KC Royals - Offseason

[Awesome Sauce Malone]

stupid piece of **** sign that piece of **** worthless POS human sack of excrement no good non baseball playing SOB Yuniesky

[SubGod22]

stupid piece of **** sign that piece of **** worthless POS human sack of excrement no good non baseball playing SOB Yuniesky

:banghead: Betancourt returns to Royals' infield

The Royals have signed utility infielder Yuniesky Betancourt to a one-year contract, the club announced on Tuesday.
"We have been looking for a utility infielder who could play short, third and second base and we feel Yuni is a great fit," Royals general manager Dayton Moore said in a statement. "He brings a right-handed bat with some power and is a guy we know fits in well in the clubhouse."

[SubGod22]

Welcome back, Yuni-bomber

Anyone who expected the Royals to fill their utility infielder position with Yuniesky Betancourt, take one step forward. Okay, now everybody who stepped forward, step back because you’re lying. If you aren’t lying, then you have a sick, sick mind. It happened, though. It looks like the Royals are bringing back former whipping boy, Yuniesky Betancourt. He’ll play second, third and short (mostly the two former I’d think) and bring a right-handed bat that actually isn’t terrible against lefties. I’m trying to look at the positives here and Betancourt has home run power that will be useful off the bench. He’s still not good defensively, though his problem is his first step which shouldn’t be quite as bad at second and third as it is and was at shortstop.

I don’t have to go through the player profile for Betancourt as you all know him, so I’m going to dive right into my opinion on this deal. I don’t hate it, but I don’t like it either. My first reaction was that the move was vomit-worthy and enough to go back to crying for Dayton Moore getting fired, but if Ned Yost uses him correctly, things may not be quite as bad as they seem to be from first glance. The problem, though, is Yost using him correctly. The thing is that he doesn’t need to spell Giavotella as he’s already a bit behind defensively and better against lefties. I think the Betancourt signing was to spell Moustakas at third against tough left-handed pitchers and as insurance against Alcides Escobar regressing terribly with the bat.

[SubGod22]

Anatomy Of A Free Agent Signing - A One Act Play

The curtain rises to reveal a conference room. There is a large table with papers, file folders, pizza boxes, coffee cups and other items that suggest the men around the table have been there for a long time. In one corner of the room is a small table that doesn’t match the larger table that dominates the room. It’s as if this small table was added as an afterthought. On this table is an older model computer and a monitor. The walls of the conference room are decorated with blown up photographs of past Royal greats… George Brett, Bret Saberhagen, Kevin Appier. There is a spot on the wall where it is obvious a photo was recently removed. Probably Frank White.

The men gathered around the table are engaged in debate. They are scouts and baseball operation people. General Manager Dayton Moore is in the middle. There is a lone man in the corner with the computer. He is not part of the group. He is a sabermetrician.

A fun read that seems as though it could have a hint of truth to it....

The starter becomes a backup

I was reading David’s Yuni article this morning and came across a reader response that made an argument I kept seeing on various sites as to why the Yuni signing was a good thing. It was justifying the Yuni signing because we signed a “starter for a backup”. If you just keep saying the phrase “starter for a backup” over and over again it is almost mystical, like making your pencil appear to be made of rubber by wiggling it in front of your face. I don’t want to beat a dead horse when it comes to Yuni and his WAR value, but I need to state it just to make my point. From 2009 through present Yuni has posted WAR of -0.5, -1.3, 1.3, 0.7. As has been pointed out a thousand times, he was 0.2 wins better than a replacement player over the course of those 4 years.

The simple fact is that there are many players who are starters when they simply shouldn’t be. Justifying a signing because a player has been a starter in the past is just asinine. I don’t think the Yankees are going to fill their 5th starter slot with Kyle Davies and justify the signing by pointing out that he has made 144 starts in his career. I don’t see Colts signing Tyler Palko in the off season and justifying the signing by pointing out that he started 3 games this season. The reason that former starters become backups or fall out of baseball completely is that their production doesn’t justify being a starter any longer. In MLB there are 30 starting shortstops. It is a finite number. When a player’s production dips below the level where he can hold down one of the 30 starting shortstop positions, he is no longer a starter. Simply put, if Yuni’s production justified him being a starter some other team would have signed him to be a starter. He was a free agent, and each and every team had equal opportunity to sign him. Unless the Royals drastically overpaid logic dictates that if Yuni had the opportunity to be the starter somewhere else that he would have signed there.

