The 2011 Royals will go 69-93 and I Can Prove It ...

I just mean that your system predicts 5 players with more than 700 PAs in the lineup, and there were only 10 players to break that mark this season. And no player had more than you predict for Blanco. My point more than anything really, was that these guys arn’t going to play 162 games, most will probably play 150 give or take. and while the drop from Betancourt to say Getz isn’t big, the drop from Butler or Kila, is. And its probably big enough to be worth about a win.

really nice table!!

He’s considered a national hero in France….humm

we WILL do this.

If the Giants can go from a #23 ranking, just below the Royals, to World Champions in one year, with a GM who as you probably know is not highly regarded, why give up now? I was convinced that the Giants would never win again with Sabean still at the helm after Bonds had gone, and look what happened.

For every Guillen-sized mistake by Moore, Sabean has signed an Aaron Rowand. For every Kyle Farnsworth, Sabean got there first with an Armando Benitez. You say Scott Podsednik, I say Dave Roberts. You’ll run out of Moore’s mistakes before I’ll run out of Sabean’s — and that’s good, because I think we’ll both want to stop before we have to talk about Neifi.

So, what happened? The Giants decided (finally!) to develop talent in their own system, and they improved their ability to evaluate amateur talent and plan for draft day by adding a few key guys to the organization. Within a few years, with tremendous good fortune in the rapid development and success of 3 consecutive #1 picks as well as a few other picks, they became a “competent” team again. Add to that good fortune a convivial willingness among opponents to stop hitting whenever their FIP-defying pitchers took the ball, the timely intervention of federal agents to help persuade them to exclude their biggest mistake from their postseason roster, a modest collection of 3-6 WAR players along with complementary guys who are league-average or a little better at just about every other position, an unlikely heroic postseason performance by a guy with a torn biceps tendon who is considering retirement, and, it must be mentioned, a few extra breaks along the way, and they became World Champions. You have to wonder whether it can happen to anybody.

So, with the 2012 and 2013 seasons not actually having been played yet, and with no definite indication yet of how the Royals’ current collection of well-regarded prospects will perform at the major league level, I think it’s fair to hold out some hope for them. I won’t pin my hopes on a parade in the Plaza, but the chances of fielding a club that’s “competent” and even competitive, with their current level of commitment to drafting and development, aren’t bad at all.

[Don’t get me wrong about last year’s BtB ranking — a better informed ranking of the 2009 Giants puts them toward the middle of the pack, not leading the bottom quartile. Can’t help but bring it up again, as a public service.]

that’s six years, of meaningless trades and draft picking, to simply watch the team play 500 ball?

I’m moving to Boston.