The KIDS - Winter Edition

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Saguaros clinch AFL West crown

The Surprise Saguaros have made it a goal to record the best winning percentage in Arizona Fall League history. Thanks to Paul Gran and Wil Myers, they're one step closer to getting there.

Gran and Myers combined for two homers, two triples and five RBIs on Wednesday as Surprise weathered a comeback attempt and topped the Peoria Javelinas, 10-7, in 10 innings to clinch the West Division crown.

The Saguaros will be the home team in the AFL Championship Game on Nov. 19.

Surprise jumped out to an early lead as Myers remained hot with a two-out solo shot, his fourth, in the first. The Royals' No. 1 prospect followed up a 5-for-5 effort in his last game by going 2-for-3 with two RBIs. He's third in the league with a .395 batting average.

"I was just seeing the ball pretty well, was lucky enough to get some good pitches out over plate and took advantage," Myers said. "I've been seeing the ball pretty well lately."

"He's not one of those guys that's going to be cluttered in the head," Gardner said. "He's going to go up there looking to shrink his zone and execute. When you get that combination of a fast bat and real strong strike zone command, you have a chance to be a really good Major Leaguer.

Nice to see Wil having some success. Hopefully he tears up AA early and gets a shot in Omaha next year.

Royals' Billo, Smith dominate on mound

The Royals have earned a reputation around baseball in recent years as owning arguably the best farm system despite (or maybe, as a result of) not having a winning record at the Major League level since 2003. Elite talent such as Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas and Danny Duffy all reached the Majors in 2011, as expected. The Royals also got contributions from former top picks like Aaron Crow and less-heralded farmhands like Tim Collins.

That said, the Royals still have some nice talent growing at lower levels. Triple-A Omaha, which sent up everyone from Johnny Giavotella to Kila Ka'aihue and Lorenzo Cain, ended up winning the Pacific Coast League crown and advancing to the Triple-A National Championship. Double-A Northwest Arkansas won the Texas League North Division and earned a MiLBY Award after turning a triple play in a combined no-hitter this summer. Class A Kane County went to the Midwest League playoffs, but Class A Advanced Wilmington and short-season Burlington and Idaho Falls all finished in last place.

Not a shabby list of a minor league All Star team.

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Scoles 11-20 Royals Prospects

Lots of pitching

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Adcock dominant in AFL shutout

If this was Nathan Adcock's final outing of 2011, he made it a good one. In fact, he might have even overshadowed Mike Olt.

Adcock took a perfect game into the fifth inning, finishing with one hit over five dominant frames for his second win and Olt homered yet again as Surprise blanked Phoenix, 5-0, in the Arizona Fall League on Monday.

The Royals' right-hander was unhittable through four innings until the Yankees' Ronnier Mustelier drove a leadoff grounder up the middle to start the fifth frame. Adcock, who threw 56 pitches, got groundouts from Rob Segedin (Yankees) and Yan Gomes (Blue Jays) before striking out his final batter of the game, Ryan Ortiz (Athletics).

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Surprise! It's the Fall League

Ok, I’m going to be honest here. I didn’t realize it was Thursday today until about 30 minutes ago. That’s important because I was supposed to have a full-fledged insightful post on Royals baseball for you. Instead you’re getting an excuse and them some easy to post information on the Arizona Fall League. That really feels good to get off my chest.

So, about that Fall League thing. First let’s take a look at the current stats of Royals playing in Arizona.

Wil is looking good.

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Royals add Verdugo to 40-man roster

KANSAS CITY -- Just one change was made by the Royals as they finalized their 40-man roster in advance of the Rule 5 Draft on Dec. 8 at the Winter Meetings in Dallas.

Left-hander Ryan Verdugo, obtained in the deal that also brought pitcher Jonathan Sanchez from the Giants for outfielder Melky Cabrera, was added to the roster. That brought the roster to 39, including 20 pitchers.

Verdugo, 24, has a 21-7 record and a 3.14 ERA in 101 games during his four-year Minor League career. A product of Louisiana State University, he was 8-6 with a 4.35 ERA last year for Double-A Richmond, his first year as a starter.

Myers one of Fall League's top prospects

KANSAS CITY -- Outfielder Wil Myers of the Royals was named to the Arizona Fall League's Top Prospects Team in a vote of AFL managers and coaches.

