FanPost

Royals Confidence Index - February Results

Rci_medium

Well, it's taken a while but I've finally crunched the numbers.  I've been a bit busy with a number of things.  Do you know how many things you have to buy for a baby?  Is it too late for me to become a minimalist?  But you're not hear to read about me complaining about the cost of having a baby.  Thanks to increasing offseason excitement and the continued growth of Royals Review, this month's RCI had the most responses ever at 53.

 

The Royals Confidence Index (RCI)* for February 2009 season is 6.54

 

Dec. 2008

Feb. 2009

Change

Royals Confidence Index

6.42

6.54

1.9%

1. Team

6.3

6.4

1.2%

2. Pitching

6.9

7.3

5.8%

3. Hitting

5.3

5.4

1.9%

4. Defense

5.6

5.8

3.2%

5. Dayton Moore

7.1

6.6

-8.3%

6. Trey Hillman

5.7

5.8

1.1%

7. Minor league system

7.0

7.3

3.8%

8. Future

7.7

7.8

1.6%


 

For the most part there have been very few changes.  Everything is up, but by just a little.  The obvious exception is our feelings about Royals GM Dayton Moore.  The December RCI was taken after the Jacobs and Crisp trades, but before everything else.  While everyone liked the Greinke signing, the rest of the offseason has clearly hurt the fanbase's opinion of Moore to some degree.  While the optimism of the offseason has led to generally positive and improving feelings across the board, Dayton Moore's reputation is going south.

Bonus questions: 

A.     Considering everything, how would you rate the free agent signing of Willie Bloomquist on a 1-10 scale?

Average = 2.7

[There was one deranged vote of "10"]

B.    Considering everything, how would you rate the contract extension of Zack Greinke on a 1-10 scale?

Average = 9.3

C.    Which pitchers do you think will start the year in the Royals rotation?  (pick 5)

Greinke - 51 votes

Meche  - 51

Davies - 51

Hochevar - 46

Bannister - 46

H. Ramirez - 9

Rosa - 1

[At the time, few thought HoRam had much of a shot of making the rotation.  I wonder if our opinions have changed much.]

D.     Which Royals player(s), if any, will have a breakout year in 2009 (defining that term in whatever way you define it)?

Gordon - 34 votes

Butler - 15

Hochevar - 13

Davies - 7

Callaspo - 3.5

Greinke - 3 [hasn't he already broken out?]

Teahen - 2

Crisp - 2

Aviles - 1 [See Greinke]

Jacobs - 1

Ka'aihue - 1

Shealy - 0.5

E(1).  Who will be the next Royal player to sign a long-term contract?  (2) When will this happen?

Gordon - 31 votes (most say this will happen next offseason)

Davies - 3

Aviles - 3

Butler - 2

Teahen - 2

Hochevar - 1

Crisp - 1

F.    What is your best estimate of how many games the Royals will win in 2009?

Average = 80.8 wins

[This is almost identical to the December average of 80.9 wins.]

The RCI will return in late March as spring training is winding down and the season is about to start.  By then we'll be excited about some spring performances, disappointed by others and worried about some injuries.  And then it will be time for the real craziness to begin.

 

 

Without going into too much detail, the RCI is computed by taking each of the above averages, weighting them appropriately (the team number is weighted highest, then piching and hitting, then the rest) and crunching them into an overall average.

This FanPost was written by a member of the Royals Review community. It does not necessarily reflect the views of the editors and writers of this site.