Hello to Arms

What a cheesy title. I hope you’ll forgive me for that. While most of Royals nation is still up in arms about the Royals signing Yuniesky Betancourt to play a couple days a week for $2 million, I’ve moved on to bigger and better thoughts. On December 21 as autumn turns to winter, thoughts are about all we have. Yesterday, Roy Oswalt’s people announced that he would be willing to take a one-year deal in order to rebuild the value he’s apparently lost as evidenced by the lack of attention he’s gotten on the open market as a free agent. Personally, I think the timing is weird, but I thought we’d take a closer look at him and another pitcher who was expected to have signed a big money deal by now, but is still out there.

The reason I say the timing is weird is because most of the teams in need of pitching are either like the Royals and are looking for as big of a bargain as they can get or like the Rangers and were willing to spend big on pitching, but wanted to see what happened with the Yu Darvish sweepstakes first. Well, that’s over, so it’s curious to me that Oswalt would announce his willingness to take a shorter deal when the Nippon Ham Fighters had barely finished saying yes to accepting the bid for the Rangers to negotiate. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Blue Jays, Red Sox, Cardinals, Marlins, Dodgers and a few other teams would have interest in Oswalt now that the first domino has fallen in the big name pitcher roulette game.

Pio Deportes continues rumors on Soria trade

As I reported the other day Pio Deportes tweeted out a rumor of a possible Soria trade to the Blue Jays for Travis D’Arnaud. That rumor as I mentioned in the comments section seemed a bit far fetched but today the Spanish sports outlet mentioned a couple more realistic possibilities from the Angels.
The pitchers mentioned were Garrett Richards a righthander and former supplmental 1st rounder who put up decent stats at AA but overall has been slow to get thru the minors after being taken from the University of Oklahoma.

Richards is a big kid at 6’3 215 lbs throwing in the low to mid 90s with a decent slider, curveball and a changeup that needs development, this doesn’t seem like the front of the rotation starter GMDM has said that he wanted. ESPN posted a scouting report here if you would like to check it out.

[SubGod22]

Mijares gives Royals second lefty 'pen option

The Kansas City Royals followed up their Tuesday addition of utility infielder Yuniesky Betancourt by agreeing to a one-year contract on Wednesday with left-handed reliever Jose Mijares. The deal is worth $925,000, with performance bonuses possibly taking it up to $1 million.

Tim Collins stood as the team's only southpaw reliever until this addition of the 27-year-old Mijares.

"We expect Jose to be a solid addition from the left side that further strengthens our bullpen," Royals GM Dayton Moore said in a statement. "He has been especially good against left-handed hitters in his career and will give [Royals manager] Ned [Yost] more options to match up late in the game."

Royals sign LHRP Jose Mijares

When I found out that Jose Mijares was non tendered by the Twins 2 weeks ago I tweeted he would be a solid pick up for the Royals who were seeking a true left handed one out guy for their pen.

I am not surprised the Twins gave up on the 27 year old from Venezuela as they had long since bored of his issues. He has had trouble with weight and could end up in the Denny Reyes category in a few years. He also suddenly had trouble throwing strikes and had a tussle with team star Joe Mauer (a bad recipe if you want to stay a Twin) He also has missed significant amounts of spring training on two occasions arriving late with Visa issues.

But, despite all of this he is worth the risk and he solidifies an already solid bullpen. In his career lefties are hitting 212/.276/.331 against him. He throws a mid 9′s fastball and has some fade with his pitches that make it hard to catch up to from the left side. He also works with a change and curve.

[RoyalShock]

When I first heard about the Yuni signing I had to keep my self from laughing out loud. Once the initial reaction was over I thought about it. I'm not wild about him pulling in $2 million but he has been a starting SS all his career, in spite of being called the worst starting SS in MLB. What that means to me is that he is probably going to be a decent utility guy. If he could play SS that long and get paid for it, I have no doubt he can be serviceable at 2B and 3B with some reps during the spring. Not only that, he can at least drive the ball and hit a few homers. The alternative free agents weren't noticeably better. And do you really want Getz bouncing throws to first from the left side? Or hitting weak grounders/popups in a pinch-hit situation?

And one thing we always fail to consider is that the other available players might not have wanted to come to KC.

If nothing else, the signing was worth watching the meltdown on RoyalsReport - 14 pages and counting!

