It's time to look to the future, we need some rookies!

by trauty on Aug 3, 2009 10:20 PM EDT

It astounds me that this team has had no players make their MLB debuts yet this season. The veterans haven't even had a true rookie to haze yet (Tug Hulett is the closest thing to a rookie we had, but he used up his official rookie eligibility last season). Through the first 40 seasons of Royals baseball, there had only been 3 seasons where the Royals had reached this point in the season without somebody making their MLB Debut. And all 3 seasons, the Royals were on their way to very good seasons (slight understatement for one of the seasons).

In 1971, Lance Clemons became the first to make his MLB debut on August 12 -- the Royals would finish 85-76 in just their 3rd year of existence.
In 1985, Bob Hegman made his debut (and only appearance) on August 8 -- as you old timers might recall, the Royals won the World Series that season.
In 1994, the Royals had nobody make their MLB debut (however, Dwayne Hosey was on the active roster at the time of the baseball strike so he likely would have debuted in mid-August) -- the Royals had their last good team (unless we're counting 2003) and finished 64-51 -- just 4 games out of 1st.

Obviously, we have no reason to keep worthless veterans around this season, let's see what we have in the Minors -- even if it's apparent that there may not be much talent there either. At least it's a lot more fun than watching these guys than the scrubs that definitely shouldn't fit into the future plans. I can't imagine how frustrating it is for the players at AAA to see the MLB club struggling but "trusting the process" and waiting for the crappy guys in the big leagues to turn it around.

Here are the dates of the Royals first MLB debut for each season (along with the total number of players that made their MLB debuts for the Royals that season - this is accurate through the mid-90's, I could have missed a player or two from 1996-2005, I just glanced through those lists).

1969 - April 9 (Bill Butler & Juan Rios) -- 11 debuts
1970 - April 10 (Rich Severson & Ken Wright) -- 4 debuts
1971 - August 12 (Lance Clemons) -- 2 debuts
1972 - July 22 (Norm Angelini) -- 3 debuts
1973 - April 7 (Keith Marshall) -- 8 debuts
1974 - April 6 (Al Cowens) -- 3 debuts
1975 - April 11 (Rodney Scott) -- 5 debuts
1976 - May 26 (John Wathan) -- 4 debuts
1977 - April 7 (Joe Zdeb) -- 5 debuts
1978 - April 30 (Rich Gale) -- 6 debuts
1979 - May 9 (Renie Martin) -- 6 debuts
1980 - April 11 (Bob Detherage) -- 6 debuts
1981 - April 22 (Jim Wright) -- 8 debuts
1982 - April 20 (Kelly Heath) -- 8 debuts
1983 - June 14 (Cliff Pastornicky) -- 5 debuts (+ Duane Dewey & Russ Stephans - on active roster but did not appear)
1984 - April 4 (Bret Saberhagen) -- 4 debuts
1985 - August 8 (Bob Hegman) -- 2 debuts
1986 - April 14 (Dwight Taylor) -- 10 debuts
1987 - July 23 (Mike Macfarlane) -- 5 debuts
1988 - July 7 (Israel Sanchez) -- 6 debuts
1989 - May 30 (Matt Winters) -- 4 debuts
1990 - May 1 (Terry Shumpert) -- 11 debuts
1991 - April 14 (David Howard) -- 9 debuts
1992 - April 21 (Hipolito Pichardo) -- 5 debuts
1993 - April 7 (Phil Hiatt) -- 5 debuts
1994 - None (Dwayne Hosey on MLB roster before strike began on August 12 but did not appear in a game)
1995 - April 26 (Michael Tucker & Jon Nunnally) -- 15 debuts
1996 - April 3 (Sal Fasano) -- 5 debuts
1997 - April 2 (Jamie Walker) -- 12 debuts
1998 - June 3 (Mendy Lopez) -- 9 debuts
1999 - May 25 (Orber Moreno) -- 7 debuts
2000 - June 3 (Jeff D'Amico) -- 3 debuts
2001 - April 2 (Tony Cogan) -- 9 debuts (+ Cesar King - on the active roster but did not appear)
2002 - April 6 (Jeremy Affeldt & Miguel Ascencio) -- 12 debuts
2003 - March 31 (Rontrez Johnson) -- 8 debuts
2004 - April 5 (Shawn Camp) -- 15 debuts
2005 - April 4 (Mark Teahen & Andrew Sisco) -- 11 debuts
2006 - May 1 (Steve Andrade) -- 6 debuts
2007 - April 2 (Alex Gordon) -- 6 debuts
2008 - April 5 (Yasuhiko Yabuta) -- 6 debuts
2009 - NONE through August 3

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Comments

Sorry, I didn't read your post before I did my rant.

I truly can’t believe that we brought in Seattle’s leftovers before letting any of our minor league players have a chance. Then we signed Ponson, Chen, and Tejada when no other team wanted them. This was again before we gave anyone in the farm system a chance. The Royals have been doing this for years and we have seen how close that got to the playoffs. Good post…

by grudz96 on Aug 3, 2009 11:26 PM EDT reply actions

Good post

Makes one wonder what the hell? eh? eh? ( I guess it’s a Canadian hell)

soon to change name to, "The Not So Curious Case of Benjamin Bratt"

by MarioVanPeebles Republic of China on Aug 3, 2009 11:27 PM EDT reply actions

No, because Morneau's sister would playing first base for us and

out hitting Jacobs.

by grudz96 on Aug 3, 2009 11:48 PM EDT up reply actions

see... less debuts = success

and this was the best team in the AL Central from December all the way to May

the process worked

Graduate with a B.S. from the Dayton Moore School of Stats Analysis

by BHWick on Aug 4, 2009 12:35 AM EDT reply actions

But, it is August and we are one team away from being the worse team in baseball.

