Royals - Spring Training

[RoyalShock]

Blog report from the first intrasquad scrimmage, including a blurb about Tommy Hottovy.

http://www.610sports.com/pages/10108365.php?pid=223700

In other news, catcher Salvador Perez was signed to a long-term contract, five years plus 3 club-option years. If he's a bust (doubtful), KC is out just 7 million after five years. Full value of the contract is around $26 million. A good deal for club and player.

http://www.kansascity.com/2012/02/27/3455834/royals-sign-catcher-perez-to-multiyear.html

[Awesome Sauce Malone]

And Duffy agreed to a new deal as well.

[SubGod22]

I've been slacking. Wood and Soria have both experienced some elbow soreness. Mendoza is scaring fans everywhere by pitching well this spring. Quintero and IRod have both popped up as targets for KC to help with catching duties while Sal is out. And Yuni may be in play at 2B....

[SB Shock]

RDR has pointed out in some off board discussion that Cody Clark is with the Royals as a catcher.

[RoyalShock]

RDR has pointed out in some off board discussion that Cody Clark is with the Royals as a catcher.

He has been for a year or two. Organizational filler. Maybe he has coaching aspirations.

[SubGod22]

And it's possible he could start the season in KC if they don't bring someone else in...

[RoyalShock]

Sounds like Soria may not pitch another game for KC with TJ surgery on the table. Last year Soria just wasn't the same pitcher and I'd be surprised if KC picks up his $8mil option next season. I don't see him back in KC unless they re-work his contract.

With Holland, Herrera and Broxton in the stable, I'm not too worried.

[SubGod22]

I was hoping for a bounce back kind of season. But we have some very good options to take over his role in the pen. I loved the Mexicutioner, but I can move on.

[SubGod22]

How about some good news? Cain tearing it up for Royals this spring

SURPRISE, Ariz. -- Center fielder Lorenzo Cain is on a Spring Training tear for the Royals, and on Monday led all Major League batters with a .517 (15-for-29) average.

Cain also was first in on-base percentage (.576) and slugging percentage (.931) and was tied for the lead in doubles with six.
Eric Hosmer's RBI binge of 13 in the last week has given him 15, second most in the Majors. Hosmer was batting .361 (13-for-36).

Not The Royals We Tought We'd See

The Royals enjoy an off-day today at what is basically the halfway mark of spring training. Without a doubt, how a player performs in the second half of spring training is much, much more important than how he performed in the first half, but enough has transpired for us to know that the Kansas City Royals we thought we would see on April 6th are going to look a little different.
The consensus prior to camp was that the Royals would open up with this lineup:

• Alex Gordon LF
• Johnny Giavotella 2B
• Eric Hosmer 1B
• Billy Butler DH
• Jeff Francoeur RF
• Mike Moustakas 3B
• Salvador Perez C
• Lorenzo Cain CF
• Alcides Escobar SS

Now, and admittedly it is still a long time until Opening Day, the lineup might well look like this:

• Alex Gordon LF
• Lorenzo Cain CF
• Eric Hosmer 1B
• Billy Butler DH
• Jeff Francoeur RF
• Mike Moustakas 3B
• Yuniesky Betancourt 2B
• Brayan Pena C
• Alcides Escobar SS

If Cain is able to hit like he has been and take over the two spot, we could be really dangerous. Yuni is the one that concerns me. Gio needs to start hitting and keep working on his D. If Yuni is the 2nd baseman, I have a feeling that means Getz will be on the roster and that makes me feel a little sick inside.

Royals Top 10 Compilation

Giving equal weight for every spot on all six list the final Top 10 looks like this:
1. Wil Myers 10 pts
2. Bubba Starling 11 pts
3. Mike Montgomery 20 pts
4. Jake Odorizzi 25 pts
5. Cheslor Cuthbert 27 pts
6. John Lamb 28 pts (1 Unranked List)
7. Kelvin Herrera 42 pts
8. Chris Dwyer 42 pts (1 Unranked List)
9. Yordano Ventura 34 pts (2 Unranked List)
10. Elier Hernandez 26 pts (3 Unranked List)
11. Christian Colon 28 pts (3 Unranked List)
12. Jorge Bonifacio 18 pts (4 Unranked List)
13. Jason Adam 18 pts (4 Unranked List)

There's still some good talent in the system and a few of these guys could be ready this year or next. A few more are 3 or so years away which is a good thing.

Royals Place Five In The Baseball America Top 100

Five different Royals broke into the Top 100 prospect list released today including 3 in the Top 30.
Mike Montgomery who didn’t crack the BP Top 100 ranked the highest in the organization at #23 while Bubba Starling listed a spot below at #24 with Wil Myers not far behind at #28. Jake Odorizzi and Cheslor Cuthbert were the last two on the list for the Royals ranking in at #68 and #84 respectively. Bryce Harper from the Washington Nationals organization was named #1 overall.

Lough and both Robinsons have been optioned to Omaha. Will be interesting to see what Derrick does in AAA.