[SubGod22]

They could have got a utility guy for less. Maybe not with his possible power, but one that would be more adequate on D. He's not much of a threat at the plate. Has poor range and a below average glove. The only good thing here is he'll be expected to play less than 20 games. If someone gets injured, I'll be concerned.

Getz sucks. He's an average second baseman with no bat and should never play on the left side of the field.

2 million is way too much considering how little he'll be used. I'll have to look and see if there's anyone in AAA/AA who could have taken that role for a lot cheaper. Maybe they'd rather those guys still play more...

40 Man Roster Review - Danny Duffy

Who is Danny Duffy?

Is he the twenty-two year old who entered 2011 as the 68th best prospect in all of baseball? The guy who obliterated minor league competition, striking out 407 batters in just 350 innings? The guy who allowed just seven hits per nine innings and less than three walks per nine?

Or is he the twenty-two year old who could not get the third strike against major league hitters? The guy who allowed almost four and one-half walks per nine innings, struck out just over seven batters per nine and was tagged for 119 hits in just 105 innings of major league work?

What we currently know about Danny Duffy is that he has marvelous pure stuff. His major league fastball averaged over 93 mph and touched 95 easily. He brings a big curve, at times devastating and a decent changeup. He is a pitcher who got two strikes against batters more often than C.J. Wilson did and who probably was somewhat unlucky given that his xFIP of 4.53 was considerably better than the 5.64 earned run average that will forever reside on the back of his baseball card.

An interesting read. I believe Duffy is in the rotation this season and makes a lot of progress.

[Awesome Sauce Malone]

Im all for getting rid of Getz. Yuni has more pop in his bat so he is somewhat of a "threat" to hit one out compared to Getz. The thing about Yuni is he's going to strike out ALOT more than he's going to make contact. At least with a grounder or pop up there is more of a chance for a "productive" out.

Maybe the other guys did or didnt want to come to KC. Who knows? My biggest this year is Yost going against what he has always done (not playing bench players) and start using Yuni more often than not. I would have rather seen Keppinger back in a Royals uniform to be honest. And the only person in the minors worth considering would have been Bianchi (who was picked up in the Rule 5 draft) and Irving Falu.
Id be willing to see what you have in Falu.

[SB Shock]

Right now the Royals have a couple holes they need plug

2B - They need to find somebody other Getz - 0.254/0.313/0.287 numbers are just killers - but Betancourt won't be the savior either - Giavotella and his 0.395 OBP in the minor would be a huge upgrade and the key here.

C - It would be nice if Salvador Perez could emerge as a decent catcher.

Moustakas need to have his breakout year at 3B (just put up ROY type numbers is all I ask).

[SubGod22]

I think Gio will come around.

Perez looked great in his brief time in KC.

Hopefully Cain does alright at the plate as well.

40 Man Roster Review - Mike Moustakas

This time last winter, I figured Mike Moustakas would be the first of the wave of the heralded prospects to make their way to Kansas City. Close, but Moose was lapped by the amazing Eric Hosmer. No shame in that, though. The Royals third baseman of the future showed he has the chops to survive and thrive in the majors.

Patience has never been a part of Moose’s game. He walked just 27 times in 486 plate appearances in Triple-A and took the free pass 22 times in 365 plate appearances once he arrived in Kansas City. That’s just the type of player he is. He’s been able to get away with that grip it and rip it approach in the minors against lesser competition, but he’s going to have to reign it in for the majors. Last year, he swung at pitches outside of the zone 35.2% of the time. League average was 30.6%.

While he chases out of the zone, he doesn’t miss many pitches. Last year his contact rate was 85.5%, well above the league average of 80.7%. The lesson here though is that when you’re swinging at pitches outside of your happy zone, it may actually be better to miss.

This is going to be an outlier, but from Texas Leaguers, look at his spray chart from July when he hit .160/.198/.223:

[SubGod22]

Rookies' arrivals in KC great sign for future

KANSAS CITY -- Nothing defines 2011 for the Royals better than the May 6 callup of first baseman Eric Hosmer from the Minor Leagues. That signaled to Kansas City fans that it was game on. The future might not be now, but it was certainly just around the bend.

Hosmer, one of the many prized prospects in the booming farm system, was hitting .439 for Omaha and there was no holding him back. Five days later, he banged his first big league home run off A.J. Burnett at Yankee Stadium. The infusion of new talent continued throughout the season, giving fans a promising preview of brighter days ahead.

