough. People won’t break the bank with that Nate Adcock you find but it’ll make you come back again hoping you find the next Josh Hamilton.

Dayton Moore and Kansas City have used three picks in addition to the Soria pick on the major league phase of the Rule 5 since GMDM took over all of which have been on pitchers. With the following results.

2007 No pick used
2008 Jose Lugo LHP traded to Mariners for cash
2009 Edgar Osuna LHP outrighted to minors after Atlanta declined to reclaim him
2010 Nate Adcock

Last years pick Nate Adcock seems to be a decent pickup for Kansas City as he will likely head back to the minors this season with a chance to build on his rookie campaign with the Royals. He had flashes of success out of the pen and seemed to show that he was worth the price of keeping him on the roster for the entire season on a non-competing club but this years roster could be a tougher nut to crack as I don’t see a fit for the Royals in the Rule 5 in terms of pitching because of the depth in the bullpen and in with the number of possible starters. If Kansas City is going to make a pick I think the best alternative would be that of a utility infielder. Someone who could play shortstop or second base in pinch defensively while adding to a need on the bench as a pinch hitter or runner. Kansas City will likely play 150 games with essentially the same lineup in the infield and outfield barring injury, knowing that picking up someone to ride the bench most days may be a decent alternative as roster filler. Here are some of the players that may fit that profile:

I do agree that if they're going to draft someone, a utility infielder would probably make the most sense considering guys aren't going to sit much. It'll be interesting to see what they do.

[SubGod22]

As I thought, the White move was not a pleasant one. Broadcaster White won't return to booth in '12

White, 61, wasn't surprised by the decision -- "I knew it was coming," he said -- but he was upset enough to declare that he's severing ties with the team.

"I'm not going to work for the Royals ever again," he said. "I am done with the Royals in entirety. I can't deal with them anymore."

White, an eight-time winner of the American League Gold Glove at second base, grew up in Kansas City and has been a public face of the Royals for many years. His 20 is one of three numbers, along with George Brett's 5 and Dick Howser's 10, retired by the club. His statue stands inside Kauffman Stadium.

What was White, who said he had a mutual option contract with FOX Sports to return in 2012, told about his dismissal?

"When I talked to the guy at FOX, it was all about the Royals. They thought the broadcast was negative and they wanted to bring somebody in that was more in line with the thinking of the organization," White said.
White didn't feel that he was negative on the air.

"I didn't say anything negative about this ballclub last year," White said. "I just tried to be a coach and show people different things on defense and on offense that could help them understand the game a little bit better. And I've gotten so many comments from people that say, 'I really enjoy you on the broadcasts, I really learn something every time I watch the game.'"

White drew on vast experience and success as a player. He appeared in seven postseasons with the Royals and was the AL Championship Series MVP in 1980 when he hit .545 and the team went on to its first World Series appearance. In the 1985 World Series victory over St. Louis, he batted in the cleanup spot and led the Royals with six RBIs. He was inducted into the Royals Hall of Fame in 1995.

His TV role grew with the illness of Royals Hall of Fame pitcher Paul Splittorff, the TV analyst who died last May 25 of cancer.

"What got lost in this, and needs to be remembered, is that Frank was called in for a difficult situation when Paul was sick, and I don't know that Frank was ever the full-time analyst. He was holding Paul's place until Paul could come back," Swanson said. "And, obviously, Paul didn't come back and now that we're beyond that situation, both parties [FOX and the Royals] have decided it's time to move on."

Before becoming involved in team broadcasting, White had been a Royals coach (1997-2001), in the front office (2002-03), and was manager for their Double-A team at Wichita for three years (2004-06). More recently, White worked in community relations for the team but resigned as a full-time employee last January over what he called "a two-thirds cut" in salary. He continued to work as a part-time Spring Training instructor and in his TV role for FOX.

This was a piss poor move by KC.

For Want Of A Pitcher: Jonathan Broxton?

First off, I need to revise my analysis of the Bruce Chen signing to include a very important point that I somehow overlooked last time. It’s not entirely correct to say that Chen will cost the Royals $9 million (with incentives) over the next two seasons. Chen will, in fact, cost the Royals $9 million PLUS a supplemental first-round pick, the pick that they would have received had he signed with any other team.