Myers, who hit .360 in 23 regular-season games for Surprise, tied for the league lead with 20 walks and five triples, ranked second in on-base percentage at .481 and was third in slugging percentage at .674. A right-handed batter, he hit .403 against right-handed pitchers.

Among his accomplishments was a 17-game on-base streak, extra-base hits in five straight games and a 5-for-5 game on Nov. 5. His total of 31 hits included 14 for extra bases and he knocked in 18 runs.

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Prospect udate Luis Lara C

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Scoles 21-40 Royals Prospects

A few notables:

21. Orlando Calixte – Calixte looks the part in fact one scout in Arizona said he looks alot like Alphonso Soriano unfortunately his game resembles Soriano’s quite a bit at the plate. He has contact issues and is a bit of a free swinger, he’ll need to make adjustments at the plate to unlock his solid set of tools which includes a bit of pop that should develop. He can play shortstop with a solid arm and range if he can get his bat to come around the Royals could have a sub for Escobar when he’s ready for free agency. Look for Calixte to head to Wilmington

22. Tim Melville – It is a make or break year for Melville in the rotation as the big righthander who got 1st round type money in 2008 will need to harness his mid 90s fastball, solid curve and change to go along with his slider that he introduced last season. Melville has flashed the stuff to be a mid rotation starter or better since setting foot on the hill in the Royals org but he’s never been able to find consistency to take the next step. If he can’t put it together Melville has the stuff to be a solid arm out of the pen with three average pitches. Time for AA for Melville.

25. Cam Gallagher – Mike Napoli anyone? Well that is what we have heard since being drafted and his size definitely wouldn’t change minds. A scout I spoke with in Arizona believed he has a chance to stick behind the plate which I’m not so sure of but if he can he definitely has the power to become an asset to the org. His swing will need to shorten up a tad to reach the level the Royals want out of a 2nd round pick. 2012 Probable Assignment Kane County

31. Yem Prades – Yem is one of the most physically impressive players in the Royals system. After not playing in a while he did okay in Wilmington. Look for a possible step forward at NW Arkansas

34. Jack Lopez – The Royals paid $750K to keep Lopez from attending the University of Miami. Lopez is a coaches kid which generally means a high baseball IQ and good feel for the game. 2012 Kane County

36. Justin Marks – Marks numbers last year weren’t overly impressive but he did average nearly a K per inning while throwing extremely well in the second half of his season. Even if he can never find his back of the rotation ceiling Marks could be a serviceable bullpen arm.2012 NW Arkansas

37. Adalberto Mondesi – Raul’s son Adalberto like Humberto the year before will need to add weight and strength to handle the bat but he should be able to handle shortstop defensively.

40. Greg Billo – Billo jumped onto radars this season with an impressive output in single A. Billo doesn’t light up radar guns but he’s not afraid to use all three pitches. If he can add a few more ticks to his fastball then he may be a prospect that continues to handle the upper levels. 2012 Wilmington will be a test for Billo but the true test may not come until AA.

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Royals sign local star to minor league deal

LHP Tommy Hottovy who made his big league debut with the Red Sox last year as a 29 year old has signed as a MLFA with the Royals. Hottovy was an excellent athlete at Park Hill South where he was the starting QB, star hoops and of course baseball.

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Royals sign seven minor leaguers

KANSAS CITY -- Left-handed pitcher Tommy Hottovy, who finally made it to the Majors this year, and right-hander Zach Miner, who's been there in the past, are among seven players signed to 2012 Minor League contracts, the Royals announced on Thursday.

Hottovy, 30, in his eighth Minor League season, was called up by the Boston Red Sox in June and made eight relief appearances with a 6.75 ERA. A Kansas City native, he was 2-0 with a 2.47 ERA last summer in 32 games for two Boston farm teams. He's now pitching for Aguilas in the Dominican Winter and has a 3.52 ERA in 12 games.

Miner, 29, spent four years (2006-09) with the Detroit Tigers and was 25-20 with a 4.24 ERA in 157 games including 35 starts. After Tommy John surgery in 2010, Miner was signed by the Royals and spent this year in their Minor League system. He started 11 games for Double-A Northwest Arkansas and was 1-6 with a 7.16 ERA and then pitched 12 games in relief for Triple-A Omaha with a 1.59 ERA, two wins and a save.

