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Kila Fever! (and fun with comps)

In recent weeks, the season has gone from disappointing to ugly.  Thankfully with September call-ups, we now have something to be excited about.  Welcome to the Kansas City Royals, Micah Kila Kaaihue (or Ka’aihue, depending on the source).  It’s good to really have something to look forward to when watching Royals games as they play out the string.  Part of me wants Kila to not get overexposed in September.  Part of me wants him to play everyday.  God only knows what Trey Hillman is thinking (at any time, about anything).

In 2001, Royals Scouting Director Deric Ladnier was on a scouting trip in Hawaii to watch Bronson Sardinha and Brandon League.  While he was there, he saw Kaaihue.  Sardinha and League went in the first two rounds of the draft that year and the Royals took Kila in the 15th round in 2002.  Kila comes from a baseball background, as his father Kala was a career minor league catcher (his nickname was "Krash" Kaaihue) and his brother, also named Kala, is a catcher in the Braves system (bloodlines!).

Kaaihue_medium 

The brothers Kaaihue

I think we’re all familiar with Kila’s story.  Through most of his minor league career, he had pretty good plate discipline and some raw power, but for the most part, it didn’t give rise to very impressive stats (another toolsy prospect).  And then, this year at age 24, he absolutely exploded.

Kila2_medium

 The secret must be that he got mean this year.

 

Age

Level

OPS

18

Rookie

0.762

19

A

0.738

20

A

0.792

21

A+

0.928

22

AA

0.608

23

A+

0.780

 

AA

0.806

24

AA

1.086

 

AAA

1.079

 

I was curious if there were any other players who had comparable minor league track records who came to the majors and succeeded to some degree.  So, I spent far too much time looking through baseball-reference.com and thebaseballcube.com, looking at a bunch of first basemen to see what kind of comps I could find.  This was not an exhaustive study of every MLB first basemen, but I did cover a lot of ground.

 

In short, my comp criteria were:

 

1.      Came to the majors as a first baseman.

2.      Didn’t make his major league debut until his age 24 season at the earliest.

3.      Had a somewhat spotty, somewhat inconsistent minor league track record.

4.      Followed a minor league career path (age, level and stats) roughly similar to Kila.

 

There were no perfect comps.  I couldn’t find any first baseman who had stats quite as poor as Kila who suddenly blossomed at age 24.  There might be one, but I didn’t run into him.  But I did find some interesting, rough comps.

 

Steve Balboni

 

Age

Level

OPS

21

A+

0.541

22

A+

0.798

23

AA

0.952

24

AAA

0.869

 

MLB debut: 24

# of MLB seasons: 11

Peak season OPS+: 123

Career OPS+: 101

 

Jeff King

 

Age

Level

OPS

21

A+

0.753

22

A+

0.961

 

AA

0.629

23

AA

0.739

24

AAA

0.713

 

MLB debut: 24

# of MLB seasons: 11

Peak season OPS+: 116

Career OPS+: 99

 

J.T. Snow

 

Age

Level

OPS

21

A-

0.819

22

A+

0.672

23

AA

0.806

24

AAA

0.869

 

MLB debut: 24

# of MLB seasons: 15

Peak season OPS+: 146

Career OPS+: 105

 

Ryan Howard

 

Age

Level

OPS

21

A-

0.838

22

A

0.825

23

A+

0.883

24

AA

1.021

 

AAA

0.956

 

MLB debut: 24

# of MLB seasons: 5 (active)

Peak season OPS+: 167

Career OPS+: 139

 

Jason Giambi

 

Age

Level

OPS

22

A+

0.906

23

AA

0.682

 

AAA

0.888

24

AAA

0.978

 

MLB debut: 24

# of MLB seasons: 14 (active)

Peak season OPS+: 198

Career OPS+: 146

 

One thing you’ll notice is that all of these comps started their professional careers at age 21 or later because they were all college draftees, whereas Kaaihue was drafted out of high school.  So Kila got some of his rough, early developing years out of the way in the low minors, while these other players did it in college.  But if you’ll compare Kila’s numbers from age 21 on to the other players, you’ll see something roughly similar.  Some ups, some downs and for most of them a late peak.

 

What does all of this mean?  That’s hard to say.  Certainly there is more precedent for a player of his pedigree to succeed in the majors than someone like Mike Aviles.  And the above list is pretty damn good.  All but one of those comps received MVP votes at some point in his career and two won MVP awards.  Let’s hope Kila can match at least one of those comps.  Pomaika’i, Kila.

 

 

 

Comment 37 comments  |  5 recs  | 

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Very nice

He truly is a reason to watch in September.

by I need more Esteban on Sep 2, 2008 8:35 AM EDT reply actions  

I'm psyched, but unfortunately, I'll bet

Hillman isn’t.

There are now 4 firstbasemen on the team. Only 2 can play, assuming 1 DHs, each game.

What should happen, for player development:
Butler continues to play every day
Shealy and Kila roughly split the other spot
Gload either plays some OF, if Trey insists, or serves as bench player

What is more likely to happen:
Butler continues to play every day
Gload and Shealy roughly split the other spot
Kaahuie rots on the bench, ala Huber last season.

