18 Thoughts On Will McDonald's "Around The Majors" Discussion

Hitting a lot of HR’s won’t do us much good if they are all solo shots.

20. Some people need to get a sense of humor

how is he such an important move? He has exactly the same philosophy as Moore. Granted, he is probably better at it but he is not really bringing any new skillset into that front office.

Not knocking it, great move to bring in someone of his undoubted scouting skills. But that was never DM’s big problem. Don’t get the crazy man crush on him at all.

“Why is veteran leadership and chemistry so undervalued in "the blogosphere”?"

I think because it cannot be measured or quantified, and we as the public are not privy to whether a team has good or bad chemistry, so there is little for us to discuss. I think it is a factor, but a rather small one, and I tend to believe winning creates good chemistry, and not the other way around. The Royals have had teams that got along great – and still lost a ton of games.

“If every single FA move is evaluated on OBP and, well, OBP is a valued skill among ML teams, then those players are going to necessarily be higher priced—-and hence mostly out of the Royals price range”

Agreed. And the Royals haven’t signed any free agent hitters (other than Bloomquist), which they shouldn’t if they are truly out of their price range.

There are certainly players available via trade that have decent OBAs. Nick Swisher and Josh Willingham were both recently dealt, and not exactly for top prospects. We don’t know if they were available to us, but it certainly does show that teams are willing to deal high OBA guys, and not necessarily for top dollar.

"Judging what the Royals have done by the Burrell deal is, at best, acontextual. "

I also disagree with any criticisms that we didn’t get Burrell. We have no idea if he would be willing to play here, even if we doubled Tampa’s offer.

“When the Royals receive ML profit sharing money, does it have to apply to the 40-man roster, or can it be spent in player development/drafts?”

The Royals can do whatever they want with it, including putting it in David Glass’ pocket, which for a long time was their modus operandi.

"Moore is doing one of the most difficult jobs in the majors: Balancing the two conflicting goals of (1) keeping fans interested (via some winning, some window-dressing FA moves) while also (2) developing the farm. "

How is that different from any other MLB GM?

“Will McDonald has a nice radio voice.”

Its like silk.

Re #4: Because it’s very difficult, if not impossible, for bloggers and commenters to really know what’s going on in the clubhouse. By the time any of the non-insiders hear about it, clubhouse issues or chemistry is obviously already an issue because it’s been reported by the media. Also, I think clubhouse chemistry is much less important to a baseball team’s success than a football or basketball team. There is no other sport that is so based on individual performances isolated from teammates’ performances. It’s basically the opposite of a sport like football, where you need all 11 guys working together on each play to make it successful.

Re #5: Not every single (position player) FA acquisition is evaluated based upon OBP. Obviously, there is more widespread recognition that OBP is a key stat to judge in evaulating players. So, I definitely agree that higher OBP guys are going to be considered more valuable, making them more expensive, and many times putting them out of the Royals’ reach. However, you are generally not going to get a guy with a high OBP, for example, to serve as a super-utility/backup middle IF (otherwise, the guy wouldn’t be a utility/backup player). Knowing that, why do you pay 2/3.1 for a guy like Bloomquist? Especially after you’ve just re-signed German? While OBP is important, I think most commenters here judge each FA acquisition based on all the factors.

Re #6: It’s not just the Burrell deal. Moore’s moves should be judged in light of the overall FA/trade market. What about the Giambi deal? What about the Branyan deal? What about the trade opportunities for players like Willingham or Swisher? What about signing Farnsworth for the $9.25M he’s getting? What about signing Bloomquist for 2/3.1? Those signings absolutely had an impact on other opportunities. That money, and paying Jacobs and Crisp the money they are due, likely kept the Royals from offering more for Furcal. While the Burrell deal is a good example of what could have been done (although probably for another $2M or so per), it’s not the ONLY example of what could have been done.

Re #12: I agree that Moore has one of the most difficult (if not THE most difficult) jobs in MLB. If for no other reason than the mess he was handed when he started. I think he definitely wants to win more games in the short term (2009-10) until he knows the Royals have a real shot at contention. In fact, Glass may have given him a sort of offseason mandate in light of the opening of the new Kauffman. But I still don’t think that excuses many of his moves this offseason.

Re: #15: The only FA’s the Royals overpaid for will be FA’s again (unless re-signed) in two years. (Farnsworth, Bloomquist, HoRam, Waechter) In fact, the Royals’ overpayment for Farnsworth may actually KEEP him from being traded before the deadline this year or in 2010, even assuming that he actually performs well enough to make him a valued trade commodity (it doesn’t look good based on his recent history, age, etc.). On the bright side, at least the Royals aren’t obligated to pay any of them after 2010—I will give credit to Moore for sticking with that logical part of the plan. This team is not going to be laden down with albatross contracts in 2011 (unless we see a repeat of this sort of offseason in 2009-10).

Re #16: I agree that a high BABIP shouldn’t necessary be considered a negative or “lucky” statistic. For some players, it’s indicative of good bat control (like you said), and line drive ability. I think the best use of BABIP is to see how consistent it is. If a 6 year veteran has traditionally had low-to-average BABIP’s, and then suddenly has a much higher BABIP, then it’s more likely the player was just luckier that year when he made contact.

the thought of is that players just don’t show the ability to repeat the stat without comparable LD%
Jeter always has high BABIP b/c he always has high LD%. Moreover, the amount of players who do repeat it is right in line with predicted amount based on traditional statistical distributions (at least thats what has been claimed, i haven’t verified).

if it is a function of “bat control” or defense, shouldn’t the same players be repeating it more? They don’t and that matters alot.

If there was ever a well documented “luck” stat in baseball, BABIP is it.

Arbuckle will definitely help GMDM draft college talent. Utley, Howard, Burrell were just a few of the college players that Arbuckle was responsible for. If GMDM was correct with the High School draftees that he made then KC should begin to add college talent that can skip levels and join them in the bigs.

Not better than 2008?

Against RHP
Crisp CF
DDJ LF
Gordon 3B
Guillen RF
Jacobs DH
Butler 1B
Aviles SS
Callaspo 2B
Olivo/Pena/Buck C

Against LHP
Crisp CF
DDJ LF
Butler DH
Guillen RF
Aviles SS
Gordon 3B
Olivo C
Callaspo 2B
Shealy 1B

Bench; Pena/Buck, Bloomquist, Shealy/Jacobs, Teahen

Sorry, I just like to do that.