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Royals swap Navarro for two Minor Leaguers

DALLAS -- Now the Royals are in business for Thursday's Rule 5 Draft. Kansas City opened a spot on its 40-man roster on Wednesday by trading infielder Yamaico Navarro to Pittsburgh in exchange for two Minor Leaguers -- right-hander Brooks Pounders and infielder Diego Goris. It was the Royals' first move of the Winter Meetings. Navarro, 24, was obtained by the Royals on July 30 in a trade that sent infielder Mike Aviles to the Red Sox. A right-handed hitter, Navarro appeared in just six games at third base and shortstop for the Royals and hit .304.

Minor League Profile Brooks Pounders

One look at Brooks Pounders and you probably think to yourself he has to be a power pitcher. At 6’4 and pushing 260 it would be easy to see why. But, Brooks is a crafty pitcher that touches 91 but sits in the upper 8′s using a potentially plus curve (slider) and change that he works around 80. He was a 2nd round pick in 2009 out of Temecula HS in Southern California and was seen by some as a first rounder and others as a third rounder. So, his selection in the second round was fitting. He was a terrific 2 way player in high school and was headed to USC to be a 2 way guy before the draft.He has been studying with my friend Alan Jaeger since the 9th grade. Before the addition of Rick Knapp and the new pitching program the Royals have instituted I would have been worried that Brooks would flounder in this organization. But. I am encouraged by what I have heard about the new program and believe Pounders has some legitimate upside.He has been used as a reliever and as a starter by the Pirates but because he has 4 quality pitches he will get a long look as a starter, probably at Wilmington in 2012.

No Yam For You

The Royals’ big move of the winter meetings thus far has turned out to be trading Yamaico Navarro to the Pirates for two low minors prospects: Brooks Pounders and Deigo Goris. Both players have some intrigue to them and both are years away from the majors. The haul was very similar to that extracted from Detroit in the Wilson Betemit deal last summer.The interesting thing about this trade is that is was made primarily to clear space for a possible Rule 5 draft pick. There is speculation that this pick might be used on a utility middle infielder: you know, someone kind of like a Yamaico Navarro. The Royals are also thinking that they might well lose Rey Navarro, another infielder, in this morning’s draft. It seems like maybe Kansas City could have just kept Yam Navarro, but there is talk they did not care for his defense. It also seems that if they were going to trade one Navarro and concerned about losing the other Navarro (Rey), then one could have moved Navarro, Rey not Yam, onto the 40 man roster. Especially considering they lost a non-Navarro middle infielder in Jeff Bianchi to the waiver process a few weeks prior.

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40-Man Roster Review

We all remember January of 2010…

Tiger Woods takes a “break” from golf. A blizzard cripples the East Coast. An earthquake rocks Haiti.

And the Royals announce they reached an agreement with Cuban defector Noel Arguelles.

The Arguelles signing represented perhaps the most aggressive foray into the international market by the Royals. General Manager Dayton Moore reached deep into the Royal coffers and came up with a five year major league contract worth a base salary of $6.9 million with the possibility to add up to $2 million in performance issues. It’s the kind of ballsy move the Royals were making to build the best farm system in the history of the game. And it’s the kind of move that the Royals (and other small market teams) won’t be able to make anymore with the new collective bargaining agreement. As such, Arguelles will forever remain the Royals largest dip into the international market.

The fact the 19 year old Arguelles defected from Cuba and the fact the Royals threw a wheel barrow full of cash in his direction, expectations were sky high from the beginning. The Royals preached caution, given he had thrown for 17 consecutive months prior to leaving his homeland. They were going to start him slowly in spring training with an eye to beginning his professional career in the low minors.

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My Top 15 Royals Prospects

When I was writing for my own site, I was the only person on there, so I was pretty much responsible for anything Royals related. When Greg asked me to bring my blog to Pine Tar Press, I was excited to be able to move to a larger platform and be able to focus more on the big leagues. As a Royals fan, though, we constantly have an eye on prospects, and that probably won’t change until there is some sort of spending limit implemented that keeps teams from having payrolls three or four times larger than other teams. Because of that, I still wanted to put out my top prospects list like I did last year. Just for some sort of reference, here is my list from last year:

1. Eric Hosmer
2. Wil Myers
3. Mike Moustakas
4. Mike Montgomery
5. John Lamb
6. Johnny Giavotella
7. Danny Duffy
8. Christian Colon
9. Chris Dwyer
10. Brett Eibner
11. Aaron Crow
12. Cheslor Cuthbert
13. David Lough
14. Everett Teaford
15. Louis Coleman