I hope I’m wrong.

by loyal2sdad on Sep 2, 2008 11:03 AM EDT reply actions  

If Gloady continues to play 1B every day, it

will be an absolute crime. At a minimum, they need to see what they have with Shealy and Butler, and it would be nice to give Kila at least a few ABs. I really can’t see a good reason to give him any more ABs this season.

We always did feel the same, We just saw it from a different point of view, Tangled up in blue.
-Bob Dylan

by Royal Kingdom on Sep 2, 2008 2:21 PM EDT up reply actions  

WTF?

J. T. Snow OPS+ed 146?

OMG Banny. FWIW I am only crdtng u w/3 runs allwd bc of DDJ OMFG

by Matt Klaassen on Sep 2, 2008 11:41 AM EDT reply actions  

That one fluky late career season when he hit .330

A mind without purpose will walk in dark places.

by NHZ on Sep 2, 2008 12:10 PM EDT up reply actions  

JT Snow was a stud...

and a heck of a defensive player.

Don't forget to send your broken maples to the US Forest Service.

by 306008 on Sep 2, 2008 12:34 PM EDT up reply actions  

JT Snow was not a stud

he had a 105 OPS+ as a 1B. He was good defensively, yeah.

A mind without purpose will walk in dark places.

by NHZ on Sep 4, 2008 11:39 AM EDT up reply actions  

A Gloaden Glove player

OMG Banny. FWIW I am only crdtng u w/3 runs allwd bc of DDJ OMFG

by Matt Klaassen on Sep 4, 2008 11:53 AM EDT up reply actions  

saw my first

Kila home run in des moines on sunday. He hit a bomb that ended up being the game winner in the 10th.

At least Wally Joyner's not on the team....

by tcon125 on Sep 2, 2008 12:20 PM EDT reply actions  

I saw the replay

Absolute no doubt shot.

Rowdy Hardy Fan Club member.

by doublestix on Sep 2, 2008 2:46 PM EDT up reply actions  

I would be satisfied if he took the Ryan Howard track...

The concept of progress acts as a protective mechanism to shield us from the terrors of the future. - Collected sayings of Muad'Dib

by buddyball on Sep 2, 2008 2:00 PM EDT reply actions  

Also

Look at Travis Hafner’s minor league numbers. Not quite “spotty,” but did struggle initially, but struck out WAY too much early in his minor league career before correcting it at age 23.

The thing that makes them most similar, to me, is the non-traditional baseball background. Hafner grew up in NORTH DAKOTA and Kila in HAWAII. Two places you usually don’t see baseball players come from.

Rowdy Hardy Fan Club member.

by doublestix on Sep 2, 2008 2:53 PM EDT reply actions  

Darin Erstad is from North Dakota!!!1111

Hotbed of baseball stars

OMG Banny. FWIW I am only crdtng u w/3 runs allwd bc of DDJ OMFG

by Matt Klaassen on Sep 2, 2008 3:08 PM EDT up reply actions  

Ditto Roger Maris, celebrated Fargo-ite

Chaim Mattis Keller New York City's # 1 Royals fan!

by cmkeller on Sep 2, 2008 3:10 PM EDT up reply actions  

all this proves

is that Kila’s going to be the greatest first baseman ever

This space intentionally left blank.

by marbotty on Sep 2, 2008 3:39 PM EDT reply actions  

Especially

when Kila ends up leading the team in HR.

Sarcasm™. It's the new gravy.

by jonfmorse on Sep 2, 2008 4:39 PM EDT up reply actions  

What would make it awesome

Waiting for the inevitable bitching from Gload, because getting benched would cost him some not insignificant PA bonus money.

And then I could say told-you-so to NYRoyal about playing time incentives being a bad idea. : )

by loyal2sdad on Sep 2, 2008 6:02 PM EDT reply actions  

I could live with Kila's Royals career ending up like any of the comps

Balboni is the single season HR leader for Royals. Howard and Giambi MVPs and the rest were legit big league starters for many years. Beats what we’ve seen past few years in KC. Looks like Kila can draw a walk as well. Do you think the Royals would accept a player who hits HRs and takes a walk. Haven’t seen one of them in a long time.

by daveyork on Sep 2, 2008 6:09 PM EDT reply actions  

i read that ross

will be getting his grit on in the outfield in sept.

it would be sweet if shealy and kila platooned the for the month, so kila would get 2/3 AB’s. or, they could start one and replace them after the 2nd or 3rd AB of the game. either way i’d like to see kila get 55-65 AB’s

Alex Gordon in '08

by RoyalJHWKR on Sep 2, 2008 11:52 PM EDT reply actions  

G-Load Could Always

Move from LF to 1B for defense late in the game when the Nipponese managerial moves start flying.

I used to be an A's fan until they left town and got good.

by philofthenorth on Sep 3, 2008 1:03 AM EDT up reply actions  

Great post.

The one sure thing is this: we won’t learn a thing if the guy doesn’t play. Period. – TL

by timlacy on Sep 3, 2008 5:22 PM EDT reply actions  

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