This is not a trivial difference. Studies on the value of draft picks have estimated that a supplemental first-round pick is worth approximately $3 million, above and beyond the cost of actually signing that player. For a franchise that has made player scouting and development its central focus since Dayton Moore was hired, and a franchise which has done so well with the draft picks it has had, it’s astonishing how few high draft picks the Royals have had to work with.

By re-signing Chen, the Royals guarantee that they will not receive any extra draft picks next June, which means that in the seven drafts since Moore was hired, the Royals have had exactly ONE extra draft pick, the supplemental first-rounder they received when David Riske, of all people, departed. (Who did the Royals draft with that pick? Mike Montgomery.) Meanwhile, the Royals also forfeited their second-round pick in 2009 for signing Juan Cruz.

Obviously, the Royals value those extra picks, and they have tried to game the system to acquire some extra picks, as when they offered Mark Grudzielanek arbitration after the 2008 season with no intention of signing him. (The gambit failed when no other team signed Grudzielanek to a major-league contract.) But the Royals have had opportunities for extra draft picks in the past. Last winter, they could have declined David DeJesus’ option and offered him arbitration he almost certainly would not have accepted. Instead, they traded him for Vinny Mazzaro and Justin Marks, a pair of pitchers who combined weren’t worth the value of a draft pick.

This winter, they could have let Chen walk, replaced him with a comparable pitcher on the market, and be compensated with a high draft pick for their troubles. They chose not to, and that has to be added to Chen’s price tag. A transaction which might have earned a C grade otherwise is now more like a C- or a D+. Re-signing Chen might turn out to be a missed opportunity in more ways than one.

The Chen signing was predictable, at least, something that can not be said for the Royals’ decision to bring in Jonathan Broxton. At first glance, this seems like a transaction ripped out of the pages of the Dayton Moore 2009 catalog. Sure, let’s guarantee $4 million to a pitcher coming off an elbow injury, to fill a need that the team doesn’t even have.

The Royals’ bullpen ranked 8th in the AL this season with a 3.75 ERA, but to give you an idea of just how bad Mazzaro’s seven-out, 14-earned-run performance was, if you take out that one appearance, the bullpen’s ERA drops to 3.52 – which would have ranked third in the AL, just thousandths of a point behind the Angels for second. They did that with a bullpen that was, almost to a man, remarkably inexperienced and inexpensive. Aside from closer Joakim Soria, and Robinson Tejeda’s seven ineffective innings, every other reliever the Royals used last season was pre-arbitration-eligible. With the exception of Aaron Crow, who got a major-league contract when he signed as a first-round pick, every other reliever made six figures.

[SubGod22]

Frank White Out

This is becoming the winter of the bumbling PR move for the Royals.

The statement:

FOX Sports Kansas City and the Kansas City Royals appreciate Frank White stepping into a larger role as game analyst the last three seasons. He shifted from a planned part-time role to a near full-time role and performed admirably in the booth at a time of need. We also want to thank Kevin Shank for his years of leadership as producer of Royals telecasts. FOX Sports Kansas City has decided to go in a different direction with these positions next year. A search for their replacements will begin immediately.

I’m not sure the Royals understand the relationship people like Frank White have with the fans. Kansas Citian. Royal in the glory years. Minor league manager. Broadcaster. And as a broadcaster, he was the most visible tie between the team and the fans. He wasn’t a particularly good or smooth at television, but Royals fans love the guy. That’s what happens with icons.

And you just don’t kick icons to the curb. Unless you’re the Royals.

:good:

Winter Meetings Plan

We talk about The Process – hell, we joke a lot about The Process – but today let’s talk about The Plan.

We don’t really know what Dayton Moore and the Royals have planned for the Winter Meetings, but we can make some pretty educated guesses. One good guess would be that The Plan is to do nothing at all and just sit back and watch the Marlins sign everyone. As I wrote several weeks back, that particular plan has some appeal to this writer. There seems to be too much rumbling to make me think this is actual what will happen, however.

The other end of the spectrum would be The Big Splash. This would be an out of nowhere signing of C.J. Wilson or a blockbuster trade of prospects for Gio Gonzalez or James Shields or ‘insert your favorite not-very-plausible-but-yet-kind-of-not-impossible pitching target here’. Almost every discussion would begin with an opposing GM saying the name Wil Myers, quickly followed by Dayton Moore hanging up, so I doubt that we will see something of that nature this week.

That leaves us with something in the middle.

While it might not all come together this week in Dallas (in fact, it won’t), I think The Plan includes procuring a veteran middle infielder, probably a back-up catcher and one additional starting pitcher.