[SubGod22]

Soria's situation move Crow to Royals' 'pen

Removing Crow from the starting candidates narrows the field to seven, Yost said. That leaves Felipe Paulino, Luis Mendoza, Danny Duffy and Everett Teaford competing for the final two spots behind Luke Hochevar, Bruce Chen and Jonathan Sanchez.

[Firestarts]

jjjjjzzzz

thats interesting my friend, good

[BenWSU]

Royals acquire catcher Humberto Quintero & OF Jason Bourgeois from the Houston Astros in exchange for minor league P Kevin Chapman & a minor league player to be named

[SubGod22]

Absence.

Joakim Soria may have thrown his last pitch in a Royals uniform.

That was not the worst injury news the Royals received last week.

Oh, and they also made a silly trade, giving up legitimate prospects at least in part to acquire a player who creates a roster crunch without being notably better than what the Royals already have on hand.

Other than that, it’s been a fantastic week.

Let’s start at the beginning, when Salvador Perez reached for a Jonathan Sanchez pitch during warm-ups, caught his spike in the ground awkwardly, and limped off the field. The roller-coaster of emotions began – maybe it’s nothing, oh my God maybe he tore his ACL (out for the year!), oh the MRI shows it’s just a torn meniscus (4-6 weeks!), oh he’s come out of surgery and they’re saying…12-14 weeks?!

I don’t know about you, but I enjoyed the previous drama surrounding Salvador Perez a lot more.

[SubGod22]

Replacement Level Trading

With Sal Perez and Manny Pina both having knee surgery this spring, the Royals found themselves in the market for a catcher. Starter, backup… didn’t matter. They needed a catcher.

And by now we should all know how General Manager Dayton Moore operates. He sees a hole in his roster; he immediately tries to fill it. The dude doesn’t wait around. In recent days we’ve heard the Philadelphia Phillies and the Tampa Bay Rays are in the market for a backup backstop as well. That only accelerates the fire of impatience that burns within the Royals GM. He wasn’t going to let another team steal his thunder backup catcher.

So Tuesday afternoon he dealt Kevin Chapman and a PTBNL in exchange for catcher Humberto Quintero and outfielder Jason Bourgeois.

Let’s deal with the target man first…

I wasn't sure what GMDM was thinking with the trade, but the more I read, the more I wonder what the hell is going through his head...

Royals Trade Chapman For Catcher, Superfluous Outfielder

The Royals made a trade yesterday, and while the names of the pieces coming to Kansas City are probably not familiar to many, the deal will not seem out of character when you learn about it. In exchange for left-handed relief prospect Kevin Chapman and a player to be named later, the Royals acquired catcher Huberto Quintero and outfielder Jason Bourgeois. After Salvador Perez had surgery and it was determined he could be out for as many as 14 weeks, the Royals seemed hellbent on acquiring a new catcher. That part I can agree with as I don’t think what they had was enough, but it’s the acquisition they made that simply confuses me.

Let’s start with what the Royals gave up, namely Kevin Chapman. I know Chapman was well regarded between the walls of the Pine Tar Press offices, so we’ll be sad to see him go. He’s a left-handed pitcher who projects a setup man. He can throw his fastball in the mid-90s and really racks up the strikeouts. His issue is with control, as is often the case for young pitchers. Chapman was drafted in the fourth round of the 2010 draft by the Royals out of the University of Florida. Giving up Chapman is not that big of a deal to me from a baseball and business perspective as the Royals are dealing from a position of both strength and depth when talking about relievers. Chapman chatted with us back in October and did a 9 Innings interview with Greg about a year ago. It’s who they received that is causing me to furrow my brow.

The biggest piece of the deal is Humberto Quintero. He has been a big leaguer since 2003, and if you’re expecting any kind of offense from him, you’ve come to the wrong place. The numbers came as a bit of a shock to me, but anybody who can both hit and catch are difficult to find on March 20. Still, Quintero’s offensive deficiencies are glaring. His career line is .234/.268/.321. And this is the point where the acquisition begins to look familiar as far as Dayton Moore moves. But as Greg Schaum pointed out to me, this move has nothing to do at all with offense and everything to do with picking up a catcher who has better defensive skills than anybody currently on the roster not named Salvador Perez.

In Jason Bourgeois, the Royals picked up a player who appears repetitive on the current roster. Bourgeois plays outfield and is very fast, but he hasn’t hit very much at either the big league level over the minor league level. He’s right-handed, so if he makes the Royals roster, he makes the bench even more right-handed. His career line is .262/.307/.324 and the fact that last season’s .294/.323/.357 year was considered a breakout offensive performance gives me all the information I need to continue to be confused by this entire situation. Defensively, Bourgeois uses his speed to make up for the occasional bad route and he’s actually a pretty darn good defensive outfielder. His arm is a bit weak, but he does make up for that with his speed.

I'm still scratching my head...

[SB Shock]

I did some calculation using WAR (wins above replacment) and for the Royal to be contender they need ~40% increase in production. That is not as hard as it sounds. It really mean that Gordon has a simliar year, Moustakas and Hosmer emerge as all-star type production and have the pitching staff pick it up (and at least one starter emerge as all-star type performance). And the rest of the team provide solid performances at starter level.

The move for a catcher didn't help things - as he is pretty much 0 to negative WAR guy.