What Royals Might Be Traded At The Trade Deadline?

some sort of combo including any or all of the following: Jeff Francis, Melky Cabrera, Clint Robinson, Jeremy Jeffress and/or Wilson Betemit for a quality SP prospect who is almost ready for the bigs, plus a utility player… that would be my ideal trade

but I don’t think he is part of our future. I think he will be traded to make room for Lo Cain. The reason I don’t think they will trade Frenchy is that we need a right-handed power bat in the lineup. If we trade Melky and Betemit, which I think they will do, then the only right handed power bats left are Frenchy, Butler and, theoretically, Treanor/Pena.

Is to find someone who needs to shed some payroll, and will trade one of their higher priced pitchers for a couple of our cheap yet useful pieces. Kind of like what we did with Guillen. I think the Dodgers, maybe the Cubs, I’m sure there’s a couple of other teams, may be an opportunity for us. It’s the only way I see to both move some of these guys and actually get back something we need, at least that’s ready to play now.

Kila or Clint?

For any players under team control beyond 2011, there’s a high probability that the rules on compensatory draft picks will be changed so that having a player in the last year of his contract is far less valuable than it is under the current collective bargaining agreement. Even for players who are in the final year of their contract now, it’s not clear whether the new CBA gets done before the arbitration deadline.

For Bumgarner or Sanchez

I would even do Monty and Butler for Bumgarner and a low level pitching prospect. Bumgarner can be our ace

are the only ones who could bring impact prospects in return on a trade but also are probably the easiest to replace in-house. Most likely to be traded are Melky and Betemit to make space for Cain and one of the Omaha infielders. Noticed that Irving Falu has been getting reps at 3B. Frenchy is possible to a team that needs a platoon OF, but won’t return much beyond a space for David Lough. Can’t see trading Treanor with his sacred OBP and good defense. Whoever gets traded will probably get packaged with some of the log jammed AAA players; Kila, Robinson coming to mind.

All of the talk about trading Melky/Francouer/Davies/Kendall…etc. is just swimming in place. None of those guys are going to yield anything but low-mid level prospects or clear space for yet to be proven players like CRob/Lough/Cain. If GMDM wants to make a trade that will ultimately have a true impact on the team he needs to make a bold move. Trade Billy Butler or Alex Gordon for a starting pitcher. They would yield the most return. It would suck to lose either one of those guys, but a trade has to provide value for both teams. We need starting pitching desperately. We are thin in the outfield but those positions can be shored up via free-agency or through another trade (or perhaps Lough/Cain can hit at this level).

to try and find some SP that could be avaliable on noncontending teams. Now these guys may not be avaliable at all and they all have mid to large contracts-except Garza. Wandy, Garza, Nolasco, Cahill, Billingsley, E. Santana and Ubaldo. Now maybe none of these guys are even avaliable but these are the kind of guys I would like us to take a run at. And yes we would have to give up some of our significant prospects in return. Personally I would like to try and get Garza as he is still arb eligible/or maybe just getting to free agency not quite sure.

My prediction, Billy and Cabrera get sent to AZ for Daniel Hudson. Thoughts?

The position players are rather obvious. The team is fairly solid, with the exception of catcher and second base. Trading Melky and/or Frenchy is covered by getting to take a look at a combination of Cain/Dyson/Lough. Team may or may not decide to call up Johnny G for a look; apparently they seem satisfied with Getz for now. No catching prospects are ready, so no apparent trades there.

Now, for my observation:

Obviously, the team SHOULD be willing to trade Francis, Chen, & Davies. That leaves Paulino, Hochevar, and Duffy as “most likely to be in 2012 rotation”. The problem they will have – NO prospects are even close to being ready to take a look at in 2011. That means trading those three guys means more auditions for Mazzaro & O’Sullivan. Not exciting (or fruitful, most likely). An additonal problem – bad as Francis/Chen/Davies are, they STILL might be able to provide more innings reliably, thus protecting the rookie arms in the bullpen.

So, I honestly think Moore will sit tight on his starters. Should make for a depressing summer.

A decent part of his WAR value comes from playing CF – but he is below avg CF defensively, and arguably should be moved to RF. If Cain is the CF of the future (or even if the plan is to give Cain 2012 to find out if this is true), then Melky has to move to RF, and he is below par hitting for a RF.

Of course, Frenchy is below par for hitting for a RF as well.

If it’s all the same to you guys, I’d rather not keep either of them. Cain is the obvious choice for one of those jobs; not sure there is an obvious choice for RF. Perhaps, should the FA starting pitcher market prove to be unhelpful, the Royals could spend some of the $30m budget surplus on a legit RF bat? Anybody look at potential RF free agents? Could move Gordon to RF and find a LF (which should be easier, right?). Gordon should be able to make that transition, shouldn’t he? He made the switch to the OF easily enough, and his arm is certainly strong enough for RF.

As for Gordon, definitely the best outfielder on the team going forward – and to me, it’s not particularly close.

I’d take a $30 gift card to the Olive Garden for Jason Kendall!