Thank god for the Nationals.

by grudz96 on Aug 4, 2009 1:19 AM EDT up reply actions

No. The Devil himself hand crafted the slightly worse than the Royals teams

to torture the Royals and their fans by having them lose out on surefire number 1 overall picks like David Price and Bryce Harper. Screwed again, and again, and again, etc….

by AxDxMx on Aug 4, 2009 2:59 AM EDT up reply actions

Ah, Miguel Asencio's (and Jeremy Affeldt's) MLB Debut

I remember it well :(

by sterlingice on Aug 4, 2009 1:28 PM EDT reply actions

Why don't I remember Steve Andrade?

by grudz96 on Aug 4, 2009 1:37 PM EDT reply actions

Isn't that a story that Ryan Lefebvre likes to tell?

I don’t remember him either.

by AxDxMx on Aug 4, 2009 2:45 PM EDT up reply actions

i think he was a semi-decent ballplayer

but IIRC had a couple of rough outings, so never really got a shot beyond the couple dozen innings he pitched

this space reserved for something embarrassing nyroyal will have me say

by marbotty on Aug 4, 2009 5:11 PM EDT up reply actions

make that only 4 innings in the majors, career 3.08 minor league ERA

don’t know why he didn’t get more of a chance…

this space reserved for something embarrassing nyroyal will have me say

by marbotty on Aug 4, 2009 5:13 PM EDT up reply actions

Didn't he have some sort of violent head movement after each pitch?

Plus I think he wore some pretty sweet glasses.

If all else fails, stop using all else

by ksuroyals on Aug 5, 2009 1:41 AM EDT up reply actions

Great post

This should definitely be required reading for David Glass, as he is the PRIMARY reason there is apparently no prospects good enough to debut even on this shittastic team.

Think about that a minute. We have the 2nd to worst team in baseball, yet no prospects are even good enough to take a look at!

I have been beating this drum for a while, and although I agree that Moore and some of the recent managers have performed poorly, THERE IS ONE CONSTANT thru the last decade and a half of shittiness. His name is David Glass.

Mr Glass, this is a pro sports team, not a retail store - run it like one!

by loyal2sdad on Aug 4, 2009 3:59 PM EDT reply actions

need to add

recently, I’ve noticed a few other posts in line with my thoughts on Glass.

Just want to point out – once a fanbase starts to think that the only way a franchise can ever win again is by getting rid of the owner, well, that has to be rock bottom for said fanbase, right? I mean, ownership only changes every 20 or 30 years, and in some instances (like ours), ownership will merely pass down to the next generation of the same problem you are already saddled with.

Glass ranks right up there with Donald Sterling in the NBA and the Bidwells in the NFL on the shitty owner meter, IMHO.

Mr Glass, this is a pro sports team, not a retail store - run it like one!

by loyal2sdad on Aug 4, 2009 4:03 PM EDT up reply actions

Jeffrey Loria is worse than Glass. Way worse.

that is not a compliment to Glass — just remember: never say it can’t get worse

I'm not a sabermetrician, but I do play one at Driveline Mechanics.

Can't get enough of me? Check out my Twitter feed.

by Matt Klaassen on Aug 4, 2009 4:10 PM EDT up reply actions

and yet they win more than KC

not diagreeing with your assessment – just pointing out how shitty we are overall. Poor owner, poor GM, poor manager, poor coaching, poor minor league development in general, poor scouting, poor grasp of sabermetrics.

Mr Glass, this is a pro sports team, not a retail store - run it like one!

by loyal2sdad on Aug 4, 2009 4:48 PM EDT up reply actions

BUT HEY WHAT ABOUT MECHE AND SORIA

ALSO I DON’T HEAR ANYONE COMPLAINING ABOUT JOSE GUILLEN’S 20 HRS AND 97 RBI LAST SEASON

I'm not a sabermetrician, but I do play one at Driveline Mechanics.

Can't get enough of me? Check out my Twitter feed.

by Matt Klaassen on Aug 4, 2009 6:03 PM EDT up reply actions

I would trade 2 year runs at the World Series and the inevitable firesale that follows.

The Royals can’t even contend.

by AxDxMx on Aug 4, 2009 5:02 PM EDT up reply actions

I would trade for one season in the playoffs.

I don’t think my heart could stand the excitement.

by grudz96 on Aug 4, 2009 6:01 PM EDT up reply actions

agree

We’d be better off to hope Glass decides to move the team to Portland or Raleigh or something and hope for someone like Mark Cuban start a new team in KC. Of course, that expansion team would never arrive because Bud Selig will have gotten what he wants so bad.

Hopes fade once again from blue to red. Go New Chiefs!!

by kabrink on Aug 5, 2009 12:40 AM EDT up reply actions