I’m pretty satisfied with that list actually as seven of those players made the big leagues last season and nobody truly faceplanted in 2011. You could say that Dwyer and Montgomery were very disappointing and that Lamb missed most of the year with an injury that will keep him out for part of 2012 well, but all in all, the list looked pretty good to me. Of course, last season the list was much easier. For one, seven players off last year’s list graduated to the majors. You should know that, though. I just told you. For another, a lot of the guys who had surprise years in 2010 didn’t step forward like we had hoped they would. So, I give you my 2011/2012 Kansas City Royals Top 15 Prospects list:

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40 Man Roster Review - Derrick Robinson

The Royals love atheletes and Derrick Robinson is a prime example. In 2006, the Royals offered him above the recommended slot bonus to convince him to play baseball instead of football for the Florida Gators. At the time he was a raw athlete who the Royals had hoped could learn to hit.

In 2010, it seemed that the Royals gamble might be close to paying off. At AA, Robinson hit .286/.345/.380 which combined with his extreme speed and solid defense made him a viable option at center field in the not-so-distant future. He got a spot on the 40 man roster and went into 2011 hoping to replicate.

As 2011 rolled around, Robinson again found himself in Northwest Arkansas. He walked a bit more often and struck out a bit more often, but he just didn’t hit the ball very often or very hard. In 483 plate appearances, he hit only 9 extra base hits, compared to 36 in 570 plate appearances in 2010.

Although his hitting plummeted, it wasn’t the only reason that Robinson was never promoted to AAA. In the off-season, the Royals acquired Lorenzo Cain who is the less athletic but better baseball version of Derrick Robinson. Almost over-night, Robinson became organizational filler and a backup plan.

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40 Man Roster Review - Jeremy Jeffress

Jeremy Jeffress was part of the trade that sent Zack Greinke to Milwaukee in December of 2010. A power arm out of the bullpen, the Royals hoped Jeffress could fill that role at the major league level.

The only thing about Jeffress that we can say with any certainty, is he’s consistently inconsistent. That’s a fancy way of saying the guy really has a difficult time finding the strike zone. Sure, he strikes out plenty of batters. That’s thanks to his electric fastball. Unfortunately, with that electricity, comes an inability to harness that current. His best walk rate at any stop (more than 15 IP) is 4.6 BB/9. And that was at A-ball back in 2007.

Jeffress was a starter his first three full seasons as a pro, but moved to the bullpen for the 2010 season. It was kind of a hail mary on the part of the Brewers as Jeffress’ walk rate spiraled out of control in 2009 at Double-A when he posted a 10.9 BB/9 (yes, 10.9 BB/9) in eight starts covering 27 innings. The walks didn’t disappear when he moved to the pen, but there were signs his control was improving.

Still, he’s yet to master the strike zone.

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Vance Wilson to manage Wilmington

Most people in the baseball industry recognized Vance Wilson as a future big league manager when he was still playing for teams like the New York Mets and Detroit Tigers.

The Royals were the perfect choice for Vance when he was still hanging onto his playing career as his wife is from the Springdale area. He spent time as the AA catcher helping the team win a championship and providing an extra coach as a player on Brian Poldberg’s team.

He managed Kane County last year and moves up a level to Wilmington this season. I expect Vance to manage in the big leagues some day and the Royals are very fortunate to have him teaching their young talent.

40 Man Roster Review - Ryan Verdugo

Little did the young Verdugo know that he would find himself sent to Missouri just like the linebacker and wide-receiver who broke his young heart. He was packaged with Jontathan Sanchez in an off-season trade for Melky Cabrera. I bring this all up becase basically there isn’t much to say about Verdugo and it’ll likely be the only opportunity for me to ever bring up Percy Snow.

That isn’t to say I don’t like him or think he won’t be valuable. He has shown a propensity to strike out a ton of guys. On the other hand, he also gives up a lot of walks and hits. In the minors he has an 11.2 SO/9 rate to go along with 4.5 BB/9 and 7.9 H/9 rates. His WHIP last year was 1.366 in Double-A, however it was his first season as a starter in professional baseball.

I’m a big fan of guys who can get guys to strike out. You know who “pitches to contact?” Guys who aren’t making a living playing as pitchers. Striking batters out is a must-have skill for a Major League player. Ryan Verdugo isn’t likely going to be a great player, but he provides some nice depth and is flexible enough to start or come out of the bullpen. The fact that he was a throw-in along with Jonathan Sanchez for a year of Melky Cabrera basically makes him house money.