[RoyalShock]

Go read Sam Mellinger's piece at the KC Star (sorry, I'm about to leave work and don't have time to find the link). He looks at it from both sides and Frank White is not an innocent party. It could have been handled better, perhaps, but you can only deal with an entitlement personality for so long. Don't get me wrong, White was a great Royal and KC has done much to honor him. But if he's bad-mouthing the Royals to other teams, as is being rumored among those in the know, they don't owe him anything more. I'm not sad he won't be on the broadcast anymore. Hopefully there will be some sort of reconcilliation in the near future.


The non-renewal of producer Kevin Shank is worse, IMO.

[Awesome Sauce Malone]

This article?

http://www.kansascity.com/2011/12/02/3298952/im-done-with-the-royals-frank.html#storylink=misearch

maybe my reading comprehension isnt as good as it used to be but I read nothing how you interpret it.

[SubGod22]

Talent-rich Royals drawing interest in Dallas

DALLAS -- Wearing a workout top and running shoes, Dayton Moore looked more ready to go jogging through the wet streets of Dallas than to go sprinting after a deal in the bustling lobby of the Hilton Anatole.

Indeed, the Royals' general manager, leaning back in a comfortable chair in the team's suite, really had nothing much to report as the first day of the Winter Meetings drew near a close on Monday.

Oh, there were Royals rumors racing about the lobby of the immense hotel. Given the club's interest in continuing to improve the pitching rotation, there was loose talk involving prominent starters.

Not surprisingly, Wil Myers, the Royals' prize outfield prospect, figured in the deals being dreamed up and offered up as possible scenarios.

And maybe the best piece I've seen written on the subject... Frank White, paranoia and fighting the current

Frank White has been fired by the Royals.

Consider that if you will for a moment. One of the greatest living legends in the relatively short and mostly un-legendary history of the Kansas City Royals has been told to walk away from the franchise. It’s clearly the quick and dirty version of what has happened and it doesn’t approach the many and varied nuances involved in the situation, but most people aren’t going to care about the nuances. Even if they were to know all of the small things that went into this very large decision, few minds would be changed. The bottom line is as stated above. The Royals told a local legend to “get bent”.

Only a select few will ever know what went down behind closed doors and at this point only one is talking: Frank. He’s been vocal in saying he was fired because he said some “negative” things while broadcasting games. I’m sure it likely goes further than that and the Royals have a longer list of things that they would trot out if it didn’t make them look like bigger schmucks than they already do. Hell, some of them are probably even justifiable reasons to fire someone.

[SubGod22]

Winter Meetings updates

I have been told the Padres have reached out to check the availability of Joakim Soria and the Royals have really been kicking the tires on Jeremy Guthrie

I talked to 2 baseball people about Guthrie and got this response…”Guthrie has number 1 stuff and number 2 ability. He would pitch better in KC over Baltimore.”

Royals Make The Meetings Go Round

Remember the Bizarro World episode of Seinfeld where Elaine found characters who were the opposite of Jerry, George and Kramer and started hanging out with them? Awesome episode, and that’s what I feel like is going on at the Winter Meetings right now with the Royals. Pretty much every player who has been deemed available through trade by someone seems to be connected to the Royals. I think part of that is educated guessing based on the fact that Dayton Moore has said multiple times that his goal is to acquire another starter and the fact that the Royals have the prospects to land just about anybody if they’re willing to include them in a deal. Another part of it, I think, is that the Royals are legitimately involved in discussions with multiple teams regarding their starting pitchers.

Normally, I’d start with the biggest name and work my way down, but I’m honestly not sure which name is the biggest between the first two, so I’ll just go alphabetically and start by talking about Gio Gonzalez. Names haven’t been exchanged, at least not in the public for what the A’s would want in return for their star lefty. Speculation is that in this deal (and the next one we’ll talk about), the A’s would want Wil Myers who is the close to consensus number one prospect in a still very well regarded Royals system. My first thought is, ‘Yes…give me an ace for a guy who hasn’t played an inning above AA every day of the week.’ Then I thought about it and I’m not sure I’d give up Wil Myers for Gio Gonzalez.

I'm not a fan of giving up Myers in a trade. Sure, I'd consider any trade that involves him, but I think I'd rather give up someone like Monty. And I think Monty is going to figure it out soon and be a very good pitcher.