In fact, despite the club's low standing, folks got so fired up that attendance boomed in September, rising to an average of 26,532 for the final month -- more than 5,000 above the season average. The team responded with a 15-10 record in September and pulled out of last place in the division.

Looking ahead is the prevalent practice of Royals fans these days, but before leaving 2011 behind, here's a glimpse in the rear-view mirror of the year's top five story lines:

40 Man Roster Review - Nathan Adcock

The Royals picked 6’5″ righthander Nathan Adcock in last winter’s Rule 5 draft. With 2011 slated to be a developmental year and with room on the roster, taking a flyer in the Rule 5 made sense. As Royals fans, we have become used to the team always having such a player on its roster, or at least hanging around through most of the spring. It is nice that the 2012 roster not only did not have room for a new Rule 5 pick, but probably does not have a spot for last year’s either.

That he is a long shot to make the team is not a condemnation of Nathan Adcock’s 2011 performance. After having spent the first five years of his professional career no higher than A ball, the tall righthander managed to at least hold his own working sporadically as the long reliever out of a talented Royals bullpen.

A pretty fair assesment

[Awesome Sauce Malone]

C - It would be nice if Salvador Perez could emerge as a decent catcher.

I know its a small sample size but Sal looked GREAT last year. Will he do the same this year. All signs point to no. But his reputation is defense/offense. IMO thats the biggest thing to watch is his defensive contribution.

[SubGod22]

YUUUUUUU-NOOOOOOO!

I swear, sometimes I think Dayton Moore is deliberately screwing with us.

Like the swallows to Capistrano, like the Trekkies to Comic-Con, Yuniesky Betancourt has returned home. The Kansas City Royals, the one organization in baseball with a greater disregard for the importance of plate discipline than Yuni himself, has welcomed the prodigal son back into its bosom. And I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

The decision to re-sign Betancourt is really the quintessential Dayton Moore transaction: completely unexpected, laughable, infuriating, completely tone-deaf to the hard-core fan base – and yet, if you look at it in a certain light, it actually makes a perverse kind of sense. Depending on how willing you are to swallow the party line, you can actually convince yourself that it’s a good signing.

Start with the obvious: the Royals did not bring Betancourt back to be their everyday shortstop, or their everyday anything, really. They re-signed him with the explicit understand that he will be the team’s utility infielder, backing up at three positions and starting at none. While Yuni is patently unqualified to be a starting shortstop, pretty much every utility infielder in the major leagues is unqualified to be a starting shortstop – that’s why they’re on the bench.

[SubGod22]

The Downside - The Bullpen

Everything in RoyalLand is warm and fuzzy, well everything except the Yuniesky Betancourt signing which as DBLesky pointed out isn’t nearly as bad as most of us bloggers made it out to be. Even with that though things in KC look good the All Star game is coming for the first time in years, there are young studs all over the 25 and 40 man roster as well as having a rebuilt rotation that has enough upside that if you squint you can see a possible rainbow shining. All of this could allow KC to possibly challenge .500 for the first time since 2003 which for most of us diehard Royal fans is enough to smile.

With all this positivity what better time for me to toss in some black clouds and wake us all up to what could happen next season.

I’ll start with the bullpen, as some of us bloggers might have an overinflated sense of the talent walking out of the cage as evidenced during a recent Buster Olney question on twitter as to who had the 10 best bullpens in the majors, a few of us tweeted out Soria, Crow, Holland and Broxton’s names as if they were locks to have great seasons but then I got to thinking, is this that good of a pen? Yes they are long on talent but equally they are long on ifs, here are just a few of those.

[SubGod22]

40 Man Roster Review - Sean O'Sullivan

A few years back, Sean O’Sullivan was somebody.

As a 19 year old in the Midwest League, the rotund righty threw 158 innings, allowed just 136 hits, walked only 40 and struck out 125 on his way to a 2.22 ERA (3.04 FIP). Baseball America named him the fifth best prospect in the Angels’ system.

The following year, O’Sullivan pitched the same number of innings, walked ten more batters, struck out 14 less and, thanks in no small part to pitching in the hitter’s Shangra-La known as the California League, was tagged for a 4.73 ERA (albeit with a still decent 3.61 FIP). For those of you who remember the days of Royals’ prospects spending the summer in High Desert, you will note that overall it was far from a disaster for O